Question GE76 11980HK, 3070 8GB, 32 GB vs Legion 7 5900HX, 3080 16GB

[lukasradek]

Hey there, I need a bit of pushing. I am currently very much split between the two.

MSI GE76 - i9 11980HK, RTX 3070 8GB, 140W, 32 GB RAM, 17.3" 300Hz FHD panel, $3250
Lenovo Legion 7 - R9 5900HX, RTX 3080 16GB 140W, 32GB RAM, 16" 165hz QHD panel, $2750

Most of the time I will do creative work (photo > video editing > 3d modeling), but I also want to keep up with the games I missed with my old laptop and occasionally (but with no quality compromise) game for as long as possible without buying new laptop - i.e. future proof for productivity and games (5-6+ years would be great).

My dilemma:

I prefer large laptop screens (so I can have the same large working space everywhere I go with once set color calibration), so MSI has a win there. But I am hearing that the MSI panel has very low brightness (some refer to sub 300nits), which I am not sure if it will be a problem or not, since I have nothing to compare to right now. Furthermore when I look at Lenovo, that 3080 16GB seems like a big upgrade over 3070 8GB. Not neccessarily in terms of power (as that is determined by very similar wattage) but mostly the doubling of VRAM.
My main concern with Lenovo is the 16" screen. If it was 15.6", it would not be an option. But aside from that... 5900HX is AFAIK on par* with 11980HK, 3080 is definitelly better (don't know by how much in reality though*) and panel quality is praised everywhere. And fun fact... for the $500 I save on Lenovo, I can buy a nice monitor. Not portable, but definitely a lot of working real estate.
Thunderbolt and SD card reader absence in Lenovo is just a minor inconvenience*.

My plea for help:

My problem is partially that I am not sure about the performance comparison. All reviews are featuring the GE76 with 3080 16GB, while I need the results for 3070 8GB.
*So if anyone can advise on whether the CPUs are really on par, or that ke 16GB of VRAM with the tier upgrade (3070 to 3080) is not as significant as I think. Or if you can make some of the secondary concerns smaller/bigger - for example that absence of Thunderbolt will really hurt in future or that the GE76 panel is not that bad.

Thanks a lot.

PS: Sometimes some equivalent Gigabyte AORUSes creeps into my hesitations, but their 105 W limits haunt me. Even though they perform quite alright in benchmarks... well.. another conundrum.

 

[Colif]

if you edit post and it disappears, its just in an approval queue. Since you new it just puts them in there and since there aren't as many mods on this time of the day it might sit for a while. Just thought I let you know.

 

[Alm]

I'm a bit out of touch on laptop brand performance these days, but personally a FHD (1080p) screen on a laptop that expensive would be a deal breaker for me. Especially if I was using it for photo editing.

I could just be being ignorant and stone age as these days some people do like very high refresh rates when gaming, but that would be my thinking.

 

[lukasradek]

I understand that viewpoint but to be honest, I am not that resolution chasing guy 🙂. FHD on 17.3 feels adequate to me and I like the benefits of beeing less resource intensive. As far as high refresh rate goes... 300Hz is the only option available here.

 

[Alm]

OK, that's fair enough. Sorry I couldn't have been of more help.

 

[lukasradek]

No need to be. Another thing is that slower panels are usually not only higher res but also more color accurate, which would come in handy. But such MSI version is not offered here.