acer vs lenovo

so after quite some time i narrowed my choices basically to 2 laptops.

acer aspire

i5 2.4 Ghz/2.8 turbo + HD5650 1gb gddr3

or

lenovo ideapad y560

i3 330 2.13ghz + HD5730 1gb ddr3

other components are the same. both are 15,6, 4gb ddr3 and 500gb HDD but they dont really affect fps.

Laptop will only be used for gaming, WoW specifically and i want to squeeze every single frame i can get.

 

the acer will be better.. the i5 is better than i3 and basically a 5730 is an overclocked 5650... which u can easily reach speeds too.. WoW needs a powerful CPU too so the acer is better.

 

I agree with sean473

Get the Acer.

 

I'd actually go the Lenovo, even if it's a i3-370M 2.4Ghz version. Why?

- The Lenovo has switchable graphics giving better battery life
- It has an expresscard slot if you wanted to DIY ViDock it, eg: US$155/$280 GT430/GTX460.
- It looks a lot better imho.

Worth scouting logicbuy for Y560 coupons to get one at Acer prices. Can get an i5-460M 2.53 Y560 for US$800.

If wanted the switchable graphics on the Acer, there's a $800 i5-460M 2.53 14" Acer 4820TG. Those 4820TG units are a portable powerhouse.

 

yep get the acer....................

 

Depending on the model, so could the acer.

 

Might, but I'd say not on the cheaper models. Still, none of the i-core Acers have expresscard slots. I'd still go the $800 i5-460M+HD5730 Lenovo Y560.

 

i am limited to strictly those two laptops.

battery life and all that doesnt really matter. just wanted to know where will i experience smoother playing. even if that means 5 more fps.

im kinda leaning towards i3 330m + hd5730 cause processor wont bottleneck WoW and thus lowering fps when on the other hand hd5730 might sqeeze 10 more fps then hd5650?

or i am completely wrong?

edit: currently i am the owner of hd4650 and i was checking notebookcheck.net test and on a few test hd5650 is even weaker then hd4650 whereas hd5730 beats both of them sometimes for even 30% in games but never less then 10%

 

WoW is more CPU bound than GPU bound by a long way.

You could just overclock your current 4650 like my 4670.

Oh and btw the 5942g has switchable graphics, i5 CPU and a pci expresscard slot.

 

Which acer are you talking about? I would recommend this one: Amazon.com: Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820TG-7805 14-Inch HD Display Laptop - Black Brushed Aluminum: Electronics
It has very good battery life as well ~8hrs and theres also a 15" version

 

There's also a 14" Lenovo Y460 on sale for $800 if want more portability but the slower HD5650 gpu:

$800 14" Lenovo Y460 i5-460M 2.53 4GB 500GB HD5650+HD W7HP *expresscard slot*

 

as said i am limited to those two laptops i mentioned in my 1st post. doesnt matter which model it is as i have wrote down the speccs of both. portability and all that kind of stuff doesnt matter at all.

i posted this thread to see what will ppl tell because im in struggle between those two and i want every single fps i can get.

still leaning towards lenovo . i know hd5650 can be clocked but im not keen to that.

probably proc wont bottleneck wow at all and hd5730 might pull a few more fpses more then hd5650 in upgraded wow environment with 25 ppl in raids casting spells and all that kind of crap.

if my logic works fine.

 

Go with the lenovo, the 5730 and i3 will probably give you equal performance than 5650 and i5 in WOW. For the other majority of the games on the market are bound by GPU, in which case the 5730+i3 will beat 5650+i5, higher speed CPUs make little difference in these games.

The logic of overclocking 5650 to 5730 speed is false, because 5730 can be overclocked too, comparing an overclocked card to a card at stock is just not right.

 

But the 5650 is an under-clocked 5730 in the first place.
Same card/specs, different clocks.
By that logic alone, the OP can easily OC the 5650 to the same clocks the 5730 would be OC-ed on stock voltages.

Or, just OC the 5650 it at 5730 stock clocks and undervolt the stock voltage to a lower one, in turn reducing temps (even though 5650 is already a cool card).
I did this on my 9600m GT.
I OC-ed it to 9700m GT at lower voltage. Got 15 to 20 degrees lower temps on an OC than I had on stock 9600m gt clocks.
Similar analogy could be applied in this case.

The i5 will give him more performance since WoW is more CPU bound than gpu bound.

Acer still wins out in this case.

 

WOW IS SO OLD IT'S CPU BOUND at this graphics level.

Ok?

