AMD Dual-Core A9 APU Or i3 processor

tonyRR

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for general office use and media presentations... Media program tends to be somewhat of a hog.
 
Solution
General office use and media presentation are actually not very CPU intensive. However, if you are going to use the laptop to create media (as in videos), then that is very CPU intensive.

In the link below to Notebookcheck.net, you can scroll down to the Benchmark - CPU performance section where there are benchmarks for the A10-9600p that you can check out. The X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 is basically the most intensive CPU benchmark because it involves video encoding and it stress all the cores in the CPU. The 2nd video encoding pass is more intensive than the 1st pass so that is why it is being used as a benchmark.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Bristol-Ridge-in-Review-AMDs-A10-9600P-Against-the-Competition.168477.0.html


The A10-9600P...

tonyRR

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im looking at 3 different units all failry inexpensive but not sure where to go.
2 HP
and a Lenovo
http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-pavilion---15z-laptop-%28touch-option-available%29-v0n65av-1
http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp---15t-laptop-%28touch-option-available%29-v1z72av-1

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/825512/Lenovo-IdeaPad-310-Laptop-156-Touch/
this one is a AMD A10 - http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/659532/Lenovo-ideapad-310-Laptop-156-Screen/;jsessionid=0000k2Vmne-S83ug-GS--LDhdn5:17h4h7d2r
 

aquielisunari

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I'm leaning towards the lenovo but the Pavillion is looking pretty good too. Do you have a site where you paln on buying it from. Your links are very vague in their descriptions.


Consider the Pavillion's page.


Operating system

Windows 10 Home 64

Windows 10 Home 64

Windows 10 Pro 64
Processor and graphics

AMD Dual-Core A9-9410 APU (2.9 GHz, up to 3.5 GHz, 1 MB cache) + AMD Radeon™ R5 Graphics

AMD Dual-Core A9-9410 APU (2.9 GHz, up to 3.5 GHz, 1 MB cache) + AMD Radeon™ R7 M440 Graphics (2GB DDR3 dedicated)

AMD Quad-Core A10-9600P (2.4 GHz, up to 3.3 GHz, 2 MB cache) + AMD Radeon™ R5 Graphics

AMD Quad-Core A10-9600P (2.4 GHz, up to 3.3 GHz, 2 MB cache) + AMD Radeon™ R7 M440 Graphics (4GB DDR3 dedicated)

AMD Quad-Core A12-9700P (2.5 GHz, up to 3.4 GHz, 2 MB cache) + AMD Radeon™ R7 Graphics


does the laptop have R5 or R7 graphics. Please post a link to a specific laptop. Windows 10 home or pro?
 

spdragoo

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For the HP models, I would pick the 15z over the 15t: bigger hard drive = more space to store your files, more RAM = apps will run smoother (especially on 64-bit Windows).

For the 2 Lenovo models, it's a tougher call, since both have the 1TB HD. However, for what you're going to use it for I think the larger amount of RAM for the A10 CPU will work better.
 
Well, there is only one A9 APU that I am aware of and that is the A9-9410 APU. Assuming you are comparing it to a recent / current Intel Core i3 CPU like the i3-6100u (6th gen) and i3-7100u (7th gen), I would say that both of those i3 CPU are a little more powerful than the A9-9410 APU despite it's higher clock speed. The A9 also uses more power so the potential battery life would be shorter compared to both Intel Core i3 CPUs.
 

tonyRR

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Nov 28, 2016
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tonyRR

Commendable
Nov 28, 2016
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1,510


I (obviously) know very little about any of this, but the Office Depot website offers an upgrade option for the Lenovo ideapad310:
A10-9600P
 

aquielisunari

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I'd have to go with the Lenovo with the A10. With quad cores and turbo up to 3,3GHz(turbo is automatic "overclock" that responds to the user's needs.

How much would that cost? We may be able to steer you towards a laptop with better performance.
 
