Which one should I go with,A8-4500M or i7-2670QM ?

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stuggard

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Jan 24, 2013
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Well I have three choices for now. And, I am not able to decide which one should I go with.

The i7 one has the advantage of processor and 1 tb HD.

http://cgi.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170978282706

And in A8 I have 2 options. One with 2.5 GB Graphics and the other with 5 GB graphics. And plus point is I am getting W8 with these. Also tell me from the below two options which one will be enough for my needs. And is it okay to invest 4000 more for 4GB ram & 2.5 GB graphics ?

http://www.ebay.in/itm/NEW-HP-Pavilion-g6-2301AX-Laptop-AMD-Quad-Core-8GB-500gb-5GB-GFX-W8-1Yr-ADP-/321060466895?pt=IN_PC_Laptops&hash=item4ac0b1f0cf#ht_2878wt_1139

http://www.ebay.in/itm/NEW-HP-Pavilion-g6-2301AX-Laptop-AMD-Quad-Core-4gb-500gb-2-5Gb-GFX-W8-1Yr-ADP-/321059884921?pt=IN_PC_Laptops&hash=item4ac0a90f79#ht_2792wt_1139


Now, my needs :-

I am going to use it for hardcore gaming. And, I am expecting that the laptop support games launched in next 2-3 years with ease.
I will be using it for coding too. Will be using photoshop,matlab,cad and other softwares.

Looking forward for some replies which can clear my doubts.

Thanks in advance friends. :)


 
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First, the amount of video RAM (VRAM) is more or less meaningless. All those laptops have 1366x768 resolution screens which are quite low, but standard for low / moderately priced laptops. At that resolution the graphics chip will likely only be using around 512MB of VRAM. 1GB of VRAM is used up to a resolution of 1920x1200. Beyond 1920x1200 resolution is when 2GB of RAM starts to become useful.

The nVidia GT 520M in the laptop with the Intel Quad Core i7 "QM" CPU is rather weak compared to the dual graphics offered in the two laptops with the AMD A8 APUs. The quad core i7 CPU would be one of the more expensive components in that laptop. For playing games you should pass on this laptop. But for using CPU intensive programs this is the...
First, the amount of video RAM (VRAM) is more or less meaningless. All those laptops have 1366x768 resolution screens which are quite low, but standard for low / moderately priced laptops. At that resolution the graphics chip will likely only be using around 512MB of VRAM. 1GB of VRAM is used up to a resolution of 1920x1200. Beyond 1920x1200 resolution is when 2GB of RAM starts to become useful.

The nVidia GT 520M in the laptop with the Intel Quad Core i7 "QM" CPU is rather weak compared to the dual graphics offered in the two laptops with the AMD A8 APUs. The quad core i7 CPU would be one of the more expensive components in that laptop. For playing games you should pass on this laptop. But for using CPU intensive programs this is the laptop you want to buy.

The two HP laptops are basically the same. The only major difference is one has 4GB of RAM while the other has 8GB of RAM. My laptop has only 4GB of RAM and it is enough to play games with. Games generally do not use more than around 1.4GB of RAM. I do not know if matlab and cad works better with 8GB of RAM vs 4GB of RAM. That it something you should research.

The dual graphics Radeon HD 7640G + Radeon HD 7670M offers pretty decent performance, but the combined performance is not considered more than "merely mainstream". My laptop has a nVidia GT 550M and is powerful than the Radeon dual graphics setup.

The best settings for the GT 550m (and the Radeon dual graphics) @ 1366 x768 resolution would be medium graphic settings. I tested Crysis (original) using medium graphic settings in the 2nd chapter; "Relic". performance was pretty good I was generally able to get between 36 FPS - 45 FPS. I recall it peaked to 50 FPS, but that was once and only lasted briefly. It dipped as low as 28 FPS. Playing Crysis using high graphic settings resulted in average performance ranging between 24 FPS and 30 FPS. Performance peaked as high as 33 FPS and dipped as low a 18 FPS.

I tested other games on my laptop, but none were as graphically demanding as Crysis. It's a recent game, but it is still pretty demanding. Well, I did test out GTA 4 and it played fine, but even high end desktop graphic cards have a hard time maxing out the graphics because GTA 4 is a poorly ported console game.

Can the Radoen HD dual graphics setup last 2 or 3 years for game? Yes, as long as you can live with medium quality graphics to get good performance. Of course for some really graphics intensive games like Far Cry 3 and Metro 2033, you may need to drop down to a mix of low/medium graphic settings to get good performance.
 
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stuggard

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Jan 24, 2013
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So, it means none of these are good for gaming ? And yeah another thing is in the below link it says that the maximum supported memory for 7670M is 2 GB. Then how come he the seller is giving dedicated 5GB graphics ? And, does it matter to have this much graphics ?

I can buy 4 GB Ram afterwards for only 1000. So, I can settle down for HP 4GB ram one. But, only if it can satisfy my gaming needs.

Or, will i7 be better ?
 
The laptop maybe technically able to use up to 2GB or 3GB of system, but realistically that will never happen. System RAM is also slower than VRAM.

The GTX 520M is a much weaker graphics chip so you will get lower performance in games.

If you want to play games @ 1366x768 with high graphics settings most of the time and get good performance, then you need to look at the nVidia GTX 650M or better.
 

xXxtankzillaxXx

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It all depends on your application for the machine...If you're a heavy game I would go with the A8 due to the fact that the AMD A8 is an apu system meaning that it has radean technology built in to the CPU (CPU+GPU). If you're looking for for pure processor speed and power I would go with the down graded intel graphics with the i7 processor. In short the intel processor's thread count and multiplier is far higher than that of the AMD processors...really not even a comparison there.

And yes if you're looking for a gaming system to play games in HD you're probably going to want something geared specifically for gaming that has a powerful graphics card in it but if you're looking for a laptop that will handle most games with little lag or latency then either one will do...like I mentioned before if you're looking for something to handle games or graphic intensive software like video editing or gaming I would go with AMD considering they specialize in graphics but their processors honestly don't have the gumption of the Intel processors if you're looking for shear speed.

That't the problem with laptops is that they don't leave you much room for expanding your graphics if you decide in the future that you want more graphic capabilities. ;)
 

xXxtankzillaxXx

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Jan 24, 2013
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This has nothing to do with the above post but you seem to know a great deal about cpu systems and I posted a thread today that has gotten no replies and I was curious if you might be willing to take a look at my thread and possibly give some input or possible suggestions.

if any interest this is the link to my thread

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=63&post=67034&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
 
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