AMD A6-3420M vs. Core i3-2330M for medical imaging?

[Augray37]

Hey guys,

I work for an electronics store and today a customer came in looking for a laptop that she could use for her job. She needed one that night, and these were the two we had in her price range. She works in a doctors office and said she needs something that's good with multi-tasking and rendering X-rays, sonograms, CT scans, etc.

So my question is, which do you think would best suit her needs? Neither CPU would have been my first choice, but it's the best we had and everyone else was closed. Is image rendering more CPU or GPU intensive?

I realize the i3-2330M CPU would be more efficient at CPU intensive tasks than the A6-3420M, but I decided that the AMD's 4 dedicated threads (vs. dual-core w/HT for i3) and better GPU (HD 6520M vs HD3000M) had the slight edge. What do you all think?

Thanks,

Augray

 

[Guest]

http://compare-processors.com/amd-a6-3420m-vs-core-i3-2330m/2158/
"The AMD A6-3420M bumps up the clock frequency by 100 MHz. This should make it better performing than many of the Core i3 Sandy Bridge processor and brings it closer to some of the Core i5 Sandy Bridge processors. "

ouch!

if you look at the clock speeds the A6 has a turbo boost past the i3 clock speed and having more cores, going faster is usually the AMD logic

but until its used head to head in the real world . .what is cheaper? :lol:

hands down the A6 does have a better igu.

 

[Augray37]

if you look at the clock speeds the A6 has a turbo boost past the i3 clock speed and having more cores, going faster is usually the AMD logic

True, but the turbo boost only applies when only one core is being used if I'm not mistaken.

 

[nforce4max]

True, but the turbo boost only applies when only one core is being used if I'm not mistaken.

No, it can turbo all 4 cores on AMD Llano but turbo is seldom around to say that often it doesn't unless temps are good. I got two running amd apu based rigs and they are ok but I like to keep the under volted to keep them cool as they are both laptops. The SB laptop has a faster memory controller like any SB based machine and has the edge in single and dual threaded aps but for heavy multitasking the A6 mobile will win hands down. The IGP is much stronger than any thing Intel has and for apps that make use of it are a big advantage on the go but has a downside. Mainly reduced overall system i/o as it shares the ram and the heat it produces keeps the cpu clocks low. The good news the mobiles are unclocked so if she needed the boost she could easily bring this A6 to 2-2.4ghz with a few clicks with K10Stat. Under volting for better temps, better chances for turbo, and longer battery.

 

[netops07]

The images she will be looking at are dicom images and basically from a computer perspective acts like opening a pdf i.e. your gpu doesn't come into play. The i3 will perform better. I am yet to see imaging solutions that will use 4 threads, not even the high end GE solutions. I used to work for a company that installed solutions for medical digital imaging.

 

[Guest]

The images she will be looking at are dicom images and basically from a computer perspective acts like opening a pdf i.e. your gpu doesn't come into play. The i3 will perform better. I am yet to see imaging solutions that will use 4 threads, not even the high end GE solutions. I used to work for a company that installed solutions for medical digital imaging.

there is a difference between 'threads' and cores. and since dicoms CAN use a lossy format it would benefit from more cores. so really, again, until there is some head to head comparison at the specific application, tough call.

here are some separate benchmarks:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A6-3420M-Notebook-Processor.61302.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i3-2330M-Notebook-Processor.52200.0.html

you seem knowledgeable enough to be able to help your customer make the best choice with what information there is.

btw, it sounds like you already did but want some confirmation here. honestly there wasn't a BAD choice between the two.

 

[Augray37]

No, it can turbo all 4 cores on AMD Llano but turbo is seldom around to say that often it doesn't unless temps are good.

Hmm...so the turbo kicks in on any single thread for all the cores that can be used for that application? So if one thread is open, and it can utilize two out of four cores, the CPU will turbo just those two cores?

 

[Augray37]

Best answer selected by Augray37.

 

[jimmysmitty]

This topic has been closed by Jimmysmitty