Is it time to upgrade my laptop ?

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martyyn

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#298549 26-Jun-2022 11:40

I've had a Dell 7490 for a few years now. It's an i7-8650U, 16GB with 1TB NVMe and is attached to a Dell D6000 dock and a 49" Titan Army.

It's always been great but since moving to W11 it's been getting progressively less responsive to right now where it's almost unusable and I'm about to close everything and reboot.

I will normally have 4/5 browser windows with 4-12 tabs in each one, Outlook, a couple of Putty windows, Toad Edge, maybe an Excel window and paint.net and I'll be streaming YT music.

I've tried Chrome, Brave and now FF to alleviate the ram usage to no avail.

At the moment I've got four FF windows with 18 tabs in total, Outlook, one Excel window, Editplus, one Putty window and Toad and I'm sitting at 82% CPU and 87% Memory.

FF is 5349MB and Malwarebytes has two services with 563MB between them. FF, Windows Explorer, Outlook and Malwarebytes the the CPU at 50%.

I've haven't thought about upgrading until now because the 8560U has always had good reveiw's against the newer models but the 12th gen seems to be a significant improvement.

Should I consider going to 32GB as well ? I've always been under the impression 32 wasn't that much of a leap from 16 for mainly desktop work.

Gurezaemon

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#2934575 26-Jun-2022 11:46

The very first thing I'd be trying would be a clean reinstall of Windows - that hardware should be able to handle the sort of workload you mention with no problem whatsoever.

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robjg63

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#2934581 26-Jun-2022 12:08

Gurezaemon:

The very first thing I'd be trying would be a clean reinstall of Windows - that hardware should be able to handle the sort of workload you mention with no problem whatsoever.

Ditto

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martyyn

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#2934590 26-Jun-2022 12:35

Thanks, that was always my other option. I just needed reminding this should handle everything already.

FineWine

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#2934599 26-Jun-2022 13:07

Back when I was a Windows user, I found it was always better to use the Hardware manufactures firmware updates and not to rely upon MS to provide their generic updates. About every six months I used to do the rounds of all Hardware sites to check for updates. A pain I known but it helped to keep things runner smoother.

Just a thought.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

richms

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#2934601 26-Jun-2022 13:11

My last few computers have been 32 gigs and the only difference it that it will take longer to max it out. Usually all the browsers taking it. Can tell when its out because I will switch to the gmail tab and it has to load it up.

Browsers keep so much in memory that I don't think you can put enough ram in a system to keep all the tabs I have open without it starting to unload some of them.

As far as the speed when working in the tab, no noticeable difference when its maxed out or has free memory other than the delays swapping tabs.

What I do find runs out still is GPU stuff, and browsers will start to not draw fully till I exit them all and re-launch them. Never shows in task manager that the memory or decode or anything is maxed, just stuff stops working properly in chrome. In firefox where I have to disable GPU acceleration for it to even work properly because its buggy trash, it keeps going fine.

Nothing makes the machine start to lag to being unusable even with over 400 active tabs across all browsers and windows.

All my previous performance issues (audio glitching, laggy mouse, missed keypresses) came down to forticlient which work made us have for work from home. Removed that and my prevously unusable PC that couldnt even run GTA5 without lagging became perfect again. I would first look at what malware you have installed pretending to be antimalware.

Richard rich.ms

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#2934602 26-Jun-2022 13:11

I tend to reinstall my systems (server, desktop, laptops) at least once a year to avoid any "software bogging". ALso, if easily accessible, give the vents and CPU fan a blow out to ensure cooling is still working as intended.

XPD / Gavin

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darylblake

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#2934630 26-Jun-2022 16:16

Based on the spec of the machine, I don't think you need to spend any money. The 8th Gen intels are still pretty decent. I would probably expect 2 more years out of it based on the type of work you appear to be doing.

I think upgrading the manufacturers drivers for windows 11 would be where I start. If you still find it sluggish, a full backup, and clean w11 install should be adequate.
If you are still having problems, then perhaps the work you are doing is too intense for the CPU. But I would certainly try the re-install before giving up and replacing the machine.

My partner does a lot of office work, email and a few other apps and shes running a running an i7-6820U HP laptop 16GB Ram (intel 6th gen a bit older than yours) on windows 10. The CPU spikes up a bit when i open some programs. But for the most part it's fine. I never bothered to upgrade to W11 because I didnt really see the point. Shes quite happy with W10.

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#2934633 26-Jun-2022 16:30

My wife is still on a 3rd Gen i5 Probook, upgraded RAM and SSD and it flies along still for her work :)

So an 8th gen is more than capable. Hell, I'm a gamer and I only recently upgraded to a 6th gen i5 :D

XPD / Gavin

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#2934768 27-Jun-2022 08:56

martyyn:

At the moment I've got four FF windows with 18 tabs in total,

I'd bet thats your real issue

richms

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#2934782 27-Jun-2022 10:10

1101:

martyyn:

At the moment I've got four FF windows with 18 tabs in total,

I'd bet thats your real issue

Firefox isnt bad, seems to be a bit less happy to unload things than chrome but even with 3 processes running I have not had it make the machine go unusable.

Richard rich.ms

cddt

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#2942929 16-Jul-2022 15:26

I strongly recommend installing the "uBlock Origin" add-on for Firefox - it significantly reduces RAM and CPU use.