Which of these 2 laptops should i get? Liano vs Trinity?

[kebbz]

Hey guys, first off, im actually new here so yeah.
I need help deciding on these 2 laptops. I'm on a tight budget.

Laptop 1. HP G4.

Processor : AMD A8-3500M QUAD CORE LIANO APU @1.5- 2.4GHZ
Graphics: 6480G Integrated + 6470M DEDICATED 1GB (with Dual Graphics)

Laptop 2 HP PROBOOK
Processor: AMD A8-4500M QUAD CORE TRINITY APU @1.9- 2.8GHZ
Graphics: AMD RADEON 7640G Integrated only.

I really can't decide on either 2. Based on my research, Dual Graphics with the Dedicated Gpu boosts performance by only a little? The Trinity on the other hand offers more power than Liano (seen in benchmarks) but it doesnt have a dedicated gpu.

Another thing thats confusing me is this, based on Notebookcheck's Mobile Graphics card ranking list, the A8 Trinity's IGPU alone beats the 6480G + 7450M(Dual Graphics) in benchmarks and ranking. Also, the trinity laptop is much cheaper than the G4.

Does this mean that if i get the HP probook, i'll get the performance of a Crossfired / Dual graphics HP G4 while only having an integrated gpu?

I'm aiming on running modern games like Crysis 2 and battlefield 3 on Low to medium Settings.
Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3 has been tested on a Liano Dual core(A4-3300m) with no problems in low settings.

Any help appreciated.

Here are the rankings of both the APU and the Graphics Cards from notebookcheck.

LIANO:
A8-3500M - #161 (cpu ranking)
Radeon HD 6480g - #250 (Graphics card ranking)
Radeonn HD 6470M - #234 (Graphics card ranking)
Radeon HD 7450m - #232
Radeon HD 6480g +7450m dual graphics mode - #204


TRINITY:
A8-4500M - #157 (cpu ranking)
Radeon HD 7640G - #161 (Grahpics card ranking)

Trinity Apu also beats the A8 3500m slightly in majority of the benchmarks.
Which laptop gonna give me the performance i need?

 

[joecole1572]

What is your budget?

If you want to play modern games, even on low settings, I would suggest of dedicated gpu of at least an AMD 7730M. You can get one of those in a pavilion dv6z-7000 series. That laptop also has a trinity APU (you can choose between the A6, A8, or A10.) You can't get dual graphics between an APU and the 7730M, but as you said, the performance difference is minimal with crossfire.

Here is what I suggest:

Customize the pavilion dv6z-7000 on the hp website. http/www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/A3H21AV?HP-Pavilion-dv6z-7000-Entertainment-Notebook-PC

-give it an A10 CPU and a 7730M gpu
-add other things so the cost is $1000
-use the coupon code NBY8552 to take 30% your $1000 purchase.
-BAM, you get a great laptop with a reasonable cost

If that is out of your budget, or you really want a different laptop, I still can't emphasize how much you will want an AMD 7730M or an Nvidia Geforce 630M in your laptop.

Edit- That coupon works for 30% off any purchase over $1000. It expires on 8/4/2012

 

[joecole1572]

Also, to answer your original question, I think the llano laptop would be worse at gaming compared to the trinity one. The 6450 GPU isn't aimed towards 3D game performance, so I don't the extra cost of the G4 might not translate to better game performance compared to the trinity one.

If those were my only two choices, I would go with the pro-book

 

[edit1754]

If you're going to buy the HP DV6z, then I would suggest buying it in a configuration similar to the following:

HP DV6z (A10-4600M, AMD Radeon 7730M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte IPS display) - $699 + tax
- http/www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/load_configuration.do?destination=review&config_id=7371300
- Use coupon code: NBY8552
- Don't: Downgrade to the 1366x768 display, unless you need the large text. You generally shouldn't buy the HP DV6 in any configuration that includes the 1366x768 display. 15.6" 1366x768 displays make things onscreen large, and tend to be low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast.
- Don't: Downgrade the GPU to the Radeon 7670M unless you only plan on doing light / moderate gaming. The GT 7730M is a fair bit faster. the 7670M does supports crossfire with the integrated GPU, but drivers for this are buggy.
- Don't: Downgrade the GPU to integrated graphics unless you only plan on doing very light / no gaming.
- This configuration includes the backlit keyboard. I included this upgrade in the configuration because it is a popular upgrade and it brought the cost up just enough for the coupon code to work. Feel free to trade this out for something else.
- This configuration includes the AMD A10-4600M CPU. Downgrading to the A8-4500M probably won't yield too many performance drawbacks, but I am unsure about the A6. Benchmarks for these AMD CPUs are inconsistent.
- Consider: Larger/faster HDD.

Or, consider the DV6t like so:

HP DV6t (i3-3110M, NVIDIA GT 650M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte IPS display) - $724 + tax ($769 + tax w/ i5-3210M)
- http/www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/load_configuration.do?destination=review&config_id=7367534
- Use coupon code: NBY8552
- Don't: Downgrade to the 1366x768 display, unless you need the large text. You generally shouldn't buy the HP DV6 in any configuration that includes the 1366x768 display. 15.6" 1366x768 displays make things onscreen large, and tend to be low-tier LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast.
- Don't: Downgrade the GPU to the GT 630M unless you only plan on doing light / moderate gaming. The GT 650M is considerably faster.
- Don't: Downgrade the GPU to integrated graphics unless you only plan on doing very light / no gaming. Integrated graphics will probably provide disappointing game performance in the majority of modern titles.
- Consider: Backlit keyboard, Larger/faster HDD.

