I3 2310m vs i5 460m

EddyCJ

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Should I buy an i3 2310m sandy bridge with hd 3000, or an i5 460m with an nvidia 310m? With a quick google I find that they should be similar performance.
 
Hello EddyCJ;


You're right. Intel HD 3000 graphics and Nvidia 310M are close enough to not notice the difference.
Nearly same for the CPUs. That 2.1Ghz i3-2310M has about a 15% "Sandy Bridge advantage" over the first gen i3/i5 CPUs like the i5-460M. That works out to be about 2.4Ghz vs i5-460M @ 2.53Ghz (turbo mode - single core to 2.8Ghz).

What are you going to be doing with the laptop?
 

EddyCJ

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Well, I'm looking at the Acer Aspire TimelineX 4830t, it has a theoretical 9 hours battery life, hoping for a real world of 5 - which is good for me because I'm a student, and a day of college without a charger would be great!

The i5 laptop would be the Samsung QX410, it has shorter battery life, so if the performance is similar, I would go with the longer battery life.

To be honest, since I don't edit videos beyond casually, or music, or use Photoshop, I assume they both match my needs CPU-wise. And my budget doesn't stretch to a decent gaming laptop, but would I be able to play casual games such as Minecraft? And would newer games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 be playable on the lowest quality settings? This isn't a deal breaker

I came to this forum because I couldn't find any articles for the HD 3000 graphics on the i3 processors, only the i5, so any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.
 

It will be really close to that 9 hour rating in classroom note taking mode with the Wifi shut down. With WiFi you're still looking at close to 8 hours, mostly thanks to the 6-cell Lithium-Ion 6000 mAh battery. Mostly batteries run in the 4400-4800 range.
 

EddyCJ

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Nice, thank you, but do you have any idea of the real world HD 3000 Graphics performance on the i3?

And both processors would be able to handle multitasking many browser windows, word documents, and music things?
 

EddyCJ

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3830 TG would be perfect - lightweight, fast, goodish graphics, long battery life, but I live in the UK, where it's not available. But I guess I'll give it until the new academic year is about to start, then see if it's been launched yet. Thank you!
 

EddyCJ

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I will! you've been very helpful, thank you. if i can order from america, then my budget stretches further too. Thank you :)