CPU jungle - too much info - what's the truth?

[mabian]

Hello,

apologies in advance if that's been discussed already, but I'm looking for a new Laptop, and I'm really struggling to understand what's going on regarding different Intel CPU generations and performance on DAWs / Video Authoring software - talk mainly about Davinci Resolve and REAPER.

Apart from the i5, i7, i9 categorization, I'm seeing a lot of offer on Intel 13xxx, 14xxx and Core Ultra, I understand they are different generations of CPUs but what I don't understand is what's actually the difference on performance among them. I know that there are different core types, performance and "economy" and economy should be avoided as much as possible when heavy workloads are involved, but these questions seem to hardly find short and definite answer on this question:

Is there a significant boost on 14xxxx over 13xxx or Core x over 14xxxx (if they are compared to equal number, like i5 vs i5, i7 vs i7 etc.)? Is an i7 13xxxx able to run different instances of Pigments, Serum 2, Arturia synths and effect at low latency without too much fatigue?

As a side question, since I plan to get a system with RTX 5070 NVidia discrete card with 8GB RAM, are the current AMD Ryzen based laptops playing well with NVidia video cards?

Thank you very much,
Mario

[uOpt]

Intel likes to make things confusing. If you don't like that you should look at AMD. My current laptop setup is mostly AMD.

There is no significant performance difference between generation 13 and 14.

[ere2learn]

Use a benchmark site to compare, higher better

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... HX&id=5253
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... HS&id=5915
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... re&id=6346

[slackhead]

Use a benchmark site to compare, higher better

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... HX&id=5253
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... HS&id=5915
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... re&id=6346

Or you could use this site and get a totally different picture (or not):
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/

[ere2learn]

Avg bench is the only thing that matters, who cares about user rating/market share or value, you just buy the max benchmark for your budget

[mabian]

Avg bench is the only thing that matters, who cares about user rating/market share or value, you just buy the max benchmark for your budget

Not completely true: the budget is stretchable according to the achievable benefits... for example if the approx budget is 1600€ but going to 1800€ a much better performing system can be purchased (more RAM, more M2 slots, significantly better CPU etc.), the budget can be increased.

I'm looking on the best system with:

- Nvidia RTX 5070 8GB
- 1TB SSD but with ability to extend later (some laptops have two M2 nvme slots)
- 32 GB RAM with ability to increase later
- CPU...?

Budget? Around 1600/1800€.
Looking at Lenovo or HP systems, really don't know about which CPU to aim to.

- Mario

[ere2learn]

Have a Legion 7 myself from a few years ago, if i was looking today i'd get the Legion 5 15IRX10. Fell out with HP when they messed up the elitebooks

[mabian]

Have a Legion 7 myself from a few years ago, if i was looking today i'd get the Legion 5 15IRX10. Fell out with HP when they messed up the elitebooks

This is one of the options I'm evaluating. But, it has a 13650HX processor; if I'm not mistaken it's two generations old...

- Mario

[ere2learn]

As i said i just look for max benchmark per budget, don't really care if its 2 gen old. You'll need to up the budget to get new tech or get the ryzen version if you need a model that was released in 2025

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... i7-13650HX
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... yzen+7+260

Double the budget and you have this.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... ra+9+275HX

Will i buy this legion7 in 2/3 years when its 2 gen old, yes

[kvotchin]

I would - and will, later this year - prioritise RAM and storage a little higher than those specs. But that’s the thing: it’s mostly down to your expected needs / usage.

So, I’ll be opting for 64GB of RAM, and a few SSDs. But that’s also a desktop setup, so eh, could be that would cost a lot more in laptop form..? No idea, honestly.

That’s the approach I take though, and would suggest - that is, looking carefully at how you’re likely to use the gear, and research from there.

PC CPUs, for most use cases, I suspect anything with 6 to 8 “P” cores should well and truly suffice. So, most of the current lineup from Intel or AMD (or indeed, most CPUs from the last two generations, which are - generally speaking - pretty close in terms of performance anyway.

[mabian]

I'm not sure that considering the latest Serum, Pigments, Analog Lab and other new generation synths, CPU can be put as second level factor... of course, it's different if your workflow is sampler (Kontakt, Sine, ..) centric. But for synths... these beasts eat quite a lot of CPU - and for a reason?
I hope Serum2 gets further optimizations performance wise, currently it's a bit too much.
My trusty i7700k can handle several Diva instances with no issues, but some specific presets from Serum 2 factory library can bring it to its knees very quickly :\

. Mario

[Olnium]

Great suggestions already to use a benchmarking site to gauge raw performance, however, the thing you should concentrate on most is single core performance & number of logical cores, as most audio apps run on a single thread, due to the nature of audio processing being inherently serial.

[jdnz]

PC CPUs, for most use cases, I suspect anything with 6 to 8 “P” cores should well and truly suffice. So, most of the current lineup from Intel or AMD (or indeed, most CPUs from the last two generations, which are - generally speaking - pretty close in terms of performance anyway.

just sell a kidney and get a threadripper pro system - insane performance, and it'll keep your room nice and warm in winter

[Zombie Queen]

Is there a significant boost on 14xxxx over 13xxx or Core x over 14xxx

14th and 13th generations are nearly identical. 14th was a sort of fake new generation. There should be a boost on Core X vs 14th, but I don't think it's significant.

[metamorphosis]

The truth? Almost anything will do (bar low-power-design processors) nowadays.