Intel Core i5-430M vs. AMD Phenom II N930

Doesn't come close to the quad core i7s in anything, its about 10-15% behind in the most heavily threaded applications.

 

Ok ... so based on the earlier post you made, you mentioned the AMD in heavy multithreaded tasks is pretty much the same like the i7 620m ... but it's about 75% behind in same tasks compared to the i7 720qm?

 

no i mean dual to... seriously , all the benchmarks show it to be near a core i5... and no way its going to be faster than core i7 -620m in heavy threaded tasks due to slower speeds and low cache...

 

Yes and no. In heavily threaded tasks that take advantage of all 4 cores, i.e. something like video rendering or encoding, the N930 is close to the 620M; in some cases the difference is as little a 5-8%. In the same tasks, though, the 720QM beats the N930 by 10-15% at least and sometimes up to 25%.

No one is saying that the N930 is meant to compete with the i7s, though, and that has been said many times. With its price and performance it is AMDs answers to the i5s.

 

Ah.
Well, you see I WAS asking about heavily threaded tasks to begin with (like 3dsMax - which is what I use).
So realistic performance when rendering images in 3dsMax would mean that this quad core AMD cpu in question is slower than the i7 quad core by about 15 to 25%.

That's actually not bad.

Although I find it strange to pit a quad core cpu vs the dual core.
For programs that use all cores to their maximum like 3dsMax, the performance difference would be large because the AMD has 2 more cores to work with, whereas the i5 does not.

 

It's only strange if you ignore hyper-threading and the difference in clocks.

 

I'm extremely sorry for bumping up this thread, but I'm in the process of buying a dv6z select edition and now, correct me if I am wrong... I have understood this from the two threads about the laptop/(processor/RAM combination):

1. N930 is excellent for multi-threaded (i.e. >2 threaded) tasks. It blows away the i5s in that.
2. N930 sucks at single/dual core tasks when compared to the i5s
3. Yet it is marginally cheaper and cooler
4. But the N930 is excellent as a future proof processor. I say this because I will be using this PC for quite some time and need it to be future proof.

Am I right?

I'll be using the laptop mainly for browsing, IMing, listening to music but I will also be using it for programming and (somewhat) heavy gaming which'll probably require a real fast processor along with the 1GB 5650 ATi card.

 

It doesn't blow them away but it does perform better.

Yep. The difference between the two in lightly threads apps is huge.

Marginally cheaper but significantly cooler. The i5 users in the dv6t lounge are reporting temps up to 90C while the hottest a dv6z user has reported is 75C and that was in a 36C room.

If developers continue to make apps and games use more threads then the N930 will be better down the road than the i5s. The difference still won't be as big as the edge the i5s have in lightly thread apps.

For normal tasks you won't notice a difference between the two and there is nothing that an i5 could do that the N930 can't and vice versa.

 

Ok I've read through this whole thread and I still can't decide between the two processors.
At my current selection it's basically the same price +/- a few dollars so I just need to know which one is better for me.
My build of the dv6z Select edition will include:
6gb ram ddr3
1gb ati raedon 5650
500gb hd

and either Phenom n930 or i5 540m.

I will doing basic computer tasks such as word processing, facebook, youtube
but will also be doing SEMI-INTENSE GAMING (WoW, MW2, Just Cause 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2)

So i want to know of those 2 processors which is better for gaming?

 

Most games still favor faster dual-cores, so the i5-540M will almost certainly do better for your games than the Phenom II N930 (although the difference may or may not be noticeable). The basic computer tasks will barely notice one way or the other.

 

i would get the N930 since it seems much cooler and still slightly better... u really won't see much difference for ur uses but for once i would say get the AMD since its cooler.

 

This but the difference is games in gonna be a handful of FPS, tops. The i5 version is going to offer slightly better battery as well, about 30 minutes more, but the N930 stays cooler, max temps of 75C to 90C in the dv6t.

 

ok thanks so i'll look into that more specifically for the games compared to the cores.

also, I was thinking....(correct me if i'm wrong) that all of my memory is not used when I run a game (even if it's an intensive game) so
would a downgrade to 4gb of ram and using the money for an i7 be better?
so basically:
i5 with 6gb of ram vs i7 with 4gb of ram

 

a downgrade to 4 gb of ram and putting the difference into your bank account would be best!

 

Dropping to 4 GB of RAM is probably a good idea in any case; the tasks and games you've mentioned aren't really very heavy on memory use as far as I know, and RAM upgrades after the fact are almost always cheaper. A quick look at the HP seems to indicate that the dv6 won't accept an i7, unless you're thinking of trying to install one aftermarket? In that case, I would advise against it; I get the feeling that any such attempt would result in overheating issues, apart from doing fun things like probably voiding your warranty and all that.

