Can I get last year's Proart P16 or should I spend more for the 2025 version?

Laptops Suggest a Laptop
1

My beloved Dell XPS 15 9500 is starting to show the early signs of aging, and I’m thinking about replacing it soon. I’ve been buying XPS’s for several years, but I’m not a fan of the recent changes Dell has made to their lineup.

After lots of consideration (watching Just Josh videos)I have fallen in love with the Proart P16! I think it’s a gorgeous laptop that checks all the boxes I’m looking for. 2024’s 4060 version is only $1999, which is at the very top of my budget. But I worry about upgrading to last year’s laptop when 2025’s 5070 version is just $400 more at $2399.

My question is, is getting the 2025 version worth that extra $400? As I said, the 2024 one is already at the top of my budget, so finding that extra bit would require some sacrifices I’d rather not make if it isn’t worth it. I’d ideally like the laptop to be my main computer for the next 5 years. It needs to be reliable. I can’t fork out that much money and have it fail me in 15 months.

About me, I’m an ecology PhD candidate who needs a laptop for data analysis, using R, creating/analyzing maps with ArcGIS, lots of writing, and reading papers. Dont worry, I wont be taking this laptop into the field! I do enjoy working from coffee shops from time to time. Outside of work, I like watching movies, casually making videos (mostly of family vacations, field work trips, hikes, and my dogs), and casual gaming. To clarify what I mean by ‘casual gaming’, the sorts of games I like to play are Two Point Hospital, Town to City, Fabledom, Planet Zoo, Dredge, Hades 2, Fields of Mistria, etc.

2

My honest take- buy the newer 2025 ProArt P16. But not with a 5070. I prefer the newer model over the older model just because the newer model has 120Hz refresh rate.

Not to sound judgy, but i find the ProArt to be overkill for your use case. Data analysis work that you mentioned are memory intensive. R and GIS tools are CPU intensive and any CPU with good multi-core performance would suffice. The only GPU intensive tasks I see are games like planet zoo and hades 2 (for smoother gameplay) and video editing. I am learning AI and ML So i know a bit about data science. I do not think you need a 5070, a 5060 or even a 5050 would suffice.

1 Like
3

The only available options (US, most likely buying from Best Buy) for the Proart P16 are the 2024 4060 for $1999, or the 2025 5070 for $2399-$2759. And of course the 2025 5090, but that is WAY too expensive at $4k so I didn’t mention it.

I’m trying to get advice on whether or not it’s worth paying for that newest model. I don’t know if a 60Hz vs 120Hz refresh rate would be worth $400 for my use case, especially considering I’m upgrading from an XPS 15 9500 from 2020. But I am asking in case there is a huge difference in performance and capability between last year’s and this year’s Proart. If you think a 5070 is overkill, what about a 4060?

4

A 4060 is definitely good for you, it will have less vram than the 5070, the 50 series card has superior ray tracing abilities and is more better performance wise than the 4060. But for your use case i think the 4060 is enough for you. (Obviously if you need better gaming and video editing performance then go for the 5070).

If you have used a 120Hz screen before then you will never live with a 60 Hz display you will find everything slow and laggy even though it is not. Basically what I’m saying is there will be no major performance issue, you will just feel that it’s not that good for the price.

If you’re buying one then I say the 4060 is the one to get- if you can muster up 400$ more then get the 2025 one.

I also have a 2021 MSI Katana and seriously any 600$ laptop today is better than this. The ProArt would be good upgrade from your old XPS.

5

Black Friday is just around the corner, I suggest you wait for a deal on the new ProArt P16 as It may drop in price.

1 Like
6

That’s definitely my plan! Hopefully the 2025 model drops in price enough to make my question moot!

7

Obviously, I would say that the RTX 5090 would be the best option because there’s no inbetween option of a 5070 Ti or 5080, meaning you’ll be stuck with 8 GB of vRAM, which really isn’t enough in 2025. Unforunately, like previously mentioned, it’s nearly $4000, which is extremely expensive.

I also wouldn’t recommend the 2024 models as all of those have a 60 hz screen, which feels not at all premium in 2025. I would also avoid the 60 hz option available this year (2025) for the same reason.

I agree about waiting for Black Friday to see what happens, though given it only went on sale about a month ago, I wouldn’t expect it to go that much off on sale on Black Friday.

If it doesn’t, I would probably go for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 instead, which ewill probably go on sale and will still offer a 5070 Ti, which I feel is a much better sweet spot for gaming much longer into the future. That being said, you’re stuck with Intel Arrow Lake H in that case, not AMD’s Strix Point (Zen 5), though unless you need AVX-512 or hyperthreading (in which case you’ll have to spend more on the ProArt P16), I don’t think either AMD Strix Point or Intel Arrow Lake H is better than the other in any other major way.

I would avoid the RTX 5090 in the Zephyrus G16 unless you 100% need the 24 GB of vRAM and are willing to take diminishing returns because of the lower GPU power limit. The same goes, but to a lesser extent, with the 5080 model, although in that case, 12 to 16 GB is a more notable jump than 16 to 24 GB (though not as massive as 8 to 12 GB).

The 5070 obviously has only 8 GB of vRAM, which is in itself a problem with some modern games either with ray-tracing enabled, at higher resolutions, or both. However, the 5070 and below Zephyrus G16 laptops only have 16 GB of soldered RAM, which is both overpriced for a laptop with 16 GB of RAM that can never be upgraded, and this low amount of system RAM will almost certainly be a bottleneck for the laptop when playing games, especially if you stream or record games. So I’d avoid these models of the Zephyrus G16 as well.

TL;DR:

  • Go for a 2025 Asus ProArt P16 with a 120 hz screen if you can afford it. Just be aware of the limitations on the lower end RTX 5070 config with its 8 GB of vRAM if you can’t afford to spend $4000 on a laptop for the RTX 5090 config.
  • If you can’t afford the 5090 config and want more vRAM, go for the 5070 Ti or 5080 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, preferably the 5070 Ti model because of the lower power limits in the Zephyrus G16 chassis.
    • I would strongly recommending not going for the RTX 5090 Zephyrus G16 due to diminishing returns of 24 GB of vRAM and the aforementioned lower power limit.
      • Also avoid the RTX 5070 and lower Zehpyrus G16 laptops due to their lower vRAM (8 GB) and system RAM (16 GB) amounts, the latter of which cannot be (easily) upgraded on the Zehpyrus G16 because it is completely soldered.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 with RTX 5070 Ti: https://bestbuycreators.7tiv.net/Z6JMP0

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 with RTX 5080: https://bestbuycreators.7tiv.net/RGZzWg

Purchase Disclaimer

Note: Purchases made using these Best Buy links may help JJ with a commision if a laptop is bought using these links at no additional cost to consumers.

1 Like
8

Thank you. Now that the Zephyrus G16 5070 Ti is on sale and is now both cheaper than the Proart 16 and has better specs, I’m definitely considering it. I’ve checked out both laptops in stores at this point, and they are very similar! I definitely like the feel of the proart keyboard more. There’s no noticeable difference in weight or size. I’m not a huge fan of the slash on the back of the zephyrus, or the gamer font on the keyboard, but I can always put a skin on the laptop lol.

9

AFAIK, you can get a skin from dBrand (not sponsored) or another brand and cover it up. I don’t like the slash either, but if that’s the worst part of it, I could probably overlook it.