 

[kebbz]

What is your budget?

If you want to play modern games, even on low settings, I would suggest of dedicated gpu of at least an AMD 7730M. You can get one of those in a pavilion dv6z-7000 series. That laptop also has a trinity APU (you can choose between the A6, A8, or A10.) You can't get dual graphics between an APU and the 7730M, but as you said, the performance difference is minimal with crossfire.

Here is what I suggest:

Customize the pavilion dv6z-7000 on the hp website. http/www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/A3H21AV?HP-Pavilion-dv6z-7000-Entertainment-Notebook-PC

-give it an A10 CPU and a 7730M gpu
-add other things so the cost is $1000
-use the coupon code NBY8552 to take 30% your $1000 purchase.
-BAM, you get a great laptop with a reasonable cost

If that is out of your budget, or you really want a different laptop, I still can't emphasize how much you will want an AMD 7730M or an Nvidia Geforce 630M in your laptop.

Edit- That coupon works for 30% off any purchase over $1000. It expires on 8/4/2012

Unfortunately the dv6z 7000 with the A10 apu and the 7730 GPU is not available in my country So i only have these 2 choices stated.

 

[joecole1572]

Unfortunately the dv6z 7000 with the A10 apu and the 7730 GPU is not available in my country So i only have these 2 choices stated.

That is unfortunate.

As I said earlier, go for the pro-book. The trinity laptop will give you better gaming performance over the llano with the gpu.

 

[kebbz]

That is unfortunate.

As I said earlier, go for the pro-book. The trinity laptop will give you better gaming performance over the llano with the gpu.

Hey man i made a mistake with the specs. The amd A8 liano has a 6620G gpu. NOT a 6480g.
So its gonna be a 6620g + 6470m. Should i still go for the probook?

 

[joecole1572]

Hey man i made a mistake with the specs. The amd A8 liano has a 6620G gpu. NOT a 6480g.
So its gonna be a 6620g + 6470m. Should i still go for the probook?

I am still voting for the probook.

According to AMD:
6620g + 6470m = 6640G2 (source)
while the trinity A8 has a 7640G igpu.

I know these model numbers aren't perfect performance benchmarks, but I think the cheaper probook will be better. Basically, it looks like the trinity is effectively the same class as the dual graphics (x640) but one generation higher (7xxx vs. 6xxx).

Another thing to note. Crossfire graphics (or dual graphics or hybrid graphics, they all mean the same thing) suffers from microstuttering, which makes games running at 30 frames per second still seem laggy. So even if (and that is a big if) the dual graphics book and the trinity book run the same game at the same fps, the dual graphics can still make the game look like it is running worse!

I also have some literature that you may find interesting.

This site does not have any benchmarks, but it does state that:

The performance of the Radeon HD 6640G2 depends greatly on the driver support for the used games. In some games the performance may even degrade by 10-15% compared to using only the APU graphics card

This site has some gaming benchmarks for the trinity A8

Hope those help in your decision!

tl;dr the probook is still better

 

[joecole1572]

Just out of curiosity, can you post the full model # for each laptop. If you don't know them, can you post the full systems specs. I am mostly interested in the RAM modules on each laptop, but other info also interests me.

 

[kebbz]

Just out of curiosity, can you post the full model # for each laptop. If you don't know them, can you post the full systems specs. I am mostly interested in the RAM modules on each laptop, but other info also interests me.

The full specs of the probook is here:
http/h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=125&prodSeriesId=5229468&prodTypeId=321957&objectID=c03351860

The full specs of the HP g4 is here:
http/www.accentmicro.ph/shop/hp-g4-1204ax/

Here's another benchmark thats really confused me about choosing either the trinity or the liano A8's.
In this site, the a8 3500m apu alone beats the Trinity a8-4500m in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (A game that i would definitely play).

heres the site: http/www.computerbase.de/artikel/notebooks/2012/bericht-amd-a8-4500m-trinity/16/

 

[joecole1572]

Here's another benchmark thats really confused me about choosing either the trinity or the liano A8's.
In this site, the a8 3500m apu alone beats the Trinity a8-4500m in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (A game that i would definitely play).

heres the site: http/www.computerbase.de/artikel/notebooks/2012/bericht-amd-a8-4500m-trinity/16/

I could not track down the full specs of the notebooks that they used for testing so I really don't know what other factors come into play.

To be honest, I still find it extremely difficult to believe that any of those two machines can play Battlefield 3. That game has terrible scalability and will not perform on low end machines, even with the settings set to low. Crysis 2 is better, but it will still be a push to run that game on those machines. What happens in two years? Newer games will have higher requirements that will leave your computer unable to render the first frame.


I still stand by the probook option. It has faster ram than the g4 so you might feel a performance boost in that regard.

How long do you want this laptop to last?

If you can tell us your budget and where you are from, we might be able to find you a better option. Gaming on a laptop is expensive, and since parts are not replaceable, you can't distribute the spending over time. It