A8 3500m + 6750m vs i7 + 540m

[Abyssalx]

I'm in the market for a laptop, and my budget is about $700. I'm looking for the best gaming I can get out of a $700 laptop. Best Buy actually has a really good deal going on with this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Laptop+/+AMD+A-Series+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+640GB+Hard+Drive+-+Dark+Umber/2738329.p?id=1218348120631&skuId=2738329&st=pavilion

It's an HP Pavilion dv6, with a 1.5ghz quad core AMD A8 3500m processor, 6gb of ram, and a Radeon 6750m graphics processor. I was pretty hooked on it but I found this Acer on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215004

2GHz i7 with a GT 540m and 4gb of ram.

I already know that the 6750m is decently more powerful than the 540m, but the i7 is obviously better than the A8 3500m. I need to know if the i7 would give the Acer the edge, or if the 6750m is far enough ahead that I'll still get better framerates even with the slower processor.

If it's a difference of just a couple FPS I'd probably be more inclined to go with the HP, just because of the extra stuff (bigger HDD, nice audio, more RAM, bluray player, and fingerprint reader which I don't care about but might be fun to use.)

So if I could get some opinions on which is better, or if you have a better idea in mind, post it here, thanks!

 

[jaguarskx]

I would go with the HP since it has a more powerful graphics core.

 

[alikum]

What's the screen size / resolution for both laptops?

 

[Abyssalx]

1366 x 768 15.6" on the HP,
and the same on the acer.

 

[Immudzen]

I would go for the hp also. Just about every game is GPU bound so the win will go to the more powerful GPU. Very few games are CPU bound anymore so a faster CPU won't really help much.

 

[geekapproved]

I would go for the hp also. Just about every game is GPU bound so the win will go to the more powerful GPU. Very few games are CPU bound anymore so a faster CPU won't really help much.

True.....but....1.5ghz quad core?? A 2.0ghz dual core i3 would blow it out of the water. If I were you I would find a higher clocked i3 (sandy bridge) or i5 (sand bridge) dual core with a really good gpu.

 

[Immudzen]

1.5ghz at default clock with all 4 cores running. The turbocore stuff allows them to clock up to 2.4ghz if not all are in use. If you have a program that will run on all 4 cores correctly then 1.5ghz will be fine for a laptop. If something only needs two cores then the cores will probably be running around 2.4ghz.

However the basic problem is that if you want a fast clocked chip and a good GPU then you are going to spend a lot more money and get lower battery life. If you want good battery life also then you are going to be spending vastly more money. The point is that at $700 this laptop is very hard to beat for average tasks. Yes you can get an i5/i7 system that is faster for CPU and graphics but it will cost a lot more and you take a serious battery life hit.

 

[geekapproved]

That makes sense. Didn't know the A8 had turbo capability.

 

[Abyssalx]

If you can find a decent i3 or i5 with something better than a GT540 for that price, I'll take a look. The next logical step up from a GT540 would be a GT460 (I think) , but that almost always boosts up the price by $200 - $300. Otherwise I think by what I've read and seen here and other places, the 6750 would more than make up for the performance loss of the processor. In games, anyway.

 

[Abyssalx]

And then there's this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152274

2.53GHz i5, 5870m, 4gb RAM and a 17" screen. It's $100 more than I wanted but it's really good. Only thing is, much less features and it looks god-awful. Opinions?

 

[jaguarskx]

It seems alright for a 17" laptop if it is not too big and heavy.

The only thing I don't like are the orange stripes.

 

[Immudzen]

And then there's this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152274

2.53GHz i5, 5870m, 4gb RAM and a 17" screen. It's $100 more than I wanted but it's really good. Only thing is, much less features and it looks god-awful. Opinions?

Wow you where not kidding that thing is truly ugly. I wonder how anyone designed that thing. Other then that the specs seem fine. The biggest downside is it is about $150 more then the llano laptop I have been looking at getting dv6-6135dx from bestbuy.

The downside I see on that laptop is that the laptop is pretty heavy and I doubt it has very good battery life. It looks like about 2-3 hours is about the best you will get out of it. Still pretty nice except for the looks though.

 

[Abyssalx]

Well, that MSi I posted not only went up by $50, it's now out of stock. Ugh. I'm still looking around so if anyone finds some good deals around $700 - $1000, let me know.

 

[Gibran51]

Here, go to http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cto.do
17 inch Core i5 2410m and AMD radeon 6770M, it also has a 1080p anti glare screen

 

[Immudzen]

That link did not work for me. What is the model number?

 

[Abyssalx]

Yeah the link didn't work. I'll try to get a good price with those specs, hold on.

 

[Abyssalx]

I don't know. The i5 with the 6770 is good, but it's $850. I think there's better out there if I keep looking. HP actually has pretty good prices on their machines though, I'm surprised.

