Don't buy a new MacBook or Windows10 laptop yet — here's why

Don't buy a new MacBook or Windows10 laptop yet — here's why

Now is not the time to buy a new Windows or macOS laptop. The next Intel Tiger Lake processors promise not only more CPU performance, but also a significant boost in graphics power. And early tests of this chip are proving that it is worth the wait to buy a laptop with this chip.

Tech YouTuber The Tech Chap got his hands on a pre-production model of the MSI Prestige 14 with an Intel Core i7-1185G7. This is the most powerful chip in the Tiger Lake series and comes with Intel's new Xe integrated graphics with 96 execution units.

Processor performance with the quad-core Core i7-1185G7 is a reasonable power boost over the 10th generation Intel Ice Lake chips in Microsoft's Surface Laptop 3 and others. Graphics performance, however, is where the Tiger Lake chips really provide a big boost.

Various benchmarks and tests conducted by The Tech Chap show that the Core i7-1185G7 outperforms many laptops with Ice Lake CPUs and Iris Plus graphics, as well as machines with dedicated Nvidia MX350 GPUs was revealed. It also outperforms laptops with AMD Ryzen 7 4800U with Vega 8 graphics.

In real-world use, this will improve photo and video editing performance, as the ultra-portable laptop will actually be able to run some of the latest games at acceptable frame rates.

Tech Chap noted some driver issues and crashes when gaming. However, it is still early days for the Tiger Lake chips. The YouTuber also highlighted that the MSI Prestige 14 is a bit thicker than other ultra-portable laptops and has better cooling.

Nevertheless, the chip delivered solid performance in games like "Rainbow Six Siege" and "Fortnite." And that was before the Tiger Lake chips were released to the world and subjected to more optimizations and driver updates.

In short, Intel's Tiger Lake chips are expected to bring a major upgrade to ultraportables. That's why you should hold off on buying a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or Windows 10 laptop just yet.

Apple plans to move away from Intel chips with its Apple Silicon initiative. MacBooks with ARM-based chips are expected this year or early next year, but the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro will likely still use Intel processors for another 12 months or so.

In other words, if you want to get a new MacBook, we recommend that you hold out a little longer, as Apple will likely include Tiger Lake chips in refreshed Mac machines. If that happens, you will be able to increase your graphics power without having to opt for a dedicated or external GPU.

Based on the leaks so far, we may see an all-new 12-inch MacBook with an ARM-based chip or a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a custom chip If Apple decides to remove Intel chips from the MacBook series entirely The above point about holding off on buying a new Mac machine if Apple decides to remove the Intel chip from the MacBook series altogether is correct.

The same can be said for WIndow 10 laptops. We expect new laptops from Lenovo, MSI, Dell, Asus, and Acer to all have Tiger Lake chips, and we would bet a significant amount of money that the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 will use Tiger Lake chips.

Not only will we see new gaming consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X this fall. But more powerful laptops, the GeForce RTX 3080, AMD Big Navi, and the iPhone 12 will also arrive. Winter is upon us, and many new technologies are on the horizon.

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