need laptop advice, particularly graphics cards and cpus

NotCras

Estimable
Jun 30, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hi everyone,

So here's my situation. My current laptop is not really cutting it anymore. I want to move on, but I'm not really sure of what kind of laptop I want. I've been doing research, but what's holding me back is that I don't know the hardware that I should be looking at.

Here's what I want in my laptop:

I want something that I can take around (DUH, but then again some laptops can get kinda big...). I want this laptop for general stuff, watching movies, and some gaming as well. I will definitely be playing all of my older games on gog.com as well as tf2. I would love to be able to play Guild Wars 2, so let's set that as a standard. I don't care much about how well the graphics look. Medium quality is totally fine by me.

What kind of a graphics card should I be looking for? Should I get a dedicated card like nvidia, or should I be fine with Intel HD 4600 or the AMD equivalent (which I'm not even sure it would be).

Now to go to cpus. I know I should get at least an i5 intel processor, but I don't know much about amd. Thoughts? I keep hearing that intel is better, but I don't know what to believe. I know I'll be paying a premium for intel... right?

I'm curious as to how cheap of a laptop I can get. I know its a lot of questions, I would appreciate any answers you will give me. Thanks!
 
Solution
If gaming has higher priority and you have a relatively low budget, then a laptop with AMD A10-5750m is the way to go, that was AMD's highest performing APU (AMD's term for a CPU + integrated graphic) until the recently released A10-7xxx series, but no laptops using that APU is available for sale yet to the best of my knowledge.

AMD APU have the best performing integrated graphics core (iGPU - the Radeon HD 8650g), however, the CPU side of that equation is not as powerful as Intel's CPUs. But the A10-5750m is a quad core CPU vs. a dual core Intel CPU that fits in your price range. The two drawbacks that I see are:

1. The APU runs a bit hot.
2. Laptops using the A10-5750m tends to have short battery life. No more than 3 hours, and...

NotCras

Estimable
Jun 30, 2014
3
0
4,510


If I were to go AMD, what A series should I be looking at?



I would say around $750.

 

NotCras

Estimable
Jun 30, 2014
3
0
4,510
I'm not sure because I have some friends that had a bad experience with reimbursed. But I guess it would depend if the deal is compelling enough. What do you have in mind?

 

Strollinbau5

Estimable
Jun 20, 2014
1
0
4,510
Well, with your budget you have a lot of options, and they won't bottleneck your gaming. You may not want and "all-out" gaming laptop, as those may go way over your budget. You'll wan't something affordable, but one that packs a punch.

Overall, the least you are going to be spending here is about $800. Here's a list from Newegg of laptops with a combo of performance, and price.

$850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152570&cm_re=gaming_laptop-_-34-152-570-_-Product

$900: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313742&cm_re=gaming_laptop-_-34-313-742-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152568&cm_re=gaming_laptop-_-34-152-568-_-Product

Hope this helps!
 
If gaming has higher priority and you have a relatively low budget, then a laptop with AMD A10-5750m is the way to go, that was AMD's highest performing APU (AMD's term for a CPU + integrated graphic) until the recently released A10-7xxx series, but no laptops using that APU is available for sale yet to the best of my knowledge.

AMD APU have the best performing integrated graphics core (iGPU - the Radeon HD 8650g), however, the CPU side of that equation is not as powerful as Intel's CPUs. But the A10-5750m is a quad core CPU vs. a dual core Intel CPU that fits in your price range. The two drawbacks that I see are:

1. The APU runs a bit hot.
2. Laptops using the A10-5750m tends to have short battery life. No more than 3 hours, and that's under normal usage, playing games means even shorter battery life.

Intel CPUs tends to run much cooler than AMD APUs. You will only be getting a dual core CPU in your price range. But based on my own experience 2 cores works just fine except for the very intensive applications / games that can make use of more than 2 cores. Each core inside an Intel CPU is more powerful than each AMD APU core. Therefore, programs using only two cores generally runs better on Intel CPUs. Programs that can use 4 core will likely perform better with the A10 APU, however that depends on the specific program.