 

i think im gonna go with acer. but one thing concerns me. till now i played on 1366x768 with p7450 2,13ghz and hd4650 and it was ok.i was getting 30fps in raids with shadows lowered one above minimum. i liked it. but acer one has 17,3 inch monitor and 1600x1200 with i5 460m 2.53ghz with hd5650. since both gpus are almost identical in 3d mark score im afraid my fps will actually lower on that resolution. am i wrong? if game is more cpu bound it should smoke my old laptop.
and if it will can i change resolution without having some wierd shapes and wide wierd image on my screen.

ty in advance

 

Never played WOW, but yes, playing a game at 1600x1200(are you sure it's the right resolution? I have never seen one, perhaps 1600x900?) will stress your GPU much harder than at 1366x768, it's possible you might get less fps at that native resolution with your new laptop, but you can always choose to go with a lower resolution like 1400x900 or something, but it will usually make the images appear to be grainy/less clear, gaming at native resolution(providing if your hardware can produce enough FPS) is always the best.

 

yes my bad. its 1600x900

if that could be the case i might go with lenovo then.

 

just to clarify my problem

should i go with the lenovo(1366x768) if i wont be able to play on acer on native res (1600x900) without fps drop? will playing on lower res on acer look worse then n native on lenovo? both laptops are not that more powerfull then my current one with hd4650 which may result in fps drops on higher resolutions.

 

Playing on 1600x900 will likely not be detrimental because the game is more CPU dependant.
Ergo, the Acer cpu (i5) will probably be able to compensate for the larger resolution, and you can OC the gpu to 5730 level easily enough, further stabilizing performance if necessary.
I hardly think you will experience problems with this kind of a setup.

 

atm im getting cca 30fps in wow with 1366x768 with p7450. does that mean, theoretically, if i just replace p7450 2.13ghz with i5 460 my fps would jump?

 

you cant replace p7450 with i3/5/7 coz motherboard that support core2duo processors cannot support i processors at the same time

 

The i processors won't work, if all you want is to get more FPS for WOW, then there is no need to buy either the acer or the lenovo, considering neither 5650 or 5730 is a huge upgrade over your current 4650.

Just upgrade your processor to the best your machine can take: T9900 or x9100, the latter has unlocked multiplier, which can be used with Throttlestop http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...unlock-core-2-extreme-multiplier-windows.html to easily overclock it to 3.5Ghz+. If WOW is really that CPU heavy, then neither the lenovo or acer could give you more FPS than an overclocked x9100 and your current 4650.

 

As it was already mentioned, you cannot replace the P7450 with and i series cpu.
Socket incompatibility will prevent that.
As for just what kind of a difference in FPS there would be ... you won't know that until it's actually done ... but the i5 would be far better than P7450 (by about 50% if I'm not mistaken).

I agree that jumping from 4650 to 5650 isn't really that big of a deal ... unless your 4650 is DDR2.

Anyway, I do think that you would do better to just upgrade your current CPU and hold off on buying a new laptop altogether just for WoW.
The one you have now is perfectly fine in the first place and upgrading the CPU would probably be a better investment (along with possibly the RAM - depending on how much you have now).

 

i know p7450 cant be replaced with i5, it was just a hypothetical question. would buying a new cpu boost my fps at all. the thing is my old one is broken and my budget only allows me to get 5650 or 5730 at best.

so considering 5650/5730 is not that big upgrade i was wondering if upgrading to acer or lenovo would boost my fps at all. it would be nice if i could squeeze at least 15 more fps with keeping same settings and native resolution with better cpu and a lil bezzer gpu. im sorrz for buggering you so much, must want to get best bang for the buck.

so to get back to my dillema
should i go with the lenovo(1366x768) if i wont be able to play on acer on native res (1600x900) without fps drop? will playing on lower res on acer look worse then native on lenovo? both laptops are not that more powerfull then my current one with hd4650 which may result in fps drops on higher resolutions. if i have 30fps in raids and even dropping below 20fps on heavy fight can i expect at least 40fps with new cpu gpu

 

I agree with DEKS, Upgrading your processor is a more economical way for your needs, considering you just want some more FPS for WOW. Like I said above an overclocked x9100 should give you more FPS than both the acer/lenovo setup, and the cost of upgrade to a x9100 is around 200-300$ and buying a new acer/lenovo is $800, your call.

And upgrading your processor is really really easy to do. The money you saved could go into your purchase of a new laptop, the Sandy bridge laptop with new ATI6000 cards will hit the market in Q1 2011, it will be a huge improvement over the current i5/i7 processors, if you can wait.

 

i have to buy a laptop as i dont have any atm. cant wait 3 months and be without one

 

Then go with the Acer option.
The cpu is more powerful in it, and as I already said, you can easily OC the 5650 to 5730, or beyond (on stock voltage ... or just undervolt and OC to 5730) since both are the same gpu.

Gaming on i5 5650 at 1600x... resolution (on stock clocks will likely give you the same, if not better FPS count contrasted to your old laptop.
And if you OC the gpu, maybe by about 5 FPS more.

Although keep in mind that even if the FPS will be the same at native res ... you will be gaming at a higher resolution overall, and it will generally be a 50% more powerful system overall.

One thing I'd recommend as well would be to do a clean Win 7 install on a new laptop just to be sure.

