3 Laptop, GPU and battery performance comparison help.

[akkad]

Hello everyone,


I'm having trouble choosing which is the best college/gaming laptop. I need performance and I need a decent battery life. At first I had chosen the A10 Lenovo but then people started telling me that despite better specs, the A8 would perform better because it is dedicated and now I'm just confused.

Here are the three:
Lenovo A8
Lenovo A10
Toshiba

Thank you for your help in advance!

Where would the best source of information be for these GPUs other than notebookcheck and game debate (which are the only ones I get on google)

P.S. An order list for each category would be of great help.
Eg, Toshiba>A10>A8 for Gaming
A8>A10>Toshiba for battery etc

 

[jaguarskx]

The A8 will perform better in games than the A10 because it has a dedicated graphics card while the A10 relies on the integrated graphics. The CPU core in the A10 is more powerful because it is clocked higher, but overall games will be limited by the less powerful integrated graphics core. However, if you do CPU intensive task like video encoding, then you will find the A8 to be slower.

The nVidia GT 740m is by far the most powerful graphic chip of the three. The Radeon HD 8570 is only a little more powerful than the GT 710m and there is a huge performance gap between those two nVidia chips. The mobile Core i5 CPU is only a dual core CPU and even if you only consider the base core speed of 1.8GHz, it is more powerful than an AMD core running at 2.1GHz by far. The only real issue is the A8 APU has 4 CPU cores (although they are weak).

Even if a game can take full advantage of AMD's slow quad core APU, gaming performance will be severely limited by the Radeon HD 8570m. The Toshiba laptop is by far the best gaming laptop of the three listed. The large game performance difference is definitely worth the mere $50 difference.

 

[jaguarskx]

Battery life is hard to say. Manufacturer quoted battery life is usually under idea conditions with low screen brightness and the wifi turned off. No gameplay and no video playback either.

 

[akkad]

The A8 will perform better in games than the A10 because it has a dedicated graphics card while the A10 relies on the integrated graphics. The CPU core in the A10 is more powerful because it is clocked higher, but overall games will be limited by the less powerful integrated graphics core. However, if you do CPU intensive task like video encoding, then you will find the A8 to be slower.

The nVidia GT 740m is by far the most powerful graphic chip of the three. The Radeon HD 8570 is only a little more powerful than the GT 710m and there is a huge performance gap between those two nVidia chips. The mobile Core i5 CPU is only a dual core CPU and even if you only consider the base core speed of 1.8GHz, it is more powerful than an AMD core running at 2.1GHz by far. The only real issue is the A8 APU has 4 CPU cores (although they are weak).

Even if a game can take full advantage of AMD's slow quad core APU, gaming performance will be severely limited by the Radeon HD 8570m. The Toshiba laptop is by far the best gaming laptop of the three listed. The large game performance difference is definitely worth the mere $50 difference.

By far one of the most articulate and helpful advice I've received regarding the matter. Thanks! Would you have any other recommendations for similar lappies? I worked a month for this list.

 

[akkad]

Battery life is hard to say. Manufacturer quoted battery life is usually under idea conditions with low screen brightness and the wifi turned off. No gameplay and no video playback either.

The Toshiba has an internal battery. Is there a way to manually replace it without having to send it in to Toshiba? Pretty low move on Toshiba's part to be honest.

 

[jaguarskx]

It is possible to replace the battery yourself. You need the right tools, find the service manual for your specific laptop, and find a place that sells the battery model for that specific laptop model. Probably a lot of time an patience as well.

 

[akkad]

It is possible to replace the battery yourself. You need the right tools, find the service manual for your specific laptop, and find a place that sells the battery model for that specific laptop model. Probably a lot of time an patience as well.

Ok, thank you for your quick reply.