Intel Core i3-3110M & Intel HD Graphics/Nvidia GT 820M vs AMD A8-5550M & Radeon HD 8550G + 8670M

hatsamshuz

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May 18, 2014
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Hey guys, so I'm currently stuck between two choices for a laptop that I'll be using for both school and casual gaming on the weekends and free time. I'm not expecting to play the modern games such as BF4, CoD Ghosts, Crysis 3, NFS Rivals, AC 4, etc. at ultra settings and full resolution, low-medium settings and no AA at 720p will do. Anyway, here are the choices:

First Option:
$620 ASUS X550DP (http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/X550DP/overview/)
AMD A8-5550M (quad core, 2.1 ghz to 3.1 ghz on turbo clock mode, 4 mb cache)
2 GB 1600 mhz DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 8550G + 8670M
500 GB 5400 RPM HDD

Second Option:
$580 HP Pavilion 14 D004TX (http://www8.hp.com/ph/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=6737637#!tab=specs)
Intel Core i3-3110m (dual core, 2.40 ghz, 3 mb cache)
2 GB 1600mhz DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GT 820M 1GB DDR3
500 GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD

I did my homework and I understand that unlike the HP system running Intel and Nvidia components, the Asus X550DP uses an APU system so that means I'll have to get 6-8 GBs of the fastest DDR3 RAM I can get to run the the processor and the GPU to its best performance during gameplay. However, one thing that bothers me is the mediocre reviews of the the 8550g on the internet and low , but I still believe that increasing ram will enable it to do much better compared to both itself and the GT 820M. I'm leaning on the ASUS X550DP since it has a bigger screen, has an integrated numpad, and just looks a lot better than the HP. But in terms of bang for buck, which of these two should I purchase?

Help will be very much appreciated.:)
 
Solution
Are those your only options? Both laptops are limited by their hardware to 720p low-mid gaming on many modern games. First, both Core i3-3110M and A8-5550M CPUs have almost the same performance, so they are out of the comparative.

The HP laptop: Intel CPUs and nVidia GPUs are usually more energy efficient than AMD's ones, so with the HP you may expect longer battery life (if the battery capacity of both laptops is the same). The GT820M is almost head to head with the HD8550G (the iGPU in the A8 APU), but the HD8550G wins in more cases (if it has the right hardware installed).

The Asus laptop: dual graphics (HD8550G + HD8670M) in most cases performs worse than using any of the two GPUs individually. Actually, the HD8550G by its own is...

Maxime506

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Apr 22, 2013
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Try this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231521, CPU A10-5750M is a little better than i3-3110m and the integrated graphic is better than 8550G (8650G has more shaders and higher graphic core freq), yeah, and the memory is already 8GB which should be 2*4GB and dual channel memory is ensured. integrate graphics depends heavily on system memory speed.

According to my friends experience (He has older A6-3400M and HD 6650M graphics and he could play Crysis 3 and BF4 in medium-high settings) u could be much better off
 

hatsamshuz

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May 18, 2014
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Thanks for the reply Max!:)
It seems like a really good deal, but unfortunately I can't order laptops from online stores like newegg and moreover finding a laptop like that which would be sold at a MUCH higher price as I live in the Philippines. Online stores here aren't very extensive with the products. But there was this one other laptop that in the store that ran a GT 740M, but that's pretty much all I remember, and it had A $1000 TAG. So yeah, I'm pretty much stuck between the two. Another question though, what frequency of and how much ram should I get if I go with the ASUS? And how much RAM did your friend with the A6 APU have?
 

hatsamshuz

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May 18, 2014
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And I forgot to mention, oddly the info on the actual store described the X550DP to have 4GB ram and an HD 8750M, unlike what ASUS's website describes. From what I've read around the internet, very few laptops are compatible with graphics replacements, but maybe the store guys just accidentally wrote the wrong stuff thouugh the ram could be actually real.
 

Brunostako

Honorable
Are those your only options? Both laptops are limited by their hardware to 720p low-mid gaming on many modern games. First, both Core i3-3110M and A8-5550M CPUs have almost the same performance, so they are out of the comparative.

The HP laptop: Intel CPUs and nVidia GPUs are usually more energy efficient than AMD's ones, so with the HP you may expect longer battery life (if the battery capacity of both laptops is the same). The GT820M is almost head to head with the HD8550G (the iGPU in the A8 APU), but the HD8550G wins in more cases (if it has the right hardware installed).

The Asus laptop: dual graphics (HD8550G + HD8670M) in most cases performs worse than using any of the two GPUs individually. Actually, the HD8550G by its own is more capable than the HD8670M or the GT820M. You may want to disable the HD8670M so you don't loose performance, you can configure that manually. Also, you should get more RAM with higher frequency (dual channel is mandatory, at least 2 x 2GB) to make the HD8550G perform as wanted (the HD8670M has its own dedicated RAM, 2GB 2000MHz GDDR3). By default, the A8 APU is limited to 1600MHz, but if you install 1866MHz RAM, i think you can set the frequency and timing manually so they work at its maximum rated frequency. Also, i think the A8-5550M allows some overclocking, but it's not recommended on laptops.

I say: look for an APU only laptop (A8 or A10) with no dedicated graphics (usually they're cheaper) and spend the rest of your money a good 1600MHz dual channel RAM kit (4GB kit at least, 8GB Kit ideal). This way you just have to install the RAM and start working and/or playing.

Conclusion: From the Asus laptop you could get a bit more juice (even Titanfall maybe playable), but if you're not willing to do all these tricky stuff i mentioned, go with the HP. With the HP no manual configurations are needed, also no need for additional RAM (the GT820 also has its own dedicated RAM, 1GB 1800MHz GDDR3).

Saludos desde México

P.D.
As an extra, get an SSD.
 
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