AMD Turion Ultra vs Core 2 Duo, and its place in gaming.

So I've been noticing that there are more and more budget gaming machines at BestBuy (where I happen to work) lately that feature great GPUs (4650s, 260s etc) and TURION ULTRA processors (specifically the ZM-82).

These machines run about $200 cheaper than there closest Intel counterparts. (machines with similar GPUs seem to be using T64/6500s or lower end P series C2D's)

Based on some quick research of my own I found out that the ZM-82 in particular falls somewhere close to the T5500 in most CPU benchmarks... Not great, although I've always been of the opinion that CPU importance in gaming tends to be overblown (not that I think it's irrelevant).

I was wondering what people think about the Turion Ultra's in particular. I hate Athlons for notebooks as the fabrication is so large and contributes to a huge output of excess heat, and loss of battery performance. Turions (especially Ultras) are better in these departments... Any thoughts?

 

I too have wondered this. My friend has the zm-82 in his msi laptop (unsure of the laptops model) it is partnered with a 9800 gs and 4gb of ram. he plays crysis on it on low and he gets arround 30 fps compared to my asus n50vn I can get 34-38 fps on medium with a crappier gpu..... i wouldn't waste the time with amds laptops yet untill they come out with some newer stuff

 

9800...30FPS on LOW?!?!

Thats sucks for a 9800GS. I didn't think the difference would be that dramatic..

 

It shouldn't be that dramatic at all.

My friend has a ZM82 too but equipped with an HD3650 and he was playing on medium at 18fps or so.

It was on par with my old Asus M50 equipped with Core 2 Duo 2.1ghz and 9500M GS card.

I think something is wrong with the 9800M GS and AMD turion ultra laptop. There is a difference, yeah, but not THAT dramatic.

 

In theory, most CPU's you can buy now are fine for any games. Almost all games are GPU limited when you're talking about laptops. There's something wrong with your buddy's setup if the 9800 is that slow. Maybe he's using DX10 and you aren't, or he doesn't have his chipset drivers in, has some kind of crapware running... who knows. But really, I'd personally get a machine with a slower AMD CPU and a faster video card if I were limited by price.

 

Although I don't own Crysis,
I have a ZM-82 / HD4650 1Gig GDDR3 combo /4gigs DDR2-800 and score a decent 5900 in 3Dmarks06.

The thing is: I paid $999.99 for the laptop, so excellent price / performance ratio. AMD competes with INTEL in the price /performance department, never in top performance.

 

Pitabred said it all, in some games there will be bigger differences, like RTS', but the graphics card is still the most important part.

 

AMDs run too hot from my experience. I initially purchased a laptop with a T-82 Turion X2 Ultra and while gaming the CPU got to over 90 degrees celsius. This was with it being undervolted! I returned it and got a laptop with a t6500 Core 2 Duo and it maxes out at 68 degrees celsius. Certainly the fact that the AMD was a HP didn't help but ultimately it ran just way too hot. Both laptops had similar ATI dedicated GPUs.

 

I have amd turion ultra zm-85 2.3 ghz with 4650 gddr3 1gb and lap scores 6383 in 3dmark06.I am playing crysis on high settings except for shaders medium(avg 22-23 fps).
But cpu temp. goes up to 78-80 max.:S.
So what are intel temp.s for that ?

 

Those temps are not too bad, Intel, depending on the chip, usually maxes around 65-75, those are the hotter ones though.

 

The new Tigris platform Turions should be here in weeks. They will be 45nm and use much less power than current ones. They along with new ATI cards will improve gaming experiences.

 

To judin-

I have an amd turion 74- and it has no heat issues at all, I use speed fan and according to it when im playing COD 4 and other games it never goes above 80C it averages 72-78(gaming, non it does 50-65's), but idk mabye my comp has good cooling

 

Felix those are better temperatures than I was getting. I intentionally sought out a AMD because they are better priced than Intel products but on my particular setup the thing just ran way too hot for my liking. I think the crappy HP cooling system was a major cause of the 90 degree temps. Overall though, I prefer the Core 2 Duo.

 

I used to love AMD. My first home built desktop had a AMD 64 3000. AMD 64's were awesome, but when the X2's came out, Intel sucked balls. Oh how times have changed.... amd don't even have a quad for laptops.

 

I guess the Turion Ultras are pretty viable processors then for the $200 dollar savings.

 

They are, but unfortunately they're built on an aging platform; no matter how much they up the clock frequency or shrink the manufacturing process, the Turion will always run hotter and consume more power than a budget Intel Core 2 Duo chip.

It's only in combination with a decent GPU that AMD laptops begin to tempt me.

 

AFAIK, there is no such thing as a Turion Ultra paired with a 9800 GS (or a GTX 260m for the OP). My bet is your friend has a Turion Ultra paired with a 9600. The best card MSI pairs with AMD chips is the 3850.

 

The new AMD Tigris isn't just a shrink, it's a new chip. If I remember correctly they'll be mobile versions of the Phenom II.

They should be able to go toe to toe with the more expensive C2D counterparts.

 

Now THAT sounds promising.

 

i really dont know how u peopel are getting such performance from ZM-** chips. I personally have a ZM-82 with a 4650 mobility card and i only scored 10000 on 3dmark05. according to notebookcheck, the minimum is about 11000, anyone think my laptop is defected? i have the hp dv6 -1264ca.

 

I don't see any reasons to consider the more expensive C2Ds (or even low end C2Ds unless you get a truly low price) anymore. If you're buying Intel-based laptops today, the choice comes down to Core i3/5/7. AMD's problem is that they're always competitive with the past generation and even then it is not clear who wins.

 

I know exactly what you're talking about. I use the Turion Ultra ZM-82, and it's terrible. I cannot play CPU intensive games, but thank god the 3850 picks up the CPU's slack most of the time.

 

bznazz, this thread is out of date and now closed. Please pay attention to the datestamps on each post when replying to a thread; just start a new thread with your question. Thanks.