GPU integrated to laptop - Mistake?
Posted by Virtual_Attitude2025@reddit | LocalLLaMA | View on Reddit | 5 comments
Hi,
I don't have a software background, but have been paying for cloud GPUs past year so figured I would purchase one, but I went with Lenovo legion Nvidia 5070 with 12gb vRAM. I had the impression that purchasing an integrated card would be less complex in terms of setup as I heard if you buy it seperate can very difficult to get working for a beginner.
However, I realize now that 12gb Vram could possibly limit me if I wanted to do some gen AI videos for example. Curious to get your thoughts on this.
beryugyo619@reddit
Gaming laptops in general are "bad" idea in terms of reliability and cost performance. They're generally disappointing in those regards.
That said, from software perspective, a laptop with GPU is still just a desktop PC with minor quirks on GPU, nothing less or more complicated.
o0genesis0o@reddit
It's not the best idea, but it's okay, IMHO. I used to run LLM on laptop with 2060 and 6GB of VRAM. It's a pain, but it works.
The only thing I don't like about gaming laptop is that the GPU would throttle hard on battery. When I run the same model with the same laptop on battery, GPU and CPU has no performance difference. When I plug in, models run a few times faster on GPU. It means that unlike Macbook, I cannot really use my gaming laptop as sorts of local LLM runner when I work in coffee shop.
There is no difficulty setting Nvidia GPU, surprisingly. I expected a world of pain, but besides one small hiccup that I had to google at the beginning, it was a smooth ride even to install from scratch. If you use PopOS or similar distro, they take care of your GPU out of the box with zero extra config.
Clear-Ad-9312@reddit
hey, not a mistake, its a tool,
you want to let it churn at max power? get a decent cooler like the iets gt600 v2, I have one and it really keeps those temps down
ortegaalfredo@reddit
It will be useful for many things. I.E. image/video generation and small LLMs.
Big llms? No. Also notebooks heat A LOT, they are not prepared for the amount of heat that the GPUs emit, that gaming laptop is one of the best at coping with heat but still, it will sound like a jet engine. I have a Thinkpad with a 16GB nvidia and its' extremely fast but also very noisy.
AccordingRespect3599@reddit
Mistake , no. Recommended, no. There is no technical difficulty to set up a Nvidia GPU for AI use.