Which has better performance - T410s or X1 Carbon ?

My T410s recently died and am looking for a more portable replacement since I move around a lot. I was satisfied with the performance of my T410s and was wondering if an ultrabook like the X1 Carbon would at least meet (hopefully exceed) the specs and performance of my 2-3 year old machine.

My T410s had the i5-540m 2.53 GHz (3 GHz max), 8 GB memory, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 3100M (entry-level discrete graphics I believe).
ARK | Intel® Core

The highest spec'ed X1 Carbon has the i7-3667U 2 GHz (3.2 GHz max), 8 GB memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000
ARK | Intel® Core

Ignoring the other obvious shortcomings of the X1 Carbon like limited ports, no discrete graphics, storage, ultrabay, etc, will the X1 Carbon match or exceed the performance of my old T410s, in terms of speed and graphics? My older Arrandale-based T410s seems to have a higher base clock speed, does not have an ultra low voltage processor, and has a dedicated graphics card. But the Ivy Bridge chip is two generations newer. I also plan on using Photoshop Lightroom (connected to an external IPS monitor of course), and my T410s occasionally shut down when the software taxed the system and the temperature spiked. Hope the X1 would fare better.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

The 3667U is a little faster than the 520m (except maybe in some highly threaded applications), and the onboard HD4000 is a little faster than the 3100m. For all practical purposes, I think you can say they are comparable with respect to CPU and GPU performance.

 

Thanks for your reply. I assumed as much. The only thing I'm worried about is my old T410s shutting down due to high heat during Photoshop Lightroom. The X1 Carbon is thinner (probably less effective cooling) and has just one vent, not two like the T410s does, so it may be even worse, I don't know. Also, the other con is since my external monitor is 16:10, I would be losing some of the height screen real estate (black bars on top and bottom) when I use that with the X1 Carbon. I wish they stuck with the 16:10 format.

 

If you use the external monitor in Extend mode, you can keep it on native resolution without having black bars. It's perfectly fine to hook a 16:10 monitor up to a 16:9 laptop.

 

If your T410s shut down due to heat it might not be such a good idea to settle for the X1C.

Instead, have you considered the T430? It comes with full voltage Ivy-Bridge CPU's. They are very efficient and powerful enough for almost anything you'd throw at them plus, the T430 can be configured with the NVS5400m, the latter being quite a strong dedicated GPU, in fact about 3 times as fast compared to the old NVS3100m.

It may not be as thin but deals allot better with heat. I'd recommend taking a closer look at it if I were you.

 

Thanks - would it be smart enough to not stretch things that shouldn't be stretched (like photos)?

Thanks for your feedback - actually now in reevaluating mode. Have to rethink things. Also, I hear lots of complaints coming from owners using the USB 3.0 dock, loss of connection, reliability, etc.

 

Yep, the monitor runs in native resolution, so no stretching. And if you're running Windows 8, it can replicate the taskbar on the external monitor as well. Just press Fn + F7 and choose Extend after you plug in your monitor.

 

T410s has a pretty bad cooling system design, mine had a i5-520M and doesn't help it's also a slimmer chassis. That and it uses 1.8" drives, boo.