Intel Core2Duo vs. Pentium M

I've found a few articles comparing "matching speed processors" (ie. P4M 1.2ghz to CD2 1.2Ghz), and many say CD2's are about 30% faster or more if the app is multi-threaded. My question is what if the comparison is against a faster P4M? I currently have a Dell 700m (Pentium M 2.0Ghz) and am looking at a Sony TZ290 (U7600 1.2Ghz C2D). I mostly do some light photoshoping, layouts in indesign, and the occasional cd ripping. Will the Sony be an upgrade or about the same? Thanks!

 

The CPU will perform quite similar, according to this list:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

But the TZ usually comes with a 4200rpm 1.8" drive, while your Dell may have a faster drive. So the TZ will probably be slower (depending on what drive your Dell has).

I had a TZ with SSD, I installed XP with made it much faster than with Vista in my experience.

And lastly, as you may know, memory is also important, especially for Photoshop.

 

Dredging through SuperPi (a single-threaded CPU benchmark) results, I see that the U7600 scores about 1m 45s which is the same as for a 1.86GHz Pentium M. wPrime, which is multi-threaded, gives about 93s for a 2GHz Pentium M and about 69s for the U7600.

The dual core CPU will feel more responsive, even if it is not always faster, because there is less queuing for CPU time. Make sure you have 2GB RAM in the TZ.

John

 

Thanks! Finally a solid answer.