AMD vs Intel...

Hi, I am thinking about buying an old laptop, to do some web-surfing, MS Word, light gaming...

So, I have my choices down to these 2:

- http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220472912998&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_6174wt_1055

- Toshiba Tecra M3 w/ Intel Pentium M 740 + Nvidia 6200

(I messaged the guy selling the fujitsu, and he said that all he knows is that its ATI Radeon IGP...anyone know which GPU it has?

Anyways....back to my original point in this thread.... Is the AMD Athlon 2500+ (1.8ghz) better than say an Intel Pentium M 740 @1.6-1.7ghz

Thanks in advance,
Dylan

 

It has this. It's an IGP, not a real GPU.

Dunno about the CPU, though. I would say the Intel one might be slightly faster.

 

Pretty sure that is far enough back to be when AMD still had the performance edge. Anyway, neither will really do much in the way of gaming. I'd say AMD, even if it isn't noticibly faster, don't those run more power efficient than Pentiums?

 

Doubt it. I've heard of those Athlons running around 45w, with the Pentiums at around 27w.

 

That Amd is a socket 754 processor, It will be much faster than the Pentium M.
However those AMD's were quite power hungry, so your not going to get a lot of battery life

Have you tried looking for a used laptop, or a new one with lower specs

Anything you buy today in a store like bestbuy or circuit city, or staples, will be faster than those

K-TRON

 

So I was half right. Thanks K-Tron.

 

Ever thought of getting a netbook?

 

Yeah, I'd rather buy a brand new netbook then get an ancient laptop

 

I agree with that. A new netbook is a better option, unless you really want a bigger screen.

 

Amen .

 

Ummm...... Guys? I DON'T want a netbook! Netbooks are WAY slower than a Pentium M or Athlon 2500+ and they also only have the Intel GMA 950! Which can't play ANY games....at all!!

Anyways... So what I'm getting is that the AMD is slightly faster? But a little more power hungry (that's okay, I don't really need a lot of battery life)

Anyways about the Graphics Card...Is it any good? (Better than Radeon 9600 or Geforce 6200)

Would it be able to play the following gaming:

1. Age Of Empires 3
2. Roller Coaster Tycoon
3. 18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul?

~Dylan~

 

Yes AMD is faster. The Athlon 2500+ has a much better FPU performance. Games like FPU performance.

 

The GMA 950 can almost certainly play all 3 of those. Deffinitely the last 2. And netbook CPUs are not all slower than those procs. In fact, they are mostly faster. And btw, the 6200 in the machines you are looking at buying is very old. Modern IGPs are better than old low end dedicated cards in most cases.

 

Ummmm..... I am almost 100% sure that an Intel Atom N270 is NOT faster than an Athlon 2500+ or even a Pentium M!

Anyways... I know that modern IGP cards are better, but modern cards come with modern computers...which I can't afford. You gotta get that I'm only 15...soo... yeah. I'm just looking for something to do a bit of gaming, homework, MS Word, etc.... Okay? So please stop saying that I should get a modern laptop or a netbook...I don't want a netbook and I can't afford a modern laptop...

Okay, so is the ATI 320M IGP any good at all? Would it be able to play the games I listed?

~Dylan~

 

I don't know if it'll play the games realy if it does it'll be on bare minimum.

just to straighten this netbook thing out... an Atom 1.6Ghz = 1.1-1.2Ghz Pentium M!, both of the listed machines will crush that Atom... and don't get me started on the awful preformance of the 950.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=370158

 

It'll be faster at multitasking operations, because Atoms have HyperThreading. Otherwise, those two processors will destroy that Atom in...pretty much everything else.

Keep in mind that netbooks have newer things like DDR2 memory and SATA hard disk drives. While they won't do much in terms of performance, upgrading should be easier, not to mention cheaper.

 

With 256mb of ram you won't be playing any of those games.

 

U need atleast 512mb for most of todays games.

 

how much are you planning to spend?

If you have about £130 to £150 I would recommand a gateway mx3101b (celeron M), mx3311b (intel CPU) or ml3108b (sempron 3400+) from ebay.

the ml3108b has the nvidia go6100. The two others have the Ati x200. Both those cards are faster than the intel 950. They are as fast as the intel x3100.

I have the mx3101b and it is a steal. I bought it with a celeron M and now it is running a core 2 Duo T7200 . I mean this model has a lot of room for updrade.

I also used the ml3108b and I was able to play Need for speed carbon with it.
I don't like the ml3108b because for some reason it doen't allow the upgrade to a Turion X2

With the sempron or a Core Duo/Core2Duo the battery live is over 3 hours.

 

LOL is the OP dumb or bankrupt? Is he trying to buy a 6 year old pc with a crap GPU and CPU? Get u mind together and buy a proper new laptop OP.... unless ur bankrupt....

 

Not true. A 128-bit mainstream card can handle most games on low resolution, low settings and they only require 256MB of memory. Adding more memory doesn't make the game play any smoother.

 

He's 15...

 

So...... Anyone else have a suggestion of a good laptop that fits my needs and my budget ($200-275) I would prefer to have the BEST graphics card possible.

