hp dv7-6143cl w/AMD vs Samsung RF511-03 Nvidia

So I ran sims 3 with high performance and all the settings maxed out on my 3 day old dv7-6143cl w/ 8gb ram, i7 2630, hd6770m 17.3" screen w/ 1600*900 and I get around 15-30 fps using fraps. The sims3 sounds like a lame non-hardcore game but it must be a hog on graphics. My wife uses the architecture feature to build homes and towns etc. There are 8 discs of expansions to install but I thought a 6770 would give better fps. So then I turned it on power saver and it only dropped about 10 fps or wouldnt run.

Then on my wifes samsung rf511-03 with an nvidia gt 540 I was getting 20 fps consistently with the same maxed out settings but it only has an i5 2410 and 6gb ram although its a 15.6" with 1366*768.

I must say the nvidia set up is a hell of a lot easier with a much better ui set up. That amd is pure crap having to go select every bloody exe. and never know what the heck is running. I tried canurunit on the HP and all it could detect was the stupid IGP.I but it worked on my the nvidia.

Is it normal for for the performance to be the same on the i5 2410 gt540 vs the i7 2630 6770? I love my new HP but I thought the 6770 with this processor would at least double or triple the gt540 and i5 2410. Is this normal?

 

The sims 3 isn't really a graphic intensive game but it is very cpu intensive.

I wouldn't say double or triple the performance, more like 20% with the additional power of the 2630.