Laptop advice (want a quieter one)

Hi, I currently have a Dell G5 5500 laptop, which has an Intel I7 10th Gen CPU, 16gb Ram and Nvidia Geforce 2070 RTX Max-Q

It was a bit of a mistake getting this laptop, when i got it a few years ago, i was looking for a good spec laptop and wanted to have dedicated graphics (although not so much for games)

Because it is a gaming laptop, it is so loud, it often sounds like its about to take off, and i cannot use it in its performance mode as all the fans pretty much run full speed, which means i never get the full potential from it.

I am looking to maybe sell it and get a replacement, I have been looking at the new Intel 13th gen i7 & i9 laptops, i have seen some with Geforce RTX 4070 and ones with graphics called ADA, although I don't know too much about them.

The graphics don't need to be top of the range or anything, just if i am using an app that takes use of dedicated graphics, it can help rather than the CPU have to do it all.

I am wondering though, will any laptop that has this type of graphics all be really loud when running full speed, or is this just because I have a gaming laptop?
Would a laptop thats designed more for general use not be as loud?

Or are the onboard graphics on the newer i7 and i9 13th gen cpu's pretty good on their own these days anyway?

I guess the other issue is, if i want a 13th gen cpu, the main board is prob only going to support some of the newer / better dedicated graphics, which might be a bit overkill?

Any help would be great.

Regards
James

@james_uk


Any laptop with discreet graphics is going to be loud. If it isn't, then it will overheat.
If you're looking for quiet, get a laptop with a CPU that has an iGP (integrated graphics processor).

Any of the 13th or 14th gen Intel CPUs, will have a decent iGP.


I set Newegg for the UK. Newegg has a great set of laptop filters. BUY the laptop where ever, but search for one on Newegg...
You can see the filters I picked at the top-center. You can add others from down the left side...

In addition to the fan, two electro-mechanical parts contribute to noise, an HDD/Hard Disk Drive and an ODD/Optical Disc Drive. The HDD can be replaced by an SSD/Solid State Drive [no moving parts]. The ODD doesn't usually make noise except when playing a disc, if noticeably noisy may be failing.

james_uk said:

Because it is a gaming laptop, it is so loud, it often sounds like its about to take off,

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You should have an app that regulates the fan speed as in a Fan Profile which would limit the sound of the fans when the
notebook is not working hard. Look for it on the Dell support pages or on your notebook;s page.
If you want advice on the Intel Core either i9 or i7, I would definitely go with a Core i7 unless you are using it with an app
that is CPU intensive like CAD.

You do not mention which size notebook you are looking for and which apps you are running that makes the fans work as much.

@Ghot I will disagree with you on the fact that all gaming notebooks are loud. I can configure a fan profile that will not have
the fans running so hard that they are limiting the experience of that notebook. I think that most modern gaming notebooks
also have this ability. My GT73 from 2017 has the Dragon Center in which I can configure a fan profile so that, when not gaming
they are barely audible and so does this one MSI GE76 Raider.

In the end, It is all up to @james_uk as to what he will be using it for so, pls tell us more.

The mobile RTX 2070 is spec'd at 115W. The 4070, the same. There's going to be a fan.

nVidia names its graphics card series after scientists. The RTX 40X0 series is called "Ada Lovelace". (She worked with Charle Babbage.) Is that what you were thinking of?

If there are current model laptops with discrete graphics, but silent, I'd be surprised. I'll admit that my familiarity with current laptops is limited.

A compromise could be an AMD based laptop. 7840U "APU", with 780M graphics. Re: My questions: PC Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Not comparable to a mobile RTX 2070, but it may be greatly superior to any other iGPU on the market.

bobkn said:

If there are current model laptops with discrete graphics, but silent, I'd be surprised.

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Could I surprise you then?

MSI GE76 Raider yes, a gaming notebook with discrete graphics that doesn't sound like a plane is taking off.

This might help

Quiet Gaming Laptops

Not sure if this is quiet or not, but it's not a gaming laptop. If 14" is big enough. It has a smidgen of discrete graphics. HP Pavilion Plus core i7 with oled screen and nvidia rtx 2050

Flashorn said:

Could I surprise you then?

MSI GE76 Raider yes, a gaming notebook with discrete graphics that doesn't sound like a plane is taking off.