The downside of Intel CPUs is the iGPU; the Intel HD 4400 or the Intel HD 4600 depending on exactly which CPU is being used. Intel has come a long way in the past 3 years when they finally decided to focus on iGPU performance. However, the Intel HD 4600 is still around 20% less powerful than the Radeon HD 8650g, but that depends on the game.

In Titanfall, the Intel HD 4600 performs 16% worse than the Radeon HD 8650g. But in Elder Scrolls Online the Intel HD 4600 performs 31% better than the Radeon HD 8650g. Those are benchmark results from the following link. Scroll down to the game benchmarks and click "Compare" to see how the Radeon HD 8650g compares to other graphic cores (integrated and dedicated).

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8650G.87916.0.html


There are some caveats though. Comparing laptop graphics performance is much more difficult than in desktop comparisons. When doing graphic card benchmarks in desktop PC. All components are consistent. The only thing that is different is the graphics card itself. That means when comparing a Radeon R7 260x to a nVidia GT 750 Ti, the CPU is the same, the RAM is the same, the motherboard is the same, etc...It is a leveled playing field.

Comparing graphics performance in laptops can be a minefield. Laptops generally do not use the same processor or motherboard. Some laptops results be based on 4GB or 8GB of system RAM. While all Intel CPUs with the Intel HD 4400 graphics core are only dual core CPUs, the Intel HD 4600 graphics core is used by both dual and quad core Intel CPUs.


 
Solution


The Lenovo IdeaPad G505s for $460.

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-15-6-Inch-Laptop-59406417/dp/B00HIYA4F2


The Lenovo ThinkPad E545 is a business laptop with the A10-5750m. It is generally considered to be more sturdier since it is a business laptop after all. However, it is also a little more expensive. The base model sells for $470, but you need to pay $70 for the A10-5750m option which brings the price up to $540. Additionally, the laptop only comes with 4GB of RAM instead of 6GB in the G505s.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/e-series/e545/#customize

For best results you need two sticks of RAM so that it can run at "full speed"; called dual channel mode. If a laptop or desktop only has 1 stick of RAM then it runs at "half speed"; called single channel mode. The overall performance is roughly 10% - 15%. Since the ThinkPad E545 only has 4GB of RAM, that means it only has 1 stick of RAM. You can select the option to add another 4GB of RAM for $80 or you can buy a 4GB stick of RAM for about $45 - $50 and install it yourself. Crucial is a good place to buy RAM.

http://www.crucial.com/

 

Xibyth

Estimable
Mar 22, 2014
67
0
4,610
I would get anything with an i5 and an nvidia 840m. AMD APU's do have more power efficiancy but at the cost of a little more FPS. In all you get an extra 20 minutes of battery life depending on the laptop you go for. My reccomendation http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231960&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-All+Laptops+%2f+Notebooks-_-N82E16834231960&gclid=CPqc3KCkkcECFeVaMgodKmcACg

It has plenty of memory, a good discrete GPU for the games your playing, a 1080p screen, and about 5 hours of life on battery (about 2.25 hours of gaming time). 15" laptops are far more portable than 17", I regret getting mine and I game on a 24" screen with my desktop.

Not to mention that CPU in it is Hyperthreaded. It's not the same as 4 physical cores but a quad core AMD is only just as fast in single thread applications, but is much slower in multithreaded situations. On top of that it goes up to 2.7 GHz when your gaming and need some more juice.
 

Major_Headache

Estimable
Aug 30, 2014
1
0
4,510


You, my good sir, need to do some more research. i5's are NOT hyperthreaded, that is a black art reserved for i7's. Also, the i5's FOUR cores are each FAR stronger than an amd core, giving the i5 the edge in single threaded application, the only advantage amd has is that it often has 6 or even 8 cores. And about 15 inch laptops, i highly reccomend a 17 especially if you go with a descrete gpu to help dissapate heat.
 

Xibyth

Estimable
Mar 22, 2014
67
0
4,610


Perhaps you should do the same. I5's in laptops are commonly hyperthreaded. Here is intels tech sheet. Dual core with hyperthreading. Reduces power usage while still having the performance of a quad core.

http://ark.intel.com/products/81016/Intel-Core-i5-4210U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_70-GHz