cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/17468408
I am thinking of buying a relatively cheap laptop that is reasonably powerful. I am at loss when it comes to new CPU naming and its compatibility with Linux (from both Intel/AMD). I prefer Ryzen 5 or Core 5 above with atleast 16GB RAM.
Framework laptops are not available where I live.
I saw some Reddit posts claiming AMD being not optimized for Linux particularly for arch related distros (I use EndeavourOS). I am thinking of buying a Thinkbook from Lenovo, but confused b/w team blue & red.
Which of these CPUs are better for running Linux long-term with respect to optimizations, power management, thermals, track pad support etc. If anyone has a laptop recommendation, please feel free to comment down below.
Also, should I go for a high end Laptop like Asus Zenbook S14? A lot of reviews are picking it as the best compact laptop to buy this year. Its expensive. But if it keeps working for a long time, like 6+ years, then I don’t mind investing.
Edit: I use Gnome as my DE with EndeavourOS, but can also try Debian 12 with Gnome.
An new AMD Laptop APU will outperform Intel in every metric. I can only recommend T14 & T14S but any other Thinkpad will be ok.
what about energy efficiency? that used to be a massive disadvantage of the amds
I think it is the reverse these days. AMD generally has better power efficiency than Intel.
This also has big implications in the desktop space. A Ryzen 7 9700x has a 65 watt TDP. A modern 8-core desktop CPU so power efficient that air cooling is perfectly fine.
Air cooling has always been fine.
good luck with a 7950x under full load
There is one metric where Intel is better and that’s Thunderbolt. You typically get more full-featured Thunderbolt ports with an Intel CPU. Of course whether that point is relevant is highly dependent on your use case.
Well for a gamer no real comment. But there is one metric Intel still trashes AMD in for the APU. Hardware video acceleration/encoding. The quality is objectively better on Intel Quicksync.
When getting a home box that also needed to do transcoding, Intel CPU was a requirement. My desktop development/gaming system? Ryzen + NVidia.