A6 processor or i3 processor

[Keemann]

Hello,

My friend is purchasing a laptop and he said it's between an Amd A6 @ 1.4ghz quad core or a Intel i3 @ 2.4ghz dual core.

I told him to get the Intel i3 but he said the Amd A6 has a better benchmark, He's using it for general computing such as browsing the web

Which one should he get?

replies ASAP!

 

[Novuake]

I would take the A6 in a laptop. You could run better games and it would have much better battery life. Its a shame the CPU is so slow tho. 1.4GHz is slow.

But no the i3 has better benches if you don't play games.

Give links to the laptops.
What will the laptops be used for?
What is the budget?

Otherwise we cant really help.

 

[scannall]

Hello,

My friend is purchasing a laptop and he said it's between an Amd A6 @ 1.4ghz quad core or a Intel i3 @ 2.4ghz dual core.

I told him to get the Intel i3 but he said the Amd A6 has a better benchmark, He's using it for general computing such as browsing the web

Which one should he get?

replies ASAP!

For a laptop I'd go with the A6. Especially since I just bought one with an A8, and it runs great with very good gaming capability.

 

[Novuake]

For a laptop I'd go with the A6. Especially since I just bought one with an A8, and it runs great with very good gaming capability.

He made it clear, general use. Not gaming.

 

[A Bad Day]

If he's just using it for web browsing, email, and movies, i3 would be more than sufficient.

If he's using some software that support GPU computing, then maybe an A6.

 

[jaguarskx]

If he's not playing games, then the i3 is better. I bet he was looking at some crap synthetic benchmarks like PassMark something else just as bad.

Just taking clockspeed in consideration, the A6 would need to clocked to around 2.8GHz to equal the performance of a core i3. The A6 is a quad core CPU so as long as he is using programs that can take advantage of 3 or more cores, he should get a little better performance than a dual core CPU of the same clockspeed. It is not a linear increase in performance; meaning going from 2 cores to 4 cores will not double performance. The actual performance depends on how well the program has been designed to make use of multiple cores. On average it will probably be around 30% - 40%.

Click the following link to see how a Core i5-3470 (quad core) compares to the Core i3-3220 (dual core). There is only a 100MHz difference in clockspeed. Notice the performance difference is not doubled going from 2 cores to 4 cores. Note that in some benchmarks higher is better, in others lower is better.

http/www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/702?vs=677


The link below compares the A6-3650 vs. the Core i3-3220. Both are desktop CPUs, but since the laptop version CPUs have the same architecture as the desktop CPUs a performance comparison is possible. Again, in some benchmarks higher is better, in others lower is better.

http/www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/403?vs=677

The dual core i3-3220 basically outperforms the quad core A6-3650 in all the benchmarks. In a few of them by a pretty large margin.

 

[jaguarskx]

Also, note the difference in clockspeed of the two CPUs in the laptops your friend is considering; A6 = 1.4GHz, i3 = 2.4GHz. That's a difference of 1.0GHz which means the i3's clockspeed is 71% higher.

For the desktop CPUs used, the A6 is clocked 2.6GHz and the i3 is clocked at 3.3GHz. That's a difference of 700MHz. That means the i3's clockspeed is only 27% higher.

Using the desktop CPUs performance benchmarks of the A6 and i3 as a reference, the laptop A6's performance would be lower because the gap in the clockspeed is higher.

 

[Keemann]

Hello i appreciate all your help.

The A6 has a 1.4ghz quad core where it can overclock itself up to 2.4ghz so it would be faster than the Intel i3.

I just heard that he does want to use it for some games such as GTA 4 and such. It comes with a dedicated graphics card so i said that may cause him low FPS. Can you confirm this?

I told him to buy the i3 to play games but didn't listen..

Thanks,
keemann

 

[scannall]

Hello i appreciate all your help.

The A6 has a 1.4ghz quad core where it can overclock itself up to 2.4ghz so it would be faster than the Intel i3.

I just heard that he does want to use it for some games such as GTA 4 and such. It comes with a dedicated graphics card so i said that may cause him low FPS. Can you confirm this?

I told him to buy the i3 to play games but didn't listen..

Thanks,
keemann

The A6 is far better than the i3 at gaming with native graphics. Intel does a lot of things right, but their integrated graphics isn't one of them.

 

[avengedJC]

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm just looking for my own laptop so I'm trying to learn more about this stuff!) but just wanted to post to check for OP's benefit.

Sure the A6 is better for gaming with native graphics, but what about if the laptop(s) have dedicated graphics? Would it not be the case that if the laptop(s) have dedicated graphics then maybe it would be better to go with the i3? As Novuake has said:

I would take the A6 in a laptop. You could run better games and it would have much better battery life. Its a shame the CPU is so slow tho. 1.4GHz is slow.

But no the i3 has better benches if you don't play games.

so if the laptop(s) has dedicated graphics he already has the graphic capabilities, and so should go for the better benches of the i3?

 

[Novuake]

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm just looking for my own laptop so I'm trying to learn more about this stuff!) but just wanted to post to check for OP's benefit.

Sure the A6 is better for gaming with native graphics, but what about if the laptop(s) have dedicated graphics? Would it not be the case that if the laptop(s) have dedicated graphics then maybe it would be better to go with the i3? As Novuake has said:

so if the laptop(s) has dedicated graphics he already has the graphic capabilities, and so should go for the better benches of the i3?

Precisely. If the I3 has dedicated graphics, rather get it.