Edit - the MSi GX740, i5 2.53ghz + 5870 is only $800 on Amazon. I think that's what i'm gonna buy. I'll buy another battery also, to compensate for the battery life.

Edit again - That MSi's i5 is a Nehalem, not a Sandy Bridge. I hear a lot of obsession over Sandy Bridge, is it really that big of a deal?

 

[Gibran51]

Sandy bridge is better, did you also use coupons for the HP. A 1366x768 on a 17 inch is awful, 1080p screens are much better, 768p screens are like mirrors, i have one and it sucks.

 

[Abyssalx]

It's not 1366x768, it's 1440x900. Which my 19" monitor runs on that, so I don't have a problem with a 17" not being HD. The MSi is out of stock on amazon now too... UGH. The only confliction I'm having is the battery life. But I still can't find a better or equal laptop for that price.

 

[jwin742]

I've got the Dv6 you're looking at and i'm loving it. Don't let the processor speed fool you. I've found it has plenty of power to handle anything you're going to throw at it.

gaming on it is great. I was playing BBC2 on it at around mid quality and it was running pretty smooth
most games will probably be able to run at mid quality I'd say.
It runs cool too after a few hours the only part of the laptop that was hot was the top left corner on the bottom

The extras on it are pretty nice and build quality is great.
I think if gaming is what you're looking at you can't go wrong with
great Laptop

 

[Immudzen]

So far I am really liking mine. It has run mathematica and other software without any delays that I could notice, it has played all the games I tried without any issues and I can use it as an ereader with the amazon kindle software for about 6 hours or so. I picked up the dv6-6135dx from bestbuy.

I have only encountered two problems with the laptop so far. 1 the camera with its default settings is very slow so you have to turn off automatic light correction and the it works normally. The other issue is I can't get it to connect at 1Gbps to my switch only 100mbps. However using the same cables and the same ports my other machines will all connect at 1Gbps. This is not a huge problem since I don't really send large files to the laptop.

Overall though I would say it is a very good purchase. The fingerprint reader for passwords is also pretty cool.

Edit: Turns out I had a bunch of cables that had 1 line bad in them and 7 out of 8 is not enough for gigabit and since they used to work at gigabit I had not run them through a wire tester again. So it all works now.

 

[ZeroShadowX7]

What about a laptop with i5-2410m, NVIDIA GeForce GT 555m, 5400RPM , 1366x768 Resolution, and 4GB DDR3-1333 of RAM? Would it be better than the Pavilion dv6-6135dx?

 

[Abyssalx]

Are you talking about the Lenovo Y570? If so, then kinda. The GT555m is by default better than the 6750m. But, the GT555m in the Lenovo is GDDR5, which is usually better, but it has a slower bitrate and acts more like an overclocked 540m. Still, it's at least on par with the 6750m. The i5 is no doubt better than the A8-3500m. My big deal with the Lenovo is that the sale that makes it worth it is sometimes there and sometimes not, and the battery life is bad compared to the hp, and battery life is pretty important to me. I'm honestly still conflicted over this dv6-6135dx. I want it but then I see some laptops with i5's and i7's and I wonder if sacrificing a little battery life or graphics performance is worth it for that.

 

[Immudzen]

In normal usage (excel, mathematica, word, browsing etc) I am getting about 5 hours on the hp. In intensive games like fallout 3 I seem to get about 2 hours when I used the dedicated graphics card. I get about 7-8 hours when use the kindle reader software. Many games work on the integrated graphics card and those look like they will run about 4 hours or so.

Overall I have been very happy with the system. It definitely does not feel like it has any slowdowns. Calculations in things like mathematica and excel seem to happen instantly, applications launch quickly, the desktop remains very responsive etc.

I suspect I would need benchmark software since not even a stopwatch would do it to see an i5 was faster for calculating. However I would not need a stopwatch or benchmark software to see how much faster the GUI responds or the battery life since I have compared that with other students that went the intel route and that one is REALLY obvious.

When the intel systems are on integrated gpu they sure seem to run a lot slower on the basic graphics end. When they use a dedicated gpu the battery drains quickly. I really like that on integrated gpu I get good battery life and performance.

 

[Abyssalx]

Yeah, I just kinda realized something too. I have an old Sony Vaio laptop with a Pentium Dual Core 1.46ghz t2310 processor. And an old intel integrated graphics card. That processor is slow, as hell, compared to today's processors. But I have no lag, and watch HD movies on my 47" 1080p flatscreen with it with no problem or lag at all. And it's running windows 7. The 3500m completely decimates that processor, so I have no inhibitions left. The Dv6-6135dx is definitely what I'm going to buy.