A8-3520m with 6620G OR A6-3420m with 6520G and 6650M?

[bilalasd]

Hey guys,
I am stuck between two laptops.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246328

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246322

Its going to be for moderate gaming and school stuff. These are by far the best deals I have found for that price.

I will be upgrading the RAM to 8gb for either of them.

Would love to hear your opinions.

 

[oxford373]

lenovo with a8 3520 is great deal but it would better if you can find a cheaper laptop with with A8 3520

 

[bilalasd]

Do you think the a8 3520 by itself would be better than a a6 3420 with a discrete graphics card?

 

[oxford373]

a6 3420 or i3 with discrete graphics card is better for games but a8 3520 with its integrated graphics card is more efficient and cheaper

 

[bilalasd]

but the a6 also has a integrated GPU in it, I was planning on doing crossfire between the integrated and the discrete

 

[oxford373]

don't count on it ,the gain is just 15%
core i3 with discrete graphics card sounds better

 

[Phyrexiancure]

don't count on it ,the gain is just 15%

Switchable graphics will turn off the discrete gpu to near zero power consumption. Also the discrete alone is better than the a8's so crossfire will make it a better overall option for gaming. Also check out k10stat and its guide, you can overclock and undervolt your laptop AMD cpu to get better performance. I got the 1.4 ghz to 1.8 without increasing temp.

 

[oxford373]

its not good idea to overclock a laptop

 

[Phyrexiancure]

its not good idea to overclock a laptop

Its not a good idea to go above the thermal design of your laptop. As I said these processors have a lot of headroom to stay within their design. If your willing to do it you just need to use a program to measure what your cpu's maximum temperature while stressing it with something like prime 95. You'd then lower the voltage while upping the clock speed. I achieved over a 25% overclock on its base clock without raising temps. You could even use it to lower idle speed voltage to improve battery life by an hour in my case. Though this deals with tampering with stock setting which people may not want to deal with. But if you do k10stat is pretty straight forward and very rewarding.

 

[lightbody]

I actually just purchased the Z575 with the 6650m. It does primarily use the GPU on the APU and the discrete only kicks on when needed. To me, the difference between a 6520G and 6620G is somewhat negligible as both are going to be somewhat limited by using system RAM. According to notebookcheck.net, the 6520G scores 492 in 3DMark 11, the 6620G scores 650, the 6650M scores 1106, and the 6720G2 (6520G + 6650M) scores 1479 (the scores are averaged from all sorts of notebook configurations).

I was actually able to lower the voltages with FusionTweaker and overclock to 2.0Ghz. It runs cooler at 2.0Ghz with the lower voltage than it did at 1.5Ghz with stock voltage. Just so you know, the laptop does look purple no matter what light you have.

 

[bilalasd]

Its not a good idea to go above the thermal design of your laptop. As I said these processors have a lot of headroom to stay within their design. If your willing to do it you just need to use a program to measure what your cpu's maximum temperature while stressing it with something like prime 95. You'd then lower the voltage while upping the clock speed. I achieved over a 25% overclock on its base clock without raising temps. You could even use it to lower idle speed voltage to improve battery life by an hour in my case. Though this deals with tampering with stock setting which people may not want to deal with. But if you do k10stat is pretty straight forward and very rewarding.

I have read a lot about people overclocking these processors with no(or very little) temperature difference. If its possible to undervolt the laptop without decreasing performance, won't that also increase the battery life? if that's true than it's perfect for me!

 

[bilalasd]

I actually just purchased the Z575 with the 6650m. It does primarily use the GPU on the APU and the discrete only kicks on when needed. To me, the difference between a 6520G and 6620G is somewhat negligible as both are going to be somewhat limited by using system RAM. According to notebookcheck.net, the 6520G scores 492 in 3DMark 11, the 6620G scores 650, the 6650M scores 1106, and the 6720G2 (6520G + 6650M) scores 1479 (the scores are averaged from all sorts of notebook configurations).

I was actually able to lower the voltages with FusionTweaker and overclock to 2.0Ghz. It runs cooler at 2.0Ghz with the lower voltage than it did at 1.5Ghz with stock voltage. Just so you know, the laptop does look purple no matter what light you have.

Have you played any games yet? how was the performance? I am planning on upgrading the RAM to 8gb just because its the cheapest upgrade.

I probably misunderstood but doesn't the discrete graphic cards have their own RAM's?

I have read about the purplish color in the reviews a lot, I am planning on going to nearby Best Buy or other electronics store soon just to see the laptop physically. Although the looks doesn't really matter to me as long as it performs good!

 

[lightbody]

The 6650m is suppose to have its own 1GB of DDR3, but the 6620G and 6520G share RAM with the system (mine is automatically set to 512MB and changes dynamically when it needs more). I haven't actually played any recent games on it yet. I've only played X-Men Legends II and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I can always get Portal from Steam again and see how it performs if you would like me to do so.

 

[bilalasd]

Best answer selected by bilalasd.