Performance Comparison

Hello everyone, I'm still waiting for my Clevo M570U-A to arrive, but while I was looking up information on the laptop I started wondering, how will it compare, gaming performance wise, to my desktop system? If these were both desktops, I could answer my own question, but I don't really know exactly how laptop components compare to desktop components as far as performance goes, so I'll defer to your superior experience in this matter.

Anyway, right now my desktop is running a Athlon 64 3000+ (Venice Core), 1 gigabyte of DDR-400 RAM (2*512 Dual Channel), and a ATI Radeon x800Pro 256mb PCI-E, and an X-Fi sound card.

My laptop, once it arrives, will have a C2D T5500 1.66 Ghz, 2 gigabytes of DDR2-667 RAM (2*1024 Dual Channel), and the Go7800GTX 256mb.

The screen on both are running at 1440*900 pixels.

So, my question is this. How much better will the performance on the laptop be in games such as Oblivion? I'm guessing that it will be roughly 2 to 3 times faster mainly because of the RAM and the video card, but I'm pretty sure that the processor is faster than my desktop's too. Again though, I really don't know how laptop components compare to their desktop counterparts, so I'm not sure.


Firov

 

You really should have upgraded the processor to a T7200, in my opinion, then your computer would be an ultimate computer. I mean the proccessor you have now is good, but the 2.0GHZ one would have been LEAPS AND BOUND ahead of it.

 

The graphics capabilities of the 7800GTX as compared to the X800Pro are about 50-75% higher with the 7800GTX. Along with a better overall system configuration, that laptop should run Oblivion much better than the desktop you have.

 

I wanted to, believe me, I REALLY wanted to but that configuration was on the very edge of what I could afford, and in fact, it was about 100 dollars more than I initially was wanting to spend. So, rather than spending that money on the processor I decided instead to ensure that I had the best GPU I could possibly afford and 2 gigabytes of RAM, because those two things more important to the overall gaming performance than the processor.

Also, now that I think about it, I do have another question. Will it be possible to install Windows XP x64 on this system? nVidia doesn't actually have 64 bit drivers available for the Go7800 video card, but I do know that there is a site that offers hacked standard(Desktop Card) drivers that allows them to be installed on laptops. So can I just use these and use x64?

 

Do you have something to back this up? I highly doubt the T7200 is "leaps and bounds" ahead of the T5500. Now, having more processing power certainly isn't going to hurt, but it won't kill you either. These days, it's the processor itself and the architecture it is based on and not the clockspeed that really matters. The clockspeed wars are long over.
The 2MB cache on the T5500 vs. the 4MB on the T7200 doesn't make much of a difference; they both have the same FSB speed; the only real advantage of the T7200 is its 340MHz clockspeed difference. 340MHz isn't a lot and the difference between the two processors will most likely only be noticeable in synthetic benchmarks.

The gaming performance will be far, far better. Oblivion likes a good processor, and the Core 2 Duo fits the bill. Oblivion also sees about a 20-25% performance increase on systems with a dual-core processor.
And as posted, the Go7800GTX is much better than the X800PRO. 2GB of RAM is what you need for the latest games and you have that, so I would say that you're all set.

Just don't forget to do the dual-core config when you get it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

It is possible, although finding the drivers for the rest of your hardware may prove to be difficult. XP x64 is basically useless anyway; it's not really 64-bit to begin with, and there are hardly any applications that can actually be found in 64-bit, and even fewer that actually make use of 64-bit processing. So, don't waste your time. If you want a 64-bit OS, wait for Vista.

 

Few games are truly x64 capable anyways, and there's not really too much of a difference. Like Chaz said, just wait for Vista to go 64 bit.

 

Thanks for the tips Chaz! I appreciate it. I'll keep in mind that dual core config when I set up my laptop, and you're probably right about Windows XP x64. Its just that's what I use on my desktop, so I was hoping I could use the same disk. Its not a big problem though. I'm sure I've got a standard Windows XP disk floating around here somewhere.

 

Actually, there is not a huge difference in performance between the two processors. Only in synthetic benchmarks and under heavy loads--and most users do not max out their processor's computing potential anyway--would you see the difference. Don't worry, the T5500 is plenty fast.

Unless you already own a copy of XP x64, I would suggest you wait for Vista as well. It's right around the corner.

 

334MHz = 20% of 1666MHz (the speed of a T5500), so I'd say that there is a significant difference between the T5500 and the T7200 since the actual core is identical except for the amount of cache. And the cache can only help on the T7200.

Most people don't max out their performance with CURRENT APPLICATIONS. New games will have dual-core capabilities, and be much more CPU intensive with multiple threads and physics and such. A faster processor would help. I'd almost have suggested he go with the faster processor and only 1GB of RAM in a single stick, and then bought another gig when he saved up some more money (that's $100 there). But what's done is done. The machine is still a screamer and will still play games better than my laptop... at least for now

 

While in some ways I certainly agree with you, I've only run into programs that are limited by the CPU a few times in my many years of desktop computing. Programs are almost always either limited by the RAM, or more often, the GPU. I've learned from experience that past a certain point CPU power is less, and less important. The improvements from a T7200 in most of the programs I use would be negligible, especially when compared to the many benefits a second gigabyte of RAM would offer.

And while it is true that physics, AI, and other CPU intensive elements are being included far more often in modern games, I'm confident that the T5500 will have more than enough power to handle them for as long as the GPU can handle their graphics. Thanks for the advice though. I appreciate your comments.

 

A GPU upgrade to 7900GTX for example will give more improvement to games than this CPU upgrade. It's important to have a good cpu, but for gaming it's more important to have a good GPU. You will notice more difference with a upgrade from a 7800GTX to a 7900GTX then a upgrade from T5500 to a T7200. I'm sure of that fact.

 

Well, I don't have hard backup, so I may have been overstating a little, but in a thread About the DV2000T, some guy was getting Only 30FPS at Medium Settings with the exact same config as mine in HL2, but with a 1.73 GHZ processor, and on my comp I easily get 45 FPS in High mode. So In conclusion I thought it was a pretty big difference. But that might just be that the GPU is very bad, and that the CPU was helping it, of cours that is not the case hear as the GPU is very good. I never said the 1.66 GHZ processor isn't good, but a 2.0 GHZ one, would have been substantially better. At least that is what I concluded with the figures I had.

 

I have to agree, as the money spent on getting a better graphics card is more important than getting a better CPU. Why? Because, graphics hardware tends to be outdated well before central processors do.

While either GPU solution will do you very well, here are the comparisons:

7800GTX: vs. 7900GTX
256 MB GDDR3 VRAM vs. 512 MB GDDR3 VRAM
400 MHz GPU core clock vs. 500 MHz GPU core clock
1100 MHz effective VRAM vs. 1200 MHz effective VRAM
24 x 1 x 8 pipeline setup vs. 24 x 1 x 8 pipeline setup
9600 MTexels/second Fillrate vs. 12000 MTexels/second fillrate
35.2 GB/s memory bandwidth vs. 38.4 GB/s memory bandwidth
256 bit memory bus vs. 256 bit memory bus

I'd look for the vertice rates too, but I was too lazy, however, they are at least 20% higher on the 7900GTX. It's well worth getting the 7900GTX, as they are automatically equiped with 512 MB of VRAM plus the higher performance.