Laptop CPU, a bit confusing..

[Paterfiets]

Hi ,

I would like to receive some advice about what to look out for when choosing a laptop CPU for mainly music production.

After doing some research myself I understood that Single Core performance speed is still very important aswell as cooling, which might be the bottleneck for my 2 year old Envy I am using currently. Also the number of cores is of importance allthough I am not so sure about E cores and if and how they are utilized.

Anyway, I am eying an AMD Ryzen 7 7735 HS and two Intel laptops, both i7's, a 13620H and 1360P.

According to userbenchmark the intel's are the faster CPU's. But how is this measured ? Over a few seconds or under load ? Because what is confusing me is the Base Clock, the AMD's base clock is 3.2GHZ vs 2.4 GHZ of the Intels. So wouldn't the AMD perform better over time ? The AMD has 8 P cores vs 4 and 6. Both laptops have 32GB Ram of the same type. Also AMD seems to run less hot..

Now which CPU would more suited for my needs ?

For if it matters; I work mainly inside the Daw (Bitwig). I dont really use that many plugins.

[chk071]

Benchmarks don't lie... and, they're also not done over "a few seconds", but with real life application scenarios.

That said, I'm not sure what the best benchmark for this kind of use is. I always went by the results of Geekbench, and their CPU table: https://browser.geekbench.com/processor-benchmarks

[dellboy]

Hi ,

I would like to receive some advice about what to look out for when choosing a laptop CPU for mainly music production.

After doing some research myself I understood that Single Core performance speed is still very important aswell as cooling, which might be the bottleneck for my 2 year old Envy I am using currently. Also the number of cores is of importance allthough I am not so sure about E cores and if and how they are utilized.

Anyway, I am eying an AMD Ryzen 7 7735 HS and two Intel laptops, both i7's, a 13620H and 1360P.

According to userbenchmark the intel's are the faster CPU's. But how is this measured ? Over a few seconds or under load ? Because what is confusing me is the Base Clock, the AMD's base clock is 3.2GHZ vs 2.4 GHZ of the Intels. So wouldn't the AMD perform better over time ? The AMD has 8 P cores vs 4 and 6. Both laptops have 32GB Ram of the same type. Also AMD seems to run less hot..

Now which CPU would more suited for my needs ?

For if it matters; I work mainly inside the Daw (Bitwig). I dont really use that many plugins.

What is the problem you are experiencing with your current laptop?

[Paterfiets]

What is the problem you are experiencing with your current laptop?

There isnt really a problem, I just notice that it I am close to reaching its limits more often..

[Shinizzle]

Modern CPUs shouldn't have much issue with music software these days.
Generally AMD CPUs are more efficient and draw less wattage than Intel currently. This is why Intel are sticking 'e' cores on their CPUs, to counteract the core count competition from AMD but not melt themselves.
Generally aggregate benchmark sites are useless for real world use cases, best look at benchmarks with software you use.

However Intel does still have better single core performance than AMD. However modern software should be able to utilise more than one core and older software just doesn't stress modern processors much.
It's really a non-issue these days as long as you steer clear of budget models, go with what you prefer.

[T-CM11]

Anyway, I am eying an AMD Ryzen 7 7735 HS and two Intel laptops, both i7's, a 13620H and 1360P.

According to userbenchmark the intel's are the faster CPU's. But how is this measured ? Over a few seconds or under load ? Because what is confusing me is the Base Clock, the AMD's base clock is 3.2GHZ vs 2.4 GHZ of the Intels. So wouldn't the AMD perform better over time ? The AMD has 8 P cores vs 4 and 6. Both laptops have 32GB Ram of the same type. Also AMD seems to run less hot..

Don't compare clock speeds.
Also, look up "throttling". A slower CPU in a laptop can be faster than a faster one because of insufficient cooling.
"...seems to run less hot." is vague and doesn't mean anything.
Read in-depth reviews of each laptop.

[osiris]

i7 will make you very happy. I didn't care for the issues I had on my AMD tower concerning USB after updating it to Win 10. Or I should say not being able to update it to Win 10. The Intel laptop didn't have this problem. I now have a i3 second gen, so an i7 would be a dream.

[maanga]

With the current generation of CPU, forget the single core performance. They all are very good.
A bit different here and there is never an issue.
Go for multi core performance, if you can afford.
With either AMD or Intel, you won't be disappointed.
Don't be carried over by the YouTube videos on the number of tracks.
Many are happy even with the older generation of notebooks.
Regards.

[Paterfiets]

Thanks for all the replies. I am sure both Intel and AMD are both capable but I still wonder if the difference in Base clock of these processors will make any difference for daw specific use. I tend to think that when projects are getting bigger a better baseclock performance will benefit more. Or am I seeying this wrong ?

[Shinizzle]

The base lock is ramped to the boost clock when processing work loads. Unless you continuously monitor the clock speed you won't even notice until a fan kicks when it has been running at full tilt for a few minutes.
Base clock is similar to an idle speed. IPC is what you need to look at (Instructions per clock) however even this varies depending on application and workload.
If I were to recommend I would say AMD R5 or r7 6000 or 7000 series. Intel 12th or 13th gen (14th gen is literally over clocked 13th gen and run hotter)

[maanga]

The CPU clock speed is not fixed. As you load more cores, the CPU speed will drop in steps until a minimum value after a few cores usage.
Don't bother.
Regards.

[chk071]

With the current generation of CPU, forget the single core performance. They all are very good.

Mh, no, not really. You should specifically take care about single core performance, and, Intel is still king in that regard. One of the biggest arguments why I always went for Intel. Single core is very important for audio.

And, yes, benchmarks will give you those infos, even if they're not done specifically for DAW software.

[Shinizzle]

With the current generation of CPU, forget the single core performance. They all are very good.

Mh, no, not really. You should specifically take care about single core performance, and, Intel is still king in that regard. One of the biggest arguments why I always went for Intel. Single core is very important for audio.

And, yes, benchmarks will give you those infos, even if they're not done specifically for DAW software.

Your argument is ten years out of date. Single core performance is negligible at this point.
Unless of course if OP is buying a ten year old computer that is

[chk071]

With the current generation of CPU, forget the single core performance. They all are very good.

Mh, no, not really. You should specifically take care about single core performance, and, Intel is still king in that regard. One of the biggest arguments why I always went for Intel. Single core is very important for audio.

And, yes, benchmarks will give you those infos, even if they're not done specifically for DAW software.

Your argument is ten years out of date. Single core performance is negligible at this point.

Last time I checked, DAWs still processed single tracks on a single core.

[Paterfiets]

Ok thanks for the help all. As it doesnt seem to matter that much nowadays I'll probably end up picking two laptops and end up here for my decision
https://justflipacoin.com/#flip-a-coin