Turion X2 Vs. Core Duo (NOT Core *2*)

[darkstar782]

I'm looking at a laptop, and have narrowed it down to two very similar ones.

One is based on a Turion X2 TL-60, 2.0GHz per core, with a Mobility Radeon x1150 chipset (from what I understand, an x300 with a 4 pipeline layout, 400MHz clock, and using system RAM).

The other is based on a Core Duo T2300, 1.66GHz per core, with a Geforce GO 7300 gpu, (from what I understand, also 4 pipes, clocked in this case at 375MHz, also using system RAM. But @90nm rather than 130nm I'm confident I can get it to hit the same clock as the AMD system - I'm not choosing on Gfx here.)

I get the Core 2's are fast, I have one in my desktop. Clock for clock Core 2 is supposed to be ~15% faster than Core, and the T2300 here is clocked alot slower.....


Both laptops are around the same price (the Intel one is slightly cheaper but has half the RAM, its the same price after I have upgraded that), Which sounds the better bet?

 

[darkstar782]

Having examined the specs, it seems the Intel one doesn't use system RAM for the gfx card, which pretty much has me convinced, especially as I should be able to just drop in a Merom/Core 2 Duo later...

 

[gOJDO]

Although Core is little faster than K8, clock for clock, the TurionX2 is superior with its 20% advantage of clock speed. The Turion X2 2GHz is faster than the Core T2300 for everything. Also it is a 64bit CPU, while the Core is a 32bit.
The only reason to go after the T2300 is the energy eficiency, especialy if it is in Centrino platform.
So if I was you, I would buy the TurionX2 TL-60.

 

[Heyyou27]

If those are your only two choices, I'd go for the AMD system.

 

[evilr00t]

Although Core is little faster than K8, clock for clock, the TurionX2 is superior with its 20% advantage of clock speed. The Turion X2 2GHz is faster than the Core T2300 for everything. Also it is a 64bit CPU, while the Core is a 32bit.
The only reason to go after the T2300 is the energy eficiency, especialy if it is in Centrino platform.
So if I was you, I would buy the TurionX2 TL-60.

I would go for the Intel system simply because it has discrete graphics.

7300 GO from what I know is a DISCRETE video card, no system RAM finagling.

EDIT: I see, OP doesn't care about graphics. Then, the AMD system would be faster.

 

[apt403]

Yeah, the intel unit has a slightly better gfx card, but if you dont care about gaming then i would go with the amd system.

 

[darkstar782]

I do kinda care about gfx, but I hadn't realised in my first post that the 7300 was not using system RAM. The info I have on it shows it having "TurboCache", but without this it does have 64MB of its own RAM.

I figure the Gfx are going to be pretty shite either way, neither of these are going to be playing Oblivion :/

I'm veering towards the Intel now, mainly because I should just be able to drop in a S479 Core 2 Duo at a later date right? (these laptop makers never give us CPU compatibility lists, but the Core Duo system is a Lenovo N100, and others in the range use Core 2 Duo, although not the 4MB cache ones, so I'm hoping that its a safe bet the motherboard is compatible....)

I have my main desktop PC, an e6700@ 3.6GHz, 8800GTX@ 645/2100, for gaming. Hell I have my old D805 with a 7900GT at home as a spare, The point of this laptop is mainly to have something to play about with while I'm visiting parents etc. It will basically be web/email/VoIP, file transfer (going to use a 400GB drive I have spare in a firewire enclosure), maybe some MPEG2 encoding, and some low end gaming.

The low end gaming would be playing games multiplayer with my little brother however, and as he only has my old Athlon XP 2600 and a GeForce 5950U, we wont exactly be playing Doom3, more like Sword of the Stars, Galactic Civilisations 2, maybe NWN1.