 

ty a lot for ur hlp Desk and the rest of you. i hope ill gain a bit more then 5 FPS since according to notebookcheck.net 5650 should perform about 30% better in wow than 4650. i sincerely hope that is the case.

just one more question.

if it happens 1600x900 is a bit too much for hd5650 in raids with high settings will lowering res result in poorer appeareance then 1366x768 on lenovo (native res)?

 

I doubt it will only be 5 FPS.
As you know, the 5650 is about 30% better cpmpared to the 4650, and the i5 is about 50% faster compared to P7450 (and keep in mind that WoW is more CPU dependant).

So, I would say that you might actually gain better FPS under stock settings in native resolution (or at worst, same FPS).

If you do go for the Acer and decide that gaming under native res is not that good for raids, you can reduce the resolution to 1400x....

I don't think you will notice too much degradation by lowering the image quality to be frank.
The blurring is not really that big of a deal on my laptop if I HAVE to go down to 1024x768 from 1280x800 in certain games (and only the menu/icons are mostly affected ... but as I said, it's hardly bad quality - at higher res of 1400x.... it really wouldn't be a big of a deal).

But I'm relatively sure that 5650 and i5 would be able to handle raids in
1600x.... resolution as far as WoW goes.

One other thing ... what kills performance most in WoW (as I came to understand it) are the shadows.
You can probably crank up the details to High but lower the shadows to medium or less.
They don't really make that big of a difference in visuals from what I saw and highest settings of shadows only kill performance without adding anything to overall game-play.

With shadows lowered in quality, you can probably run WoW in 1600x.... maxed out even in raids.

 

shadows are already lowered to one above minimum. on my current laptop.
ty a lot m8. u have been most helpful. im gonna go with acer and hope for the best. once again thank you desk

 

It's Deks.
And you're welcome.
You won't really have to 'hope for the best' since the hardware in the Acer is up to the challenge.
Just make sure to do a clean Win7 install once you get it (the bloatware that comes with Acer laptops can be a nightmare).

 

me again -.-

my budget got higher a bit and i got an opportunity to get lenovo y560 15.6" 1360x768 i5 430m 2.26-2.53 ghz with ati hd5730 1gb gddr3.

should i stay with acer or go with the lenovo

ps. i know ppl are saying that screens at that lenovo series sucks, but i had used it and i cant find anything wrong with it.

 

Your call really.
The Lenovo has a lower resolution and slightly slower cpu than the Acer.
In terms of the gpu, it's the same like 5650 only clocked higher.

At 1360x768 your FPS would undoubtedly be higher with the 5730 and that i5.
So ... performance wise, the Lenovo would be better.

If resolution isn't that big of a deal for you, then go with the Lenovo.

 

It never hurts to have a better GPU when your primary interest is to play games, I would sacrifice a lot more CPU power for a better GPU if you have a choose a better CPU or a better GPU. Also the 1366x768 screen will last you a lot longer than at 1600x900 for your gaming need, meaning you can have high settings at native resolution for quite some time. Unless you find game play at 1600x900 significantly more appealing than at 1366x768, go with lenovo with 5730.

 

OCing is pretty irrelevant since you can also get the Lenovo and OC the 5730. I would say your two decision criteria are as follows:
- if WoW performance is the most important to you above all other games, then the i5 system is preferable.
- if screen resolution is important to you, then the i5 system is again preferable.

However, if you want a more well-rounded system for gaming performance, then the Lenovo will win hands down; the processor is more than capable for CPU-neutral games and it has a better GPU (most games rely on the GPU more than the CPU).

 

both systems are i5. but acer has i5 460M 2.4ghz + hd5650 and 1600x900 and lenovo one has i5 430m 2.26ghz + hd5730 1366x768.

can i expect at least 10more fps on lenovo comparing to my old lap p7450+hd4650 1366x768?

 

Probably... if not more.

"Bog" ... yeah, but as I was saying, the 5650 and 5730 are the same card.
So he can OC both equally for the most part.

 

i thought i could post about how much of an upgrade did i feel in playing WoW.
i went for the lenovo
i5-430m 2.26 ghz
hd5730 1gb gddr3
4gb ddr3

settings
1366x768 (NATIVE)

multisampling 4x
vertical sync - enabled
texture resolution - High
AA 8x
Projected textures - enabled

View distance, ground clutter, environment detail, liquid detail all set to - Ultra

shadow quality = fair
sunshafts - high
particle density - high

advance -all enabled
overall system - HIGH

Dalaran fps - never below 25 fps
SW never below 40 fps
World - 50-60 fps , areas with lots of water, forest approx 35 fps
instances - 50-60 fps
I have to test raids but i dont expect any less then 30 fps at heaviest fights


So yea, laptop was an even bigger upgrade then i was planning it to be. I am super satisfied with its capabilities. I gained hell of a lot more then +10 fps. at old laptops setting i would gained a lot more.

ty for advice