Tom's Hardware has had interactive performance charts for many years. They include test results of as many products as possible, using a plethora of industry standard benchmarks and real-life application benchmarks. We're proud to say that the charts have been a valuable resource for comparing the performance of processors, graphics, storage and networking products. The latest ones deal with desktop processors, single desktop graphics, dual and quad graphics, workstation graphics, 3.5" desktop hard drives, 2.5" notebook hard drives and enterprise-class hard drives. While we've had Notebook Processor Charts for a while, these were obtained with outdated benchmarks, and no longer include the latest processors. So today we launch new Notebook CPU Charts, which are based on the same hardware and benchmarks as the Desktop CPU Charts.

While it is relatively simple to benchmark a large number of desktop processors on a specific platform, the lack of flexible platforms makes it difficult to create an apples-to-apples comparison among mobile processors. In the case of desktop processors, one Socket 775 motherboard Compare Prices on Socket 775 Motherboards will support virtually every Intel processor that has been released for that architecture; similarly, the latest Socket AM2 and Socket 939 motherboards will host the corresponding AMD processors. However, there are only a few desktop platforms available to run mobile processors, while also using our desktop components such as hard drive and graphics, which we want for comparison purposes.

Some motherboard makers have been releasing so-called MoDT (mobile-on-desktop) motherboards, which allow the deployment of energy-efficient mobile components into specific desktop environments. Yet this has only been the case for the Intel architecture; we haven't found an ATX or MicroATX motherboard with AMD's socket S1 (638 pins). This would be necessary to deploy the same graphics card, hard drive and system components we've been using for the desktop charts. For this reason, the latest edition of the Notebook CPU Charts only includes the current Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and no AMD processors. We'd love to include AMD's portfolio, so if you happen to find a standard motherboard for Turion 64 X2 please let us know through our feedback form.

CPU Charts: Desktop Vs. Mobile

We launched our current Desktop CPU Charts half a year ago, when Intel introduced its FSB1333 Core 2 Duo processors. The following link leads to the 2007 CPU Charts launch article, which discusses some hardware basics on processors, DDR2 vs. DDR3 memory and platform considerations. It also introduces the Core 2 Duo E6x00 processors in its benchmark section. You will also find the detailed test setup for all AMD and Intel test systems there, while this article lists the setup for the new Notebook CPU Charts.

In an effort to make desktop and mobile processors comparable, we looked for a desktop-class motherboard that would accept the same hard drive and graphics card as used for the desktop CPU Charts.