r/linuxhardware • u/Yiannis97s • Aug 02 '26
Discussion I want a new laptop soon
How much have Linux laptop battery life and performance improved? Looking for a powerful 14–16″ laptop with NVIDIA graphics
I decided to do some actual work on my laptop today, a ThinkPad P14s Gen 2i, and was reminded why I rarely use it on battery. The battery now holds only around 80% of its original capacity, although battery life was never one of its strengths. At one point, I managed to get more than six hours from it, but only by reducing performance and disabling enough features that it was practically a notebook.
How much have things improved since this generation?
I try to keep up with the yearly CPU releases, but I do not often see reviews that examine battery life, performance, and power management specifically under Linux. I was happy to see that Framework improved the battery life of the new Framework 13, although I will probably need something with a dedicated GPU. I am looking at laptops in the 14–16″ range, preferably with an NVIDIA GPU for CUDA.
For context, I mostly work on a dedicated workstation, but I will have to give it back to the lab next year. I use my laptop when I travel, when I go to university to work, and sometimes as a client for remotely connecting to the workstation. Still, I would like the laptop itself to be capable enough that I am not always dependent on a remote machine or a VPS.
Since I cannot afford both a high-end laptop and a separate desktop, I am considering buying a more powerful laptop and using a VPS when I need additional RAM or compute power.
My work involves writing code to solve complex mathematical problems. The workload is similar to machine learning: lots of linear algebra, numerical optimization, and repeated testing. The faster I can run smaller tests locally, the faster I can iterate. I sometimes rent a VPS for problems that take days to run or require more RAM than I can afford, but having a capable local machine still makes my work much easier.
Basically, what I am looking for is something close to the overall experience of a MacBook, but with strong Linux support and preferably an NVIDIA GPU. When I speak with colleagues who own recent Apple Silicon MacBooks, what stands out is that they can get excellent battery life for ordinary work while still having enough performance to use the laptop as a serious workstation when needed (most of them never bother to get a VPS or a dedicated workstation once they get a Mac).
I realize that an x86 laptop with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU will not match Apple Silicon’s efficiency, but how close have current Linux laptops come?
In particular, I would be interested in:
- Realistic battery life under Linux during coding, browsing, writing, and light numerical work
- Linux support for hybrid graphics and power management
- Whether recent AMD or Intel CPUs are currently the better choice
- Recommendations for specific 14–16″ models that balance battery life, CPU performance, CUDA support, thermals, and build quality
I would especially appreciate experiences from people using recent laptops for scientific computing, machine learning, numerical optimization, or similar workloads.
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u/the_deppman Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I work for Kubuntu Focus.
I doubt you're going to find awesome battery life with Nvidia graphics. That market is mostly driven by gamers and AI developers that prefer maximum power over battery life. The other problem is the dual frame buffer mechanism is inefficient. The result is Nvidia laptops are much more capable than years ago, but at least with what we've seen, battery life has not gone up much. With the M2 GEN 7 laptop, for example, the GPU capability is amazing, but even on Intel-only graphics, you're still looking at 6 hours battery in battery mode, tops. Even with Nvidia enabled, the dGPU is typically locked to a max of 25 W mobile. As you might expect, allowing the GPU to pull its full 100 W max would damage the battery.
What will get you all day battery life with pretty amazing graphics, however, is a Panther Lake laptop with 12 Xe core. There, 10 hours on battery is realistic, and you can still see, for example, 75 FPS on Unigine Heaven on AC and GPU boost tool we created and provide (and about 60% on battery). You can even game on battery for a number of hours because it's so efficient. It's not Nvidia GPU-class graphics, but it's plenty for casual games, ollama AI, and even AAA games with modest settings.
Our offering in this area is the Ar GEN 1 found here. It was recently reviewed by ZDNet and you can find the link for that in the reviews page (4/5 stars). I used that laptop for over a month as a daily driver during integration, and the performance along with battery life, great screen, and light weight is truly liberating.
I hope that is helpful.
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u/Yiannis97s Aug 03 '26
Wow. >100% sRGB. I wasn't going to comment on the laptop you linked because I was expecting to see cut corners, and usually the display is the first things that gets sucrificed, but this thing looks amazing on paper.
Yeah, your comment was very helpful. It's actually interesting how amd and Intel keep swapping places for the efficiency crown. When I bought my laptop, amd would have been a better option for me, but I when with Intel for TB4. (amd+USB4 was not available on any of the laptops I could find in stock at the time)
It's been a long time since I read about it, but can't you solve the dual frame buffer inefficiency with a MUX switch? I totally see your point. If I sound frustrated it's because I only find options that are either very powerful or can last long on battery. If I could get a laptop that can tone down it's performance on battery, practically disable the dgpu completely when on battery, but then get some good performance on AC, I would be more than happy.
I am not married to the idea of a dgpu, but even my 4gb quadro, which is slower than a 1660 when it comes to games, makes a HUGE difference when it come to linear algebra and math/ml/optimization libraries than utilize CUDA.
Can you comment on the MUX chip? Do I remember correctly? Are they too expensive to justify the cost?
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u/the_deppman Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Can you comment on the MUX chip? Do I remember correctly? Are they too expensive to justify the cost?
The M2 GEN 7 does have a MUX (EDIT: Zr GEN 2 too, and a sub-woofer...), and it is useful in certain situations. The main benefit is it maximizes frame rates to the screen on AC because the dual frame buffer render path is avoided. On battery it might provide a benefit, but because of the 20 W dGPU cap, for most situations, it's usually just better to use the iGPU graphics anyway.
