Radeon 4650 and Athlon II M300 2 GHz good for games?

you can see the full specs here http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=498543

I am going to get a new laptop and was just wondering if this one would run new games ok?

How is the GPU compared to the geforce 9600?

What would be the bottleneck? CPU or video card?

 

It won't run the most demanding games and handle more demanding settings smoothly (ex, Crysis), but the Radeon 4650 is a solid performer nevertheless. You can check its performance versus the 9600 series on notebookcheck.net and here, but in short it is a little better than the 9600 series.

However, the bottleneck in that system is undoubtedly the CPU; an Athlon is simply inadequate for gaming purposes, so I would dismiss that computer. I would recommend looking for a Core 2 Duo-based system with perhaps a T9300 or T9600. If possible, you may even find a P series C2D, which will lower your TDP by 10W and deliver similar performance.

 

The 4650 is an alright card. It's better than the 9600M GT, if it's using the same memory type.

A P series processor is not needed. They save a small amount of battery life, and they run a little cooler, but the price premium you have to pay is not worth it. The temperature of a P series processor can be achieved by simply undervolting the T series.

 

The Athlon II is K10-based, so a 2GHz Athlon II is roughly equal to a 1.6GHz-1.8GHz Core 2 Duo. I wouldn't call that "simply inadequate", because different games are more or less CPU-bound. But you'll definitely see better performance with (say) a Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8GHz), which is around 1.5x as fast as the Athlon II in that notebook.

The other problem with the Athlon II is that it's not particularly energy efficient compared with the Core 2 Duo.

The Athlon II might be attractive from a price standpoint, but I would easily pay 20% or so more for a similar Core 2 based notebook.

 

I think you're right for the most part, but if he can get a P-series for an equivalent series, why not?

 

If you're buying a system with a 4650, it would be somewhat counterproductive to buy a budget CPU for gaming purposes. And no, a 1.6-1.8GHz Core 2 Duo is not enough for most gaming that the 4650 could otherwise handle. Its not that the Athlon 2 is a terrible CPU; it handles a budget niche, but you'll get a very unbalanced system as a result. Perhaps if the OP plans on playing older games the Athlon 2 will be enough, but why bother when Intel's prices on Core 2 Duo systems are very competitive?

 

Well, first of all, there's idle vs active power consumption. At idle or near-idle (for example, typing a document or web browsing with FlashBlock) the P and T series are going to be very close.

Under load, the battery life sucks either way. 25W (P series) on a 6-cell 54Wh battery yields a maximum battery life of around 2 hours (less once you add in the chipset, display, disk, and other hardware); the extra 10W or so for a T-series cuts that to around 1.5 hours or less. If you're gaming (or doing something CPU intensive), you need to be plugged in very soon either way.

As for the heat, there can be a substantial difference. You can probably make this up on the T-series by undervolting, but it's certainly not guaranteed to work (even if it does in most cases) and you will need to mess around to find the right voltage level (too low results in instability). If you're OK with that, the T-series is great. If not, and if you care a lot about heat/noise, the P series might be a good option if it's not too expensive.

 

thanks for answers, than il skip that PC and get something better, maybe when the new radeon 5 series comes out

 

You mean if he can get a P series for an equivalent price, right?

 

Yes.

10 char

 

Oh yes, then in that case I would agree.

 

Often these things depend on local prices and availability. You can get a Core 2 Duo T6600 / Radeon HD 4650 system for around $800 here in the US (or a P8700 system for around $150 more), but the OP is possibly looking at other options locally (e.g. different models, availability of brands, etc.).

I agree that a Radeon 4650 / Athlon II system is a bit lopsided, although that kind of config is actually pretty common on desktops (where the 4650 is a mid-range card and upgrading an older system is a cheap way to get more life for newer games).

That said, Bog is right - get a Core 2 if you possibly can, or even wait for the new i5 systems.

 

If you get a Turion II Ultra m600-series, it would be better than Athlon II.
That would basically performs close to an Intel CPU (P8400 or around that from the benchmarks).

 

But it also runs much hotter and uses more power.

AMD mobile processors are an absolute joke at the moment. Seriously, at the way they are going, they may as well just give up.

 

I wouldn't dismiss their Turion 2 Ultras since they're usually paired with a) a solid IGP or discrete GPU and b) very well priced relative to an Intel-based system of equal performance. AMD is competitive in terms of cost, but can't really touch Intel's offerings in areas such as performance, heat, or power consumption (as I'm sure you know).

 

I would skip this... if it had M600 , maybe i would say it's allright but M300 is too weak... i would look for one with a P8700 at least with a 4650 GDDR3...or wait for 5000 series cards...

 

But you see, their Turion 2 Ultras I'm assuming are pretty much their best mobile processors? If so, that's even more of a joke.

 

They are AMD's best, but I've argued many times that AMD is not pushing just the CPU. Their Turion 2 Ultras always come with an excellent IGP or discrete video solution whereas Core 2 Duo systems are often not paired with good graphics at all. In short, AMD aims to offer a balanced package at a cheap price.

 

Hmm, yes I guess.

 

I've bought, used, and returned a turion m600 HP DV7z and did not like it because it ran HOT! Like after 10 to 15 minutes of use the CPU fan was already at about 75% full speed. It was loud, but I can't say it was a slouch on performance. It performed great, just ran way to hot. But the 4650 is a pretty good GFX card. Can't be considered top of the line, but good.

 

The Athlon based laptops doesn't look so bad if you factor in the price difference. For example (prices from the site listed by the op):

dv6-2003 (HD4650, Athlon M300 35W TDP) = 5995 nok (3dmark06 cpu=1488)
dv6-1234 (HD4650, Core2 T4200 35W TDP) = 6595 nok (3dmark06 cpu=1660)
dv6-1340 (HD4650, Core2 T6600 35W TDP) = 7995 nok (3dmark06 cpu=1958)

The price difference follows (roughly) the relative 3dmark06 cpu score. If i needed a cheap laptop i would choose a weaker cpu instead of a weaker gpu.

 

Which would be better

AMD Turion II-mobilprosessor M520 / 2.3 GHz ( Dual-Core )

OR

Intel Pentium T4300 / 2.1 GHz ( Dual-Core )

and would these till bottleneck the 4650 1 gb DDR2?

 

It depends on the cost and the game. The main reason to get the AMD would be to save money, though it would likely run hotter while only matching the T4300 in terms of performance. As for which CPU is the bottleneck, that depends on what games you play as some depend more on the CPU than the GPU. ex, World in Conflict

 

I got the P8700 2,53 Ghz and the 4650 512 GDDR3. It was not much more expensive and should be quite okay right?

 

That should meet most of your needs, yes.

 

mine maxes out MW2 at 720p and 2X AA easily.


wanna try GTA IV on it now.

 

lol..we have the same specs.

which laptop is it?

 

Its a custom made laptop from Multicom.no THink its the same model as sarger just another company delivering em. I wil however get the GDDR3 version of the graphic card which is faster than urs

 

However i did look at the DV6 first with T4300 and exact same specs as u but i wanted a better CPU

 

mine is also GDDR3.

 

wow i didnt know they had the 1GB GDDR3 for laptops. I want that too!

By the way this card i a down clocked 4670, so is it possible to clock it with a software? Do the new drivers support software clocking os is that stuff over?

 

The amount of video memory isn't very important for performance, but you can probably use something like AMD Clock Tool to OC the GPU.

 

the P8700 and 4650 GDDR3 are great... u can easily OC to 4670 speeds but u won't need the extra speed...