Simple question about hp dv6z series laptop

Hello i am considering purchasing this laptop with the minimal processor which is the AMD Turion(TM) II Dual-Core Mobile Processor P540 (2.4GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
will it bottleneck the 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics [HDMI, VGA] ?

 

Possibly, all I know is my AMD N930 bottlenecks the %^& out of the 5650 GPU in a lot of games (see sig for config). Which is why I returned it so I can buy an intel CPU one.

If you really want to game with a ATI 5650 GPU, avoid AMD or Intel i3. At least go for i5 (so turboboost is there). The 5650 is hardly bottlenecked in a lot of CPU-intensive game titles (most new RTSs, racing games, physics-intensive games), if the CPU accompanying has less than at least 2.6 GHz intel-equivalent clock (which is at least 2.8~3 GHz in AMD CPUs), AFAIK.

 

Bottleneck in terms of gaming? Likely not, most games are GPU bound and 5650 is only a mid range card. In terms of rendering, AutoCAD? Possibly, depends on which program you use.

 

AMD cores are ridiculously slow compared to Intel, an AMD 2.4 GHz like what OP's wondering about is only going to be equivalent to maybe Intel C2D T6xxx. Even if 5650 is a mid-range GPU, CPU intensive games will still get bogged down in framerates because of the slowness of the processor. I know because I had the issue with the recent laptop.

@ OP, if you play mainly games before 2008, then go ahead. Otherwise you likely won't see the full performance of the 5650 under a fair number of new game titles.


Some framerate examples: (i5 460/520M + 5650, vs in my case AMD N930 + 5650)

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit: 40~50 fps, vs 20~30 fps
Crysis (all high): 30~50 fps, vs 18~40 fps (lowest during intense battles)
SC2 (all medium~high, 2v2): 20~30 fps, vs 12~23 fps
Two Worlds II (all high, AA): 60 fps stable, vs 35~44 fps
Half Life 2 Cinematic Mod (all high): ~40 fps stable, vs 20~40 fps (mine dips during scenes with a lot of buildings)
Amnesia The Dark Descent: 50~60 fps, vs 30~60 fps
Assassin's Creed: 30+ fps, vs 18~28 fps
Black Ops: 50+ fps, vs 28~45 fps

Know that most of these games run at least somewhat all 4 cores in my case, some better than others. Some simply only run 2 cores. The framerates on the intel+ATI combination in laptops are benchmarks that I've read, and also for some titles what my friend's Acer 4820TG gets (for games he also plays).

For older games (Valve source titles, most <2008 titles), the fps difference is negligible to none on max settings.

Decide for yourself whether or not its worth it.