Oh, and is the ATI 320M IGP any good at all? (would it be able to play the games that I requested)

Thanks,
Dylan

 

I don't think you'll find a laptop with an actual good discrete GPU in that price range... unless of course you buy a used one... which isn't that great an idea IMO. You get what you pay for. That Fujitsu does not come with an AC adapter, for example. You'll have to buy one on the side, if you can even find the right one anymore.

My advice: save up some more and get something you can trust to run for years, rather than pay good money for something outdated. It'll be better in the long run.

 

Ummm..... Can we please stay on track here... I asked for help finding a decent used laptop, now can I please get some help??

 

I was trying to help you.

Anyway, your Radeon IGP320M thing is based on R100, the "original" Radeon design. So it's slow. Only DX7 support.

I would think a GMA950 could outrun it but I dunno...

 

Oh, okay, so it sucks that much....lol! So that's not even an option! I'm guessing a 6200 or ATI Radeon 9600 would KILL that?

~Dylan~

 

Please stop posting misinformation. The Atom CPU is crippled compared to the athlon and pentium M. To state that the Atom CPU would be faster in multitasking because it has hyperthreading clearly shows you have never even used a Atom based computer. Both Athlon and Pentium slaughter Atom CPUs in multitasking.

 

Are they really that slow? (Atoms)
I've never used a Pentium M or Athlon XP PC so I can't really comment on that one. I was stating what I thought. Sorry for not making that fact clear.

Probably. The GeForce 6200 is from 2004-2005 era and should generally be faster than that Radeon IGP. Considering the 6200 appears to be a discrete GPU. And supports DX9.

6200 vs GMA950 is unknown, though. (Anyone here have any info about this?)

I still question your idea of buying a "used" notebook, but if that's the way you wanna roll, by all means go ahead.

 

HaHa, yup that's how I roll.... lol

Anyways... Is the ATI Radeon 9600 half decent? Would it be able to play the games that I want to? Because I'm looking at HP/Compaq NC6000 with the Radeon 9600... Those only cost maybe a little under $200 CDN, so I think its a pretty good deal, anyone else?

Thanks,
Dylan

 

The ATI Radeon 9600 would run those games fine... not on high settings, but they would run smoothly at least. I've even had AOE3 running on a 3GHz Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, and a Radeon 9100 IGP (no discrete memory whatsoever).

 

According to a post on here, the Radeon 9600 is faster than a 6200. So it should play the games fine.

...Although those guys were likely talking about the desktop versions. Dunno how things are in mobile...

 

You should be able to run those games no problem judging by the minimum specs of each. Note I said "run", not necessarily "play smoothly at the nicest settings".

Still though, they should run with either the Nvidia 6200 or the ATI 9600.

 

My former Dell Inspiron 9100 with a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 and an ATI 9600 played games okay, like Sim City 4, The Sims, Roller Coaster Tycoons, and random demos downloaded off the internet. It's not a bad old card.

 

According to Anandtech, who conducted several real world benchmarks, an Atom 1.6 GHz performs like a 1.1 GHz Pentium-M.

Passmark CPU Mark confirms this.

 

i have played those 3 games on a Atlon 64 X3500 with a Ati X3100 video card just fine. that tycoon games doesn't really need alot of processor or GPU power to play it.

 

Okay, I was just reading a forum post (on some random forum) and the HP NC6000 has the 32mb version (Radeon 9600)...now I was reading on the notebookcheck graphics card comparison, that the 32mb version is pretty severely crippled (pretty slow) Do you think it would still run the games? Anyone else got any info on the 32mb version?

~Dylan~

 

The nc6000 also has a very low clocked 9600.

 

Okay, so I just did a bit more research, and there are 64mb Radeon 9600...phheuf...

well....that's good...so it should be able to play the games, right?

~Dylan~

 

Definitely.

 

@DS1395:
If you have the option/budget, a newer laptop with a 4500MHD would also suffice.

<s>What country and what budget? For instance, I am in Australia, and most of the users here are probably not. </s>

So Canada, C $ 275?

I guess the nc6000 (i know, mentioned) would be a good enough laptop, primarily because it has a good battery life. I was considering one a few years back and eventually purchased a nc8000 (it has a faster 9600 but worse battery life and has a larger screen).

 

i'd go for Pentium M with GF6200. Having owned a PM 750 laptop with GF6200, i'd say that performance wise GF6200 is roughly on par with Intel X3100, slightly better for older titles, especially ones that require OpenGL support. Also, as someone noted, it IS a dedicated GPU with, usually, its own, not stolen from system memory, 256Mb VRAM. Overclocks well too.


A couple of days ago seen a Philips laptop, T5500 + GF7400 for £245, used but sold with one year warranty. Unfortunately, it's in London

 

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention one thing, I want the screen size to be 14.1" or less...

But I'm starting to think that the NC6000 is the best choice for me... decent performance, alright Radeon 9600, good battery life, and 14.1" screen... all for around $200-225 CDN...

But if anyone knows any other laptops that would work, just hit me with a reply...