New Laptop: SU9400/GMA 4500MHD - Fast Enough?

[psnabe]

Hi

I need a new laptop to replace my old one. The one I had – had 15.4” screen, a Intel P8400 Core 2 Duo processor, Nvidia Geforce 9600, 4 GB ram, 250 GB hard drive.

I only use my laptop at my study (programming) and when I’m away from home more than a day. At home I have a regular PC. I was thinking about getting a smaller lighter laptop – it should be able to run these programs:

Microsoft Office
Eclipse
Visual Paradigm
Visual Basic
SQL Server
Adobe Photoshop

And have a VGA outlet

I was looking at a laptop having a Intel SU9400 processor, integrated graphic Intel GMA 4500MHD and 4 GB ram.
But I cannot figure out if it is powerful enough – any thoughts about this?

 

[r_manic]

Yes it is, though you may have some trouble doing intensive stuff in VB and PS. Just try to get as much RAM as you did with your old one, and think you'll be fine. None of the apps you've mentioned require GPU power anyway, and for most tasks, the 4500MHD will do just fine.

 

[psnabe]

Cannot seem to figure out if the SU9400 processor is much slower than the one I have now.

 

[frozenlead]

In intensive applications it will be a lot slower.

 

[psnabe]

Have also been looking at one with Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 / Intel GMA 4500MHD / PCI

Perhaps I would be more satisfied with this one.

 

[psnabe]

But I really like the idea about a lightweight laptop.

How do you define an intensive applications??

 

[lostandwandering]

Cannot seem to figure out if the SU9400 processor is much slower than the one I have now.

Yes it is. The SU9400 is a low voltage CPU that will run at much lower speeds than your P8400. 1.4ghz vs 2.26 (SU9400 vs P8400). If you run programs that need more processing power, the SU9400 will be a disappointment.

You can get a laptop with a 14.1'' or 13.3'' screen that still have strong CPUs. The Dell Studio 14z only weighs 4.3lbs and can be configured with a 2.2ghz T6600 for about $750. The XPS M1330 is a little lighter, but will cost a little bit more, closer to $900 when configured. There isn't much of a need to sacrifice power for weight.

 

[eliil1]

In intensive applications it will be a lot slower.

and why is that? I mean as I far as I understood it can deal with apps. like P-SHOP perfectly. As a matter of fact the only limitation in p-shop for example will be the graphics card, and even that is not really a problem. 4500mhd can deal with p-shop and lots of other apps just fine.

If you're planning on playing some games -yes , the SU9400 will be a HUGE disappointment , but otherwise, it will do just fine. Moreover ,all the programs mentioned below don't require a fast CPU.
Not to mention that it consumes only 10 watt!!! while ur old P8XXX consumed about 25-30 watt.


I'm planning to buy 5810T very soon myself, and I use apps. like p-shop , MODO 401 , and programming languages for university (studying software engineering).

 

[frozenlead]

and why is that? I mean as I far as I understood it can deal with apps. like P-SHOP perfectly. As a matter of fact the only limitation in p-shop for example will be the graphics card, and even that is not really a problem. 4500mhd can deal with p-shop and lots of other apps just fine.

lostandwandering answered this already:

Yes it is. The SU9400 is a low voltage CPU that will run at much lower speeds than your P8400. 1.4ghz vs 2.26 (SU9400 vs P8400). If you run programs that need more processing power, the SU9400 will be a disappointment.

Photoshop isn't exactly the most intensive program, and the amount of processing power it requires varies on the types of photos you're working on. I will say though, when you get into heavy compiling of longer programs, the low-voltage SU9400 will show it's weakness compared to a higher-power CPU.

 

[eliil1]

I wasn't talking about photoshop specifically , I was talking about the programs he mentioned , and most of the apps , whic I asure u will work fine under su9400.
I do agree that for programs like MODO 401 for example, there will be some difficulties for su9400, but even P8600 will have them(less , but still...)

About the speeds, the su9400 compensates with the L2 3m cache. so this su9400 1.4ghz will be equal to a c2d 1.8-2ghz.

In conclusion , for these programs :

Microsoft Office
Eclipse
Visual Paradigm
Visual Basic
SQL Server
Adobe Photoshop

The su9400 will do perfectly!

For more intensive programs , you might wanna consider a bit stronger processor.
Though in opinion , for intensive programs or gaming it's better to have a regular computer , with some Q9550/Q6600/E8400/E7400 + hd4770 CF .
and for other uses : a light laptop , with a good battery life and quality. like the 5810T.

 

[tankrad]

i would like to know if this processor is able to handle like video conversion.
as i tend to convert loads of my videos.
so its really the dealbreaker now.
as i read from somewhere, the timing difference with other processors like the p8600 is really big. from what i could remember it says a 5 minute video would take 22 mins to convert on the su9400 wherelse on other processors it takes mere seconds.

very confused.



need help.

 

[frozenlead]

the SU9400 is a low-voltage processor with battery life in mind more than performance. It is not suitable for any serious workload. It will convert videos, but will do so so slowly, you might want to just throw your notebook at the wall. This processor is made for notebooks that are thin and light with batteries that last 8 or so hours - and it is made to load an OS, browse the web, and check email. Little more than that.

 

[math1337]

if you need video compression, the one with an ati graphics chip will do much better

 

[dalphinus]

I'm planning to get a timeline 4810TG.
Below are the spec:

- Intel Core 2 Duo processor SU9400 (equal to 1.9GHz C2D??)
- Mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset
- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 with Switchable Graphics Technology
- 2GB DDR3 RAM

With what u guys mentioned earlier, is this unit with a ATI card 512Mb dedicated help a lot on the graphic processing side?


What's the significant difference between a single core & dual core processor?
Any lively example to share?

 

[kcll]

Is Stocks Charting applications considered "Intensive" application mentioned in this discussion? I'm also considering a SU9400 laptop with >= 15"screen. Thanks.

 

[InformativeDude]

My main problem is we have OUR own set of games we know members of the household like to play and whenever we want to look at a new computer we have to start wondering and searching for user reviews to find out if it will have enough graphics power to run our games. We don't just play games obviously but if it has power to run Windows or Excel is a question for an earlier era. Almost all present day systems do everything else fine it is always some game that cannot be played on some laptop that leaves us feeling sad like trying to play World of Warcraft on a Dell Inspiron 1525 or dare we try to boot up Borderlands on lowest settings and watch the poor thing grunt and whew. I was actually impressed that it would load up borderlands at all. We had a couple of desktops that wouldn't even load it and the Dell laptop actually gets into the game albeit unplayably laggy and slow.

So my answer is a question, why don't we users have more ways to know if OUR games will run on YOUR systems prior to buying them? Seems a reasonable request from potential consumers and it is normally what puts me off for months years or forever in some cases. We don't want another computer that can't play A, B & C. Right?

 

[buwish]

This topic has been closed by Buwish