View attachment 84917

View attachment 84918

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How's the sound with the GPU at 100%?

Hazel123 said:

This might help

Quiet Gaming Laptops

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I'm skeptical that any of those would be quiet when the GPU fans are fully spun up. Power usually has its consequences. But I don't know to the contrary.

There may be a world of difference between "quiet" and "silent". My newest desktop makes a little fan noise even at idle, but its RTX 4090 makes a good deal of fan of noise when it is at maximum load. (450W card. A lot more power than most CPUs.) I don't find it really unpleasant though. I've known people who couldn't tolerate any fan noise at all. (One of those people had obvious mental issues, although he was obviously much more intelligent than me.)

I don't understand why the fans are so noisy if you weren't gaming. Normally the laptop should be fairly quiet. Maybe a configuration change would fix that.

I have the following gaming laptop.

ASUS TUF Gaming A15 (2022)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
GPU1: AMD Radeon 680M
GPU2: Nvidia RTX3060 Notebook

Normally the laptop is fairly quiet. If the fans do kick in I can barely hear them. However, when I play games the fans noise is higher but not enough to be objectionable.

I have a Dell XPS laptop (first one below) and it's silent for the work I do (mostly using Visual Studio to write software and running VMs to tests things). My daughter has the newer version (second one below). It's also silent for her most of the time, but when she plays a demanding game like Elden Ring, the fan kicks up to max and is then pretty loud. So, it all comes down to how you use it. For me, the Dell is much quieter than the 11 year old Acer it replaced, mainly because the Acer was pushed to the limit running the VMs, so its fan ran a lot.

Dell XPS 15.6" FHD+ Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti - 512GB SSD
Dell XPS 15.6" FHD+ Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 - 1TB SSD

At the risk of sounding like....well... a bigoledummy ;D , a good cleaning of both intake and exhaust openings can help a lot with fan noise.

I came across this topic via Google and it's probably old, but I think it's better to ask here than to open a new topic.
I want to buy a new laptop that should be quiet in normal operation when editing documents or online meetings. I bought Lenovo Idea Pad 3 slim, with intel 12450H and I was wrong.
The ventilation is always there, as if I'm using a slightly quieter desktop computer. Even when the processor utilization is only 3% and its temperature is 34 degrees Celsius, the ventilation is there. If I play a regular YouTube video, it even gets louder. What a disappointment. I don't need the sounds of the ocean while working in Notepad or Word. I want silence. For example, I have an HP with a 1125G processor and it is quite quiet. Ventilation is increased only when it is really needed. So I need a computer for basic business use, I3 or I5, with 16GB of ram and a 512 SSD. I'm not interested in any external graphics cards. Which manufacturers do you have quiet experiences with? I read on the Lenovo forum that people complain about loud cooling even with the U series processors.

‚Just read somewhere that AMD can be quiet as well, even more than Intel, so if something come to your mind...

I have a Dell XPS 16 laptop and it's silent (fan doesn't run) when browsing and editing code and documents. The fan may kick in when I have a VM running to test something, but it's not bad. If you want absolute silence, then a fanless ultrabook may be the answer (assuming you're not a gamer or doing other graphics intensive processing or mining crypto and so forth). See:

No, I really don't need absolute silence. It's ok for the cooling to come on when working intensively, but in normal tasks it shouldn't be audible.

agasoft said:

No, I really don't need absolute silence. It's ok for the cooling to come on when working intensively, but in normal tasks it shouldn't be audible.

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Well, my MSI laptop can be quiet when just using web browser and similar loads. The Dragon Center works well to adjust fan speeds in increments using advanced settings. It is loud when under medium to high loads depending on fan settings and not wanting CPU/GPU to overheat. As already said, it will be very hard to find a laptop with something like a Nvidia discrete GPU that isn't going to produce noticeable noise.

agasoft said:

No, I really don't need absolute silence. It's ok for the cooling to come on when working intensively, but in normal tasks it shouldn't be audible.

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In that case, my Dell XPS 16 sounds like a good fit, but I'm sure there are many other laptops that would also fit that criteria. Of course, budget is also a consideration. The Dell is pricey, but I got an open box unit at half the price of new (note: open box items are usually not discounted that much). My son needed a quiet laptop for school, so I got this Asus Vivobook when it was on sale for $392.

Integrated graphics are completely ok.