 

The dv6t cannot be configured with an i7 but the dv6t:SE can, judicator.

 

Well I think now I'm going with an i7-720QM
I don't know if it's today only, but via the "Visa Cardholders" Discount section on Lenovo's site I found a limited time offer on the Ideapad560.
For around $1000 the Ideapad 560Y comes with an i7, 8gb of ram, 500gb hd, RAEDON 5730, DVD-RW, etc.
with a 3 year warranty it's around $1150
That seems like an incredible deal to me so I think I'm going with that

 

u can get a much better gaming laptop in the form of MSI GX640 for a similar budget of 1100... only thing is u have a i5 but the the ATI 5850 GPU is much better than the 5730.

 

where would I find this laptop?
I did a google search but can't find the company's website. I found it at other online stores for the around $1100 but it comes with an i5 and 4gb of ram. I feel the 5730 is a good enough card for me and I'd rather have double the ram and an i7.

 

I don't like the screen resolution, but YMMV; I run a 1920x1200 on a 17" myself so dropping to 1366x768 on a 15.6" would be... painful.

I don't think MSI does direct sales, I think they only sell through distributors. One of the nice things about the GX640 is that it actually has a 16x10 screen (1680x1050 resolution) as opposed to all the 16:9 screens now, but that's just a personal preference.

 

Hi everyone, I have an Acer Aspire 4551g with an Athlon II P320 and a Radeon 5650. I'm using it mostly for gaming, and I know there is a 4551g using the Phenom II n930, and I'd like to know, would the n930 be better than the p320 for gaming ?
I play games like Metro 2033,Just Cause 2, Fallout 3, Crysis...

 

I have seen core temps of 86c when running Prime95 at max for 30m on my Acer w/930N cpu
with coolermaster laptop cooler and fans; 80c

 

So far my sig. laptop (with N930) CPU has never exceeded 68 C, no matter what I threw at it. I haven't run Prime95 yet but I'll expect similar great results.

P.S. RealTemp doesn't recognize this CPU so I can't really submit what it can detect. My current experience is from HWMonitor.

 

Run IntelBurn Test the REAL TEST.

 

Oh wow, just did it, and it reached 69 C Tmax. I take my words back.



....it's still low though. Too low. I'd really like to overclock it.

 

To really stress it, set the number of threads=number of logical cores that should really push it to the max.
Consider the ambient temperature before concluding the CPU is cool.
Even better while IntelBurn is running run Furmark at the same time.

 

Just did that, wow it certainly did. GPU got to 80 C in no time, CPU steadily went up, hit 80 C, 100% fans kicked in, got cooled back to 76 C and stayed there for the rest of the test.

 

Gosh just found out N930 bottlenecks several of my games completely. They run at abnormally low framerates at max settings, but even when I turned all settings to minimum they ran at exactly same framerates.

This is problematic!!!

 

Check if the PCI-E is running at the maximium 16x using CPUZ.

 

Flickr: Nick-TCU's Photostream

Look at the price of those six-core AMD chips and where they stand with the others on benchmarks...
You might can say a lot of things about AMD, but it takes a lot more than a second rate company to achieve those kind of results to price ratios...

 

It is running at that. I've checked it with several games.

 

For anyone who still have this question N930 or i5 look here some nice comparative benckmarks, AMD Phenom II X4 N930 vs Intel Core i5-430M vs Intel Core i5-520M.

 

Hey Dude
I own a HP dv6-3050US
AMD Phenom II N930 2.0 GHZ
ATI Mobility radeon hd 5650
4gb ram
500 gb hdd @5400 rpm

And i was able to play every single game on High setting with 2xAA that includes Metro 2033 and Dragon age 2 at 35+ avg frame at 1280 x 720 res
Rest all games run on max setting on max resolution on 35-40 avg fps

Dont belive me ..lol
Check out my videos at you tube
YouTube - ak48you's Channel
More than that i got this laptop for just $630 all inclusive.... on 4th jan 2011
The inter counter part of it upto i5-460m were costlier ... and this thing performs better than them in gaming atleast.. i max temp i got after playing metro 2033 was 63C...Yes i use a chill mat.

Its quad core where as intel i5 is dual... And ATI and AMD duo work a better,
Above it AMD is value for money.... AMD phenom n 930 is almost 50$ cheaper
if u want more performance buy i7....