Laptop between $500 and $650

[kirilmatthew]

Hi everyone! I'm looking for a laptop for school mostly, but light gaming would be a plus (I do have a desktop though). I'm in Canada and here are my top two choices, the AMD being my number one.

Intel: http/store.acer.com/store/acerna/en_CA/pd/productID.288223800/parentCategoryID.66344400/

AMD: https/www.mikescomputershop.com/item/1328782

I would really like to know your opinions on this if possible and if be open to any suggestions if you have any! Remember I'm in Canada though! Thanks!

 

[jaguarskx]

Of the two I would be more inclined to go with the Acer laptop with the Intel i5-4200u + nVidia GT 740m.

The GT 740m is overall more powerful than the Radeon HD 8750m. The combined performance of the Radeon HD 8650g and Radeon HD 8750m in dual graphics mode might be equal to the GT 740m or it might be slightly more powerful than the Gt 740m. There are no benchmarks at all. Below is a link to the Radeon HD 8750m:

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8750M.87147.0.html

One thing to keep in mind about AMD's Dual Graphics... it only works with DX10 and DX11 games. Any games using DX9 (like Skyrim) is default to the integrated graphics core of the A10-5757m. There is nothing you can do to force the game to use the dedicated Radeon HD 8750m.

The A10 APU (2.5GHz / 3.5GHz Turbo Core) is a quad core CPU while the i5 CPU (1.6GHz / 2.6GHz Turbo Boost) is a dual core CPU with hyper threading. Games using up to 2 core the Intel Core i5 would perform better. Games that can use up to 4 core will most likely (but not 100% definitely) do better with the A10 APU.

If battery life is important, then I would say the Acer laptop with the Core i5-4200u will provide longer battery life since it uses less power.

 

[kirilmatthew]

Of the two I would be more inclined to go with the Acer laptop with the Intel i5-4200u + nVidia GT 740m.

The GT 740m is overall more powerful than the Radeon HD 8750m. The combined performance of the Radeon HD 8650g and Radeon HD 8750m in dual graphics mode might be equal to the GT 740m or it might be slightly more powerful than the Gt 740m. There are no benchmarks at all. Below is a link to the Radeon HD 8750m:

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8750M.87147.0.html

One thing to keep in mind about AMD's Dual Graphics... it only works with DX10 and DX11 games. Any games using DX9 (like Skyrim) is default to the integrated graphics core of the A10-5757m. There is nothing you can do to force the game to use the dedicated Radeon HD 8750m.

The A10 APU (2.5GHz / 3.5GHz Turbo Core) is a quad core CPU while the i5 CPU (1.6GHz / 2.6GHz Turbo Boost) is a dual core CPU with hyper threading. Games using up to 2 core the Intel Core i5 would perform better. Games that can use up to 4 core will most likely (but not 100% definitely) do better with the A10 APU.

If battery life is important, then I would say the Acer laptop with the Core i5-4200u will provide longer battery life since it uses less power.

It doesn't have dual graphics, and the 740m is a bit worse than the 8750m by the looks of it. The only positives are the battery life and CPU, but it is quite a bit more expensive.

 

[jaguarskx]

The center column ranks the GPUs. Based on that ranking order the GT 740m is better.

However, if the benchmarks you are look at tell you otherwise, then go with that information.

Based on my experience, every time I have looked at a laptop with an AMD APU and a dedicated Radeon GPU dual graphics is always present. If the Acer truly does not have dual graphics at all then I would that is a good thing because most complaints I have read about AMD laptops is the dual graphics issue.