I7 720qm + Radeon Mobility 5730 vs A10 4600M vs (Wait for Kaveri)

[A Bad Day]

I am planning on purchasing a new laptop next year in the summer for college, and a little bit of gaming if I had the free time. I do not care about battery life if I'm gaming, because I will most likely setup a cooling platform for the laptop in my dorm. My current N61Jq laptop still can handle games I throw at it, but it's a bulky 17' laptop. I prefer a 15' and/or lighter laptop.

The N61Jq often heats up close to 90 C under load unless if I take off the back panel (which then only reaches high 60 C, even when the GPU is OC'ed). I suppose I could simply use tape to hold the back panel to the bottom of the laptop instead of screws so when I do want to game in my dorm, I could easily take off the panel. The i7 processor can only be OC'ed by BCLK, and only one software can adjust the BCLK on the laptop, for a price.

Should I get the A10? Or should I wait for AMD to release the Kaveri APU and spend at least a few weeks/months carrying around the N61Jq?

 

[nbelote]

You wouldn't be disappointed with the A10 in comparison to the 720QM, it should be a lot better, theoretically (I haven't seen one in action yet). The 7660g isn't too far below the 5730m that you currently have.

 

[A Bad Day]

Notebookcheck placed the 7660G in the upper Class 3 GPU, and the 5730 in the mid Class 2. The high end desktop GPUs are in Class 1 as an comparison: http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7660G.69830.0.html


As for the CPU comparison, I recall reading that the i7 720qm is faster than the A10's CPU. Though I don't think they took OCing in account, so I'm not sure.

 

[nbelote]

Quick question: what's your price cap?

 

[A Bad Day]

$700-$1000, minimal resolution is 720p, and min screen size is 14'. I would prefer if the A10 laptop allows at least RAM OCing (if the mobile Trinity supports +1600 MHz), though preferably voltage adjustments and GPU OCing.

 

[nbelote]

$700-$1000, minimal resolution is 720p, and min screen size is 14'. I would prefer if the A10 laptop allows at least RAM OCing (if the mobile Trinity supports +1600 MHz), though preferably voltage adjustments and GPU OCing.

Why don't you look at the Lenovo Y580? It fits the requirements to a T and the 660M will totally spank that 5730M's performance. The Y480 is a little less powerful with a 640M but its still better than what you have and lighter. The disappointing LED panel (1366x768) is the only thing I don't like about them, but without going over $1000 you can't be asking for a whole lot, though I am sure someone here can find you something real nice under that price.

 

[A Bad Day]

Currently I'm not interested in a new laptop since I'm waiting until next summer.

I just wanted to know the performance difference between two configs, and if I should wait for AMD's 2013 APUs?

 

[nbelote]

If you're waiting until next summer, the clear answer is yes wait for the next ones. Their performance will easily trump current-gen APUs.