How much better are the 2nd gen i5 compared to the Llano A8/A6?

abc617

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So I know that the i5-2410m (or any of the 2nd gen i5) are currently better than the Llano A6-3400m and the A8-3500m processors. I just want to know HOW much better. I know there are benchmark program scores and numbers, but it'd help me decide whether or not the i5's are worth the extra money compared to the A6/A8's if I know like some real time comparisons. Like what are some applications/times that would be much more noticeable if I compare to two? Stuff like application, startup, shutdown, load times? Is there a significant difference between these two, or is it all Intel-fan boy hype?


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Some additional info if you must know (skip if you don't want/need to know this in answer the above question):
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Just looking for a new laptop to replace this Acer laptop that is dying. (I'll be going for Lenovo and Asus brands since they're reliable).

I mostly plan on doing the typical student stuff (MS Office, web browsing, HD movies, and the occasional). Although I may do some engineering simulations and stuff like that, so obviously the i5 and the AMD Llano both have their pros here (i5 is faster, but the Llano processors have the Radeon graphics, which is good for the image processing/rendering)

Right now the most graphic intense game I'll probably play is L4D2. I don't plan on gaming too much.

RAM/Memory isn't a major concern form me (since I can always upgrade this stuff). I find I don't like bringing my laptop to places a lot anyways, so battery life isn't a major concern for me.

Overall, I'm just looking for something that won't be TOO obsolete in the next couple of years and something that will last and is reliable in terms of hardware
 

abc617

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So is it safe to say that for the typical consumer (and maybe light gamer) that there will be little noticeable comparison in terms of processing power between the Sandy Bridge and the Llano processors. Although the gamer would probably lean towards the AMD b/c of the discrete graphics I mean these sites run all these benchmark tests that give numbers and scores, but I feel like they dont really describe how well they perform in real-world applications
 

dudewitbow

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you are aware that sites dont only do gaming tests. they also do statistics on power consumption on load, idle, encoding time and simulation benchmarks as well, which are 100% real-world
 
They do accurately describe the differences in real world applications.
That doesn't mean they're easy for the typical consumer to understand.

"in terms of processing power between the Sandy Bridge and the Llano processors"
Is that is your only concern, then yes, the typical consumer would notice the difference in CPU performance, especially in single threaded applications.

 

Wisecracker

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Welllllllll . . . .

That's kinda highly subjective.

If you spend all your time running benchmarks, then, sure.

But for simply doing stuff, not really.

It's the 'snappy' debate all over again :lol:


edit: And a $60 SSD kills that :D





 

crisan_tiberiu

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CPU wise : probably arround +30% for intel.
iGPU wise: arround +30 +40% for AMD.
So if you dont plan to add a dedicated video card for your system then go AMD. If you plan to add a dedicated card to your sistem then go intel.
 

cbrunnem

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this is like a car debate. sports car vs economy car.

me personally would like to get done faster at the expense of money/graphics.

some would rather get the luxury though of a better integrate gpu.


so OP do you want power or luxury?
 

mitunchidamparam

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If you really want to buy a APU , i would say wait for the Trinity which is going to be released on May 15 and it is shown to have 10-20% better CPu perfomance and 40% better GPU, so if you have time wait for it or if you want one now ask yourself what you need a good CPU or a good GPU.
 

cbrunnem

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if an intel cpu has a performance of 10 on a 1-10 scale that would put an amd at around 7. 30% increase would still only put it at 9.1 out of 10. that is until intel releases something else then it gets put back down to 7ish.

 

mitunchidamparam

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The next release of intel will take more than a year, and it is a whole new architechture and it could be reduced perfomance like the buldozer, any new architecture always have drawbacks, Sandy bridge was a improvemnt and Ivybridge was the same, in core i series, Phenom 2 was fasr better than phenom 1, so ya, i think if he can wait 2 more weeks and see how well the Trinity APu perform, he can make a decision then, at that time the present APU will also reduce in price.
This is like a game no one knows who is going to win, because there is no end.
 

Wisecracker

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Not really.

A Vantec External Hard Drive/SSD Enclosure is $8. I think WallyWorld has 'em for a buck less. Really nice USB3 external enclosures that sustain 100MB/s+ are $20, Mr Rockefeller :lol: . I doubt the original 5400rpm drive will go there from an I/O standpoint, but it's a nice place to start

AMD or Intel -- doesn't matter. Nothing beats SSD snappy for Win boot, menus, program launches, etc., and that's essentially the OP's question. Price being equal I'll take a hard look at what I can get to pop in an SSD, and may even save some $$, even with clone software included. It simply makes that big a difference.

I tend to look at it from a features standpoint, and that's where AMD sometimes gets screwed. They are getting more (and better) connectivity, though. Hopefully, Trinity will bust that open, too.

Prices are really trending down with Trinity/Ivy arriving soon -- the longer the OP holds out, the better. There could easily be $50+ price drops and 'sweet deals' over the next month.




 

palladin9479

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I happen to have a HP DV6qze with the A8-3550MX and I can safely say it rocks.

You can get one for about $600 USD or less depending what other options you added on.

dv6z Quad Ed
• dark umber
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Quad-Core A8-3550MX Accelerated Processor (2.7GHz/2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
• 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE UPGRADE to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE UPGRADE to 640GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
• No additional security software
• High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 15.6" Full HD HP Anti-glare LED (1920 x 1080)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN
• Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Price


The 1920x1080 screen is +$150, the 7690M is another +$75 and the high capacity 6-cell was another $20. Take off those options and you get $544.99 for the above.

The APU's are about getting a capable system for dirt cheap, I've run some benchmarks on my GF's DV6 3530MX w/o dGPU (yes I bought two, one for her and one for myself) and the things more then capable of doing whatever you want to with it.
Big recommendation from me.

Also if you want to be geeky, using K10stat and playing with core affinity I can get much better "single threaded" numbers then most sites post. The 3550MX can push 2.7~2.8Ghz easily, just need to set the other three cores to 800Mhz. You could clock the whole chip to 3.0Ghz+ but the cooling solutions that come with these things don't have the cooling capacity for that.
 

palladin9479

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Also I little understanding about the mobile APUs. There are M's and MX's, the M's only support DDR3-1333 memory and the MX's support up to DDR3-1600 memory. As the on board GPU use's the system memory for graphics ram, the speed of that memory is absolutely critical to it's performance. Going from DDR3-1333 to DDR3-1600 has shown a ~10% boost across the board for all GPU related applications and as much as 15% for GPU demanding applications (games usually).

The HP-Dv6's "6GB" option is actually one stick of 2GB DDR3-1333 and one stick of DDR3-1600. I have no idea why their shipping their systems with one faster stick, but they are. This means you can go out and buy another 4GB DDR3-1600 and plop it in for an immediate performance boost. Fun fact to know.