Graphics Card Thread

[bork]

Almost panic bought a 5070 on Amazon but they sold out fast both times. 

tbh my laptop with its 4070 (I think) has been fine with everything thrown at it. Occasionally games like Robocop are locked down to 60 FPS. But my desktop GPU is from the Obama years and flat out cannot play some modern games. I’d like something before the impending GPU exodus.

I just got a new laptop to replace my 2023 Razer Blade 14 with a 4070.  TBH it was still running everything great, but with sales and the looming price hike threats, I decided to see if anything good was available.

First I tried the Asus G14 with a 5070 TI. Figured if it was good, it could replace both the Blade 14 and my my Z13. Out of the box it was very impressive- nearly all metal build, OLED screen, amazing speakers, etc. Then I tried playing a game on it and it sounded like a banshee was caught inside of a jet engine. The keyboard got so hot that I burned my finger trying to adjust the volume. Back it went. 

Then I saw that Lenovo had the Legion Pro 7i for the same price. 5080! Even better OLED screen! Excellent thermals and performance! And also a massive power brick and a laptop chassis large enough to be a problem to carry around because it doesn't fit in most bags. I ended up returning it because it just wasn't portable enough for me. As powerful as it is, I think it would have just sat there unused.

Figured I was done and would just stick with what I have for another year or so, but then saw that Microcenter had Asus Strix G16s on sale even cheaper than these other two laptops.  This one has a 5070 TI, a really nice IPS screen, and a smaller power brick than the Lenovo. The laptop also fits into a lot more bags compared to the Lenovo. Just feels more portable overall. And while OLED is awesome, it's also nice to not have to worry about any potential burn-in issues. This laptop's design is also much better IMO. Thermals are equally as good if not better, and the keyboard layout is better too. I also really like the trackpad on it. It's huge, just like my Razer. This is the nerdiest shit ever, but it has removable back plate that doesn't need any tools to open. You just slide a latch and it pops off. You don't even need screws to change out the ssds. I hope this is something that they start using on all of their laptops. It makes it so much easier to swap stuff out and do maintenance.

Sold the Blade 14 off today.  Sold a number of things recently, in fact. Several PCs, tablets, games, and handhelds. Also got rid of my PS5 since it never got used.  Ended up with this new stuff in 2025:

-Switch 2
-Anbernic RG477M
-Trimui Brick Hammer
-Steam Deck OLED
-Asus Xbox Ally X
-Asus Z13 (best tech this year)
-Asus Strix G16
-Microsoft Surface 12"
-Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3



I'm definitely good on new tech for a while.  If you had told me that I'd end up with three new Asus machines last year, I would have thought you were nuts. I hated their products when I was looking for something new in 2023. So many problems. They seem to have really turned things around.