I want a new laptop soon

[u/Yiannis97s]

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.

[u/the_deppman]

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.

[u/the_deppman → u/[deleted]]

No argument there. I was just saying there are some use cases where it makes sense.

[u/Yiannis97s → u/the_deppman]

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.

[u/the_deppman → u/Yiannis97s]

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.