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    What kind of performance bump might I see from this switch/upgrade

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by londez, Apr 1, 2013.

  1. londez

    londez Notebook Evangelist

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    I'm thinking of upgrading from the HP in my sig (turion II 2.3ghz, 4gb RAM, 1gb radeon mobility 4650) to this HP:

    HP Pavilion DV6-3050us 2GHz Phenom II X4 N930 Laptop w/$50.00 Mail-In Rebate | Overstock.com

    which I can get used and in good condition for about 350. Add to that 150$ that I should be able to get for the one I have now and we're talking about a CPU upgrade from 2 to 4 cores and GPU upgrade to the next series' equivalent (that can share 1gb on top of the 1gb dedicated) for around 200. I want to hold off on going all out on a new computer until a few years into the next home-console cycle. Besides, I can still run most of the most current games at med settings at pretty decent framerates on my current HP.

    My question mainly concerns the CPU. Roughly how much of a bump in performance will I see from the extra CPU cores and will the lower clock speed cores of the phenom II under-perform the cores of the Turion II? My knowledge of current gen hardware is pretty basic (if that), but I do know that having double CPU cores doesn't mean everything runs twice a fast, and I also know that running at a lower clockspeed per core doesn't mean that a slower core can't out-perform a faster one on single threads.
     
    londez, Apr 1, 2013
    #1
  2. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    The Phenom II is the better performer, despite the lower frequency, due to twice the cores and twice the cache. In the end, the 300 MHz difference will be negligible.

    AMD Phenom II N930 vs AMD Turion II M520
     
    Prostar Computer, Apr 1, 2013
    #2
  3. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    tilleroftheearth, Apr 2, 2013
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  4. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    It will be an improvement over what you have but it's still a marginal CPU at best. Don't expect miracles is all I have to say. It's like saying two cents is twice as much as one cent. You've doubled your money, but it's still paltry.
     
    HTWingNut, Apr 3, 2013
    #4
  5. yolo_swag

    yolo_swag Newbie

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    Hey I am thinking to buy one of these:

    HP 15-r022TX Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 8GB/ 1TB/ Free DOS/ 2GB Graph) (J6M27PA) vs HP Pavilion 15-p077TX Notebook (4th Gen Ci5/ 8GB/ 1TB/ Win8.1/ 2GB Graph) (J6M42PA) vs HP Envy 15-J049TX Laptop (4th Gen Ci5/ 8GB/ 1TB/ Win8/ 2GB Graph) vs HP Envy 15-j11

    The latter two have intel 4200M(2.5GHz) and the first two have 4210U(1.7GHz).

    I am a Computer Science student and do my daily assignments and apart from that a li'l bit of ocassional gaming too. So, please suggest which of these shall I go with?? I was concerned about the clock speed. Should I be concerned about clock speed for my daily work.??
     
    yolo_swag, Jun 24, 2014
    #5
  6. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    You should seek out a system with a 1920x1080 screen. 1366x768 is inadequate for daily work. For games, you can always run them at a lower resolution, which is what you would have to do on a budget-oriented notebook.
     
    saturnotaku, Jun 24, 2014
    #6