AMD quad vs. I3 in a laptop

[horhay063]

Hi everyone, I am just getting started in shopping for a laptop and I have been reading alot of your posts. I am a little confused on what processor I should look for.

My choices so far are the core I3 and the AMD phenom II p920 quad.

Both will have 4gb DDR3, and either a 512 or 1 gig discrete video card with them.

I mainly surf the web, some office stuff, and I play a video game when I can. I want to be sure I can run Diablo 3 when it comes out.

I guess my question is, there have been some arguments about dual core being faster than quads due to software utilizing only 2 cores. Im not sure how old that post was that I read, but if you had the choice of an AMD quad running at 1.6 per core or the I3 dual at 2.26 per core, what would you choose and why?

Also, the intel's "hyperthreading", is that an intel only thing, or does AMD have multiple threads per core?

Thank you for your help,

-Brian

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
First of all,running games depends mostly on the GPU,what GPU they have ?
As for CPUs,well for tasks that benefit from quad cores(like Video editing,3D works, and some games) a quad core would be better, but for daily tasks(such as the ones you mentioned),the dual core will be faster but since those tasks aren't demanding, the difference won't be much.

 

[g00fysmiley]

I'd go with the 4 core personally.

blizzard is known for makig thier games scale well and it is very likely diablo 3 will run on most systems built in the last 3-4 years . sounds like you're not lookig to do anythign out of the ordinary so you'd really be fine with either option . on the graphics front though use the descreet graphics with the 1G ram

 

[loneninja]

Personally I would take the I3, cooler running and lower power draw. They also come close to a Phenom II X4 in gaming on the desktop, with the I3 having higher clocks in the mobile market it should perform better.

 

[horhay063]

Hello and welcome to the forums
First of all,running games depends mostly on the GPU,what GPU they have ?
As for CPUs,well for tasks that benefit from quad cores(like Video editing,3D works, and some games) a quad core would be better, but for daily tasks(such as the ones you mentioned),the dual core will be faster but since those tasks aren't demanding, the difference won't be much.

The GPU? Is that the graphics card? What should I look for in a GPU?

 

[g00fysmiley]

yes gpu is the graphic chip. in a laptop you rarely have a standalone praphics card, it is usually a chip on the motherboard and sometimes even shares ram with the rest of the system.

if your concern is gaming the gpu should be a very important part of your decition making process, in this case either cpu will do, but a bad gpu will result in poor framerates durring gameplay

 

[Maziar]

Right^
Tell us the model of it,and we can judge more about its performance

 

[Alfred_i]

here is a benchmark for game( mobile gpu )
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html
and here (mobile CPU)
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

[horhay063]

Right^
Tell us the model of it,and we can judge more about its performance

Hi, its an NVIDIA 330 with 1gig ddr3. Also, I found a toshiba with the core i7-740. it runs at 1.6 with turbo boost up to 2.8. this would trump most cpu's for gaming and everything else right?
Thanks,
Brian

 

[horhay063]

...Also, the system has the nvidia 330, and 4 gigs ddr3 1066 ram.
-Brian
p.s. does anyone have any websites they recommend for buying a laptop?
thanks,
-Brian

 

[Maziar]

Nvidia GT 330M is a mid-range card for gaming.
Since you need recommendations for your laptop,fill the FAQ and we can help you more(link is in my sig)

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Laptops & Notebooks by Maziar