General office use and media presentation are actually not very CPU intensive. However, if you are going to use the laptop to create media (as in videos), then that is very CPU intensive.

In the link below to Notebookcheck.net, you can scroll down to the Benchmark - CPU performance section where there are benchmarks for the A10-9600p that you can check out. The X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 is basically the most intensive CPU benchmark because it involves video encoding and it stress all the cores in the CPU. The 2nd video encoding pass is more intensive than the 1st pass so that is why it is being used as a benchmark.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Bristol-Ridge-in-Review-AMDs-A10-9600P-Against-the-Competition.168477.0.html


The A10-9600P manages 16.34 FPS while the Core i3-6100u manages 15.97 FPS; the more recent Core i3-7100u would score a little higher. Obviously the A10-9600P does better in this very intensive CPU benchmark. However, that is only by 2.3% for a processor that has 4 cores vs. only 2 cores (with Hyper Threading). Additionally, the A10-9600p has a max clockspeed of 3.3GHz vs. the Core i3-6100u with only a 2.3GHz clockspeed. There are other benchmarks to look at though in some cases the A10-9600P does slightly better than the i3-6100u, but in other cases the reverse is true.

AMD APUs tends to use more power than Intel CPUs even though both of these processors are stated to have a 15w TDP by their respective companies. Therefore, laptops with AMD APU tends to have shorter battery life than their Intel counterparts. That may or may not be a concern.

The need for a dedicate graphics chip (GPU) depends on exactly what you are going to do with the laptop. If it is just fore mere office work with some video presentation / power point presentation for clients / management, then a dedicated GPU is not going to be much of a benefit since integrated graphics can easily do that. If you want to play games when not in the office or during down time during business trips, then yes, a dedicated GPU does make sense.

I generally tend to lean towards laptops using Intel CPUs rather than AMD APU, unless you get an obvious advantage with an AMD APU. In this case, unless you want to play games, then go with a laptop with an Intel CPU. If you do want to play games, then definitely choose a laptop with the AMD A10-9600p APU with a dedicated GPU, because the Intel HD 520 integrated graphics core is a little more powerful than the AMD Radeon R5 (Carrizo) integrated graphics core.
 
Solution

edit1754

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Honestly I wouldn't get either of these laptops. Their 15.6" 1366x768 TN displays don't let you fit much onscreen, and have very poor contrast + colors + viewing angles. The display is one of the most central components to a laptop, and differences between different displays tend to have a pretty big impact on how nice the computer is to use. I think you're far better off worrying about what display you get versus what processor the laptop has, as most of today's processors are plenty fast enough to do most normal things someone would do with a computer, whereas these lower-end 1366x768 TN displays are actually rather bad.

Can you go $399? If so, I would recommend the Dell i5559 through the current Microsoft Store deal. This specific listing: https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-Inspiron-15-i5559-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.333089700

Has a significantly better 15.6" 1920x1080 IPS display. The 1920x1080 resolution increases the amount of windows you can fit onscreen, and the contrast + colors + viewing angles are all much better on this display too.

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Alternatively there is the Lenovo Thinkpad E570. Also available with a 1920x1080 IPS display, but trades touchscreen, i5, and disk space for better build quality and a (presumably) nicer keyboard: https://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop/comments/5fewg9/15in_usa_500ish_looking_for_a_laptop_for_my_mom/dajs844/

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Alternatively again, grab either the HP 15t or 15z laptop you're looking at, and pick the 1920x1080 IPS display upgrade on the configuration page. Pick this upgrade first before you decide what other upgrades you might be able to fit in your budget, as the screen will make more of a difference than them all.

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Finally, if you can't go over $329, get this Acer: https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i3-7100U-Windows-E5-575-33BM/dp/B01K1IO3QW

The display is not IPS so the quality isn't great, but you still get the 1920x1080 resolution versus 1366x768, so you're not so limited as to how much you can fit on your screen.