Is my laptop absolutely useless for programming?

Discussion
1

My mother recently purchased me this laptop. I am a computer science student. My father is making it appear as if I can not perform any tangible programming on it. He argues it’s only suitable for PowerPoint presentations and hello world :unamused:. I expressly requested an i5 or higher processor and 8GB of RAM or more. High SSD and Windows 11. This is a storage 512GB SSD Processor

Intel Core™ i5-1335U Processor

10-core

P-cores: 1.3 GHz, 4.6 GHz.

E-cores: 0.9 GHz, 3.4 GHz.

8 GB DDR4 (3200 MHz) graphics card with integrated Intel® Iris® Xe graphics and 12 MB cache RAM

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2

Well, you are incorrect about the GPU component. You only have 8GB of RAM and only Intel UHD Graphics, which is significantly slower. To activate Iris Xe Graphics, you’ll need 16 GB of RAM. Iris Xe can handle significantly more than ‘hello world’, but not UHD. I would have recommended a Ryzen processor for your use case, but you’ve already purchased the laptop. Enjoy it!

For those who insist you simply need dual channel RAM, you are correct. I said 16GB because it was the most common RAM configuration and is still in popular use today.

3

Yeah price was what made me advise the 8gb ram. Thanks

4

Upgrade to 16GB if you can.

5

Unfortunately, my RAM is soldered to the motherboard, thus I will update the laptop in three years.

6

That is why it was cheaper. My father also got me soldered 8GB RAM, which works perfectly for programming.

7

If you don not require Windows, you could use Linux, which is usually lighter on RAM.

8

Wrong, It does not appear to be 16GB. Iris Xe will function as long as the RAM is dual-channel. Manufacturers typically employ dual-channel memory for 8 GB of soldered RAM. You can determine whether it is single or dual-channel using Task Manager, OP.

9

blatantly misleading information.

You don not need 16GB of RAM for XE; you just need dual channel. You may easily have 16GB computers with UHD thanks to a single 16GB stick.