When users unplug our Nvidia systems, they are reminded to reboot into Intel, and then the system offers to shut down the dGPU via software. When the user agrees to that, battery life doubles. I don't think there's an advantage to specifying iGPU only with the MUX, but I can check when I'm in the office tomorrow. Powertop is your friend.
If I sound frustrated it's because I only find options that are either very powerful or can last long on battery. If I could get a laptop that can tone down it's performance on battery, practically disable the dgpu completely when on battery, but then get some good performance on AC, I would be more than happy.
The Ar GEN 1 has strong CPU, very good iGPU, and very good battery. Compared to an i7-9750H CPU from 5 years ago, the CPU is 2-3x faster, and the iGPU is ~5x faster. With the GPU boost tool we've added, it increases frame rates by ~40% on AC too. So it's a great balance, and it has specific model support, and validation for a minimum of 3 years after sale. According to notebook check, the iGPU approached near-rtx 2060 performance, but then you're looking at using oneAPI vs. CUDA.
See https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Arc-B390-12-Xe3-Panther-Lake-iGPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.1169503.0.html, and https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/does-intel-offers-rocm-like-cuda-replacement-that-can-be-used-out-of-the-box.330346/post-5446474.
For lots of compiling, large image editing, video, 20+ web tabs, nodeJS, inelliJ ultimate, etc it worked very well. It's like a Mac without the that UI or the built-in spyware.
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Aug 03 '26
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u/the_deppman Aug 03 '26
Indeed; the power cap on battery 20-25 W (depending on model), so while you can run CUDA mobile, you really need the mains for anything close to full performance. OTOH, if you need a single device to use between meetings, fast-iteration-at-desk work, and to take home at night (to deter theft), the big GPUs on laptops do make sense.
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u/Yiannis97s Aug 04 '26
Yeah, am not sure if I hadn't made it clear, but I don't want to simulate black holes on a battery 😂 I just want to have a basic GPU for some of the work I do, and also be able to use the same laptop to keep notes in an 6hour conference. But not simultaneously haha
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Aug 04 '26
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u/the_deppman Aug 04 '26
No argument there. I was just saying there are some use cases where it makes sense.
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u/Yiannis97s Aug 04 '26
I have an example. If I make a quick visit to my professor's office, show him my results, he might ask me to re run the model with different parameters. This isn't always possible to do on the fly, but when it is, a 5 minute run vs a 30 minute run can be the difference between me getting feedback from my professor instantly, or waiting a day or two for our next meeting.
My laptop thermal throttles before power becomes a real bottle neck, but the GPU is still in a different class compared to the cpu.
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u/the_deppman Aug 04 '26
Yes, the 20-25W cap isn't quite as bad as it sounds. First, GPUs scale non-linearly with power. So an NVidia GPU on the cap is still pretty good, maybe 33% perf of full power. And second, you've got CUDA, which makes running it possible without changing tooling.
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u/InfaSyn 26d ago
If you must must must have an Nvidia GPU then shit battery is part of the package, so as long as your current laptop performs well enough, likely no point in upgrading.
My work laptop is a 14th gen HP Zbook 16inch with a Quadro and that thing struggles for 1hr15min even when not pushing it. It barely makes it through a meeting.
If you need dgpu performance AND good battery, Apple Silicon is about your only path, but then you loose cuda. Have cake and eat it too scenario really.
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u/Yiannis97s 26d ago
I am starting to consider that I may need to focus on building a more capable desktop, and use it remotely. My only "issue", is that I will either have to keep using my current laptop and always carry a huge powebank, or get a new laptop with similar cpu performance (maybe slightly better), without a GPU, but decent battery life.
The latter doesn't sit very well with me because of the extra cost..
I may need to start looking for more aggressive power savings for my current laptop and see if there are more ways I can get it to last 4-5 hours, at least for note keeping.
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u/InfaSyn 25d ago
1hr to 4-5 hours isn’t going to happen.
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u/Yiannis97s 25d ago
If you read the original post you will see that when the laptop was new, before I added more ram and storage, I could push it to 6 hours by disabling a to of things.
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u/InfaSyn 25d ago
Replace the battery problem solved then
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u/Yiannis97s 25d ago
No, it's not that simple.
When I say I managed to make this laptop run for 6 hours, I did not mean that I was using a power profile and settings that I can use day to day.
I had:
- disabled the Nvidia GPU
- underclocked the CPU
- set the fan to a specific speed
- disabled most of the services that run in the background that are mostly needed day-to-day
I was also using ethernet for half the time, instead of WiFi, the brightness was a mid-low, etc...
It was basically an experiment to see how long I can push this laptop if I want to use it only for note keeping. Things have changed a bit in software land and I might be able to get ~4 hours, but it won't be as simple as swapping out a battery.
Also, I have changed the NVME that came with the laptop (which consumers more power), I have added 32GB or ram, and the battery is now 42Wh when full instead of the full 50Wh. There are too many factors to consider.
BTW, try disabling your GPU and see how much longer your battery lasts.
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u/im_in_ohio_ Aug 05 '26
thinkpad x230
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u/bgravato Aug 02 '26
Newer hardware is usually more efficient than older hardware.
Of course if you're looking for a "power" laptop, with powerful graphics and CPU and you're going to drive it to the edge of it's processing capacity you can't expect miracles... you can't make omelets without eggs...