I've been looking at 17.3 budget gaming laptops for awhile and you just don't see the deals on them like the 15.6 models. These are good for 17.3. Quite good if you are a Costco member and use their credit card. Costco allows 90 day returns for anyone vs 15 or 30 days typical at most stores.
If you are a Costco member you get an extended warranty (1 extra year), and if you use their CC you get 2 more years for 4 total.
https://www.costco.com/concierge-...ranty.html
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MSI GF75 17.3" Thin Gaming Laptop - 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10300H - GeForce GTX 1650Ti - 144Hz 1080p Display
$750
https://www.costco.com/msi-gf75-t...84897.html
Review here (note the display in the test is the 120hz not the 144hz):
https://www.notebookcheck.net/10t...198.0.html
MSI spec sheet (it's the last one on that page):
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GF75-Th...cification
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MSI Bravo 17.3" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7-4800H - AMD Radeon RX5500M - 144hz 1080p Display
$900
https://www.costco.com/msi-bravo-...01274.html
Review here: (note again the test unit has the 120hz display):
https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI...357.0.html
MSI spec sheet (it's the last one on that page):
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/Bravo-1...cification
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Review of a different unit with the 144hz display:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI...939.0.html
Biggest difference is that the 144hz display has much better contrast than the 120hz. Brightness, response times, and color accuracy are similar and typical of budget gaming laptops. Refresh is good, but these are not premium displays.
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Main things you are getting with the Bravo is a better CPU (much better for multithreading), and a better GPU; ~25% faster than a GTX 1650Ti, though still ~20% shy of a 1660Ti.
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If a 15.6 is good for her, you can find sale prices down to $600 pretty regularly. There was a similar Gateway at Walmart that might still be active. The newer GTX 1650 cards are virtually identical to 1650Ti now that they both have GDDR6, so check those also.
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The 4800h is a much higher performing CPU for multithreading than the 10300h; as good as you can get in a normal laptop. But the software uses GPU acceleration too, which would probably benefit from a higher end video card than either of these systems have.
I'd check the forums to see what people with similar laptops are experiencing with Avid MC.
Looks good, nice finish for a budget laptop. Only red keyboard. Plastic trackpad. Screen is really nice quality for the price, looked to be 90+ sRGB 144hz.
1650ti though... it's only a few % over a 1650 and pales compared to the 1660ti, plus you don't get any RTX features and only 4GB vram. It's ok for esports and older games but will be limited for playing AAA games going forward. I wouldn't want to play Cyberpunk on it for instance.
Some of the newer 3060 laptops are only like $1099..., I bet we will see markdown prices on RTX 2xxx laptops soon.
If you try to get one early, also note that a 3060 can be configured from 60W to 115W, with >30% performance difference between them... and manufacturers are mostly not telling what their TDP is.
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