I'm customizing a laptop on HP's website that I plan on ordering later this week, but I'm not quite sure which processor is best. The choices are:
AMD Phenom II Dual-Core Mobile Processor P650 (2.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
AMD Phenom II Dual-Core Mobile Processor N660 (3.0GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
AMD Phenom II Triple-Core Mobile Processor P860 (2.0GHz, 1.5MB L2 Cache)
AMD Phenom II Triple-Core Mobile Processor N870 (2.3GHz, 1.5MB L2 Cache)
AMD Phenom II Quad-Core Mobile Processor P960 (1.8GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
AMD Phenom II Quad-Core Mobile Processor N970 (2.2GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
I mostly just need it for school, but I would like to play some Dragon Age and possibly a couple other games on it and was wondering if any of these would be suffice. Some other specs of the laptop are a 1GB ATI Radeon HD 6550 video card, and 8GB of ram. I assume the quad core is probably the way to go but I was wondering if I could get by with the 3GHz dual core. Thanks for any help.
Best processor for DA:O and DA2?
Débuté par
AG_zdmetal
, févr. 23 2011 04:59
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#2
Posté 23 février 2011 - 05:38
RaenImrahl
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First off... let me encourage you to let a lot of folks weigh in on this. There are some laptop gamers on this forum who can probably speak to this better. My experience with DA is exclusively on a desktop PC.
Moreover, I am a life-long AMD processor owner, and I've always got good performance out of them on the desktop side of things. Heck, I even named my Dalish Elf PC "Athlon". But the little experience I've had with AMD laptops has beeb disappointing. They are underpowered compared to Intel mobile chips, in my limited experience. For example, that 3.0GHz Phenom II you mentioned... it will probably compare only with an older Athlon processor of the same speed... in its mobile incarnation.
So I would first suggest you look into Intel options. I know they're more expensive... I suspect you don't need 8 GB or ram (certainly not for Dragon Age) so you might be able to save some money there.
If you're dead-set on getting an AMD mobile chip... then speaking strickly from a Dragon Age standpoint... I'd buy the Dual Core 3.0 Phenom II. There still are not a lot of applications which make full use of quad-core programs... they'll be here some day, but not yet. DA, which runs in its own gaming engine, is pretty CPU intensive-- but it does not thread well across more than three cores, so, again, I'd go with the fastest clockspeed.
As to graphics cards, I dunno. Someone else will be able to help with that.
As to DA2... having just finished the demo, it seems a little less clunky than the original, but then again, the demo is stripped down of many features and has its own problems-- not a good test.
Sorry for the tepid advice... just keep in mind that you're not going to be able to play DA at full-out graphics on any of those configurations. For that you need to get a custom gaming laptop... and for that kind of money, you could get a super desktop, a netbook, and make a down payment on a new car!
Best,
RI
Moreover, I am a life-long AMD processor owner, and I've always got good performance out of them on the desktop side of things. Heck, I even named my Dalish Elf PC "Athlon". But the little experience I've had with AMD laptops has beeb disappointing. They are underpowered compared to Intel mobile chips, in my limited experience. For example, that 3.0GHz Phenom II you mentioned... it will probably compare only with an older Athlon processor of the same speed... in its mobile incarnation.
So I would first suggest you look into Intel options. I know they're more expensive... I suspect you don't need 8 GB or ram (certainly not for Dragon Age) so you might be able to save some money there.
If you're dead-set on getting an AMD mobile chip... then speaking strickly from a Dragon Age standpoint... I'd buy the Dual Core 3.0 Phenom II. There still are not a lot of applications which make full use of quad-core programs... they'll be here some day, but not yet. DA, which runs in its own gaming engine, is pretty CPU intensive-- but it does not thread well across more than three cores, so, again, I'd go with the fastest clockspeed.
As to graphics cards, I dunno. Someone else will be able to help with that.
As to DA2... having just finished the demo, it seems a little less clunky than the original, but then again, the demo is stripped down of many features and has its own problems-- not a good test.
Sorry for the tepid advice... just keep in mind that you're not going to be able to play DA at full-out graphics on any of those configurations. For that you need to get a custom gaming laptop... and for that kind of money, you could get a super desktop, a netbook, and make a down payment on a new car!
Best,
RI
#3
Posté 23 février 2011 - 08:46
SSV Enterprise
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Dragon Age: Origins apparently gets up to a 75% boost when using a triple-core or quad-core instead of a dual-core.
http://www.pcgamesha...cores/Practice/
So I would recommend at least a triple-core, for Dragon Age. However, most games don't rely on multiple cores like Dragon Age, and instead rely on clock speed. In that case, getting a dual-core with a high GHz would be preferrable.
I agree with RaenImrahl about getting an Intel processor, not AMD. Intel's current lineup of mobile processors majorly outperforms AMD. You could get a relatively low-end (for Intel) Core i3 laptop dual-core processor and get more performance out of it than all but very high-clocked AMD laptop quad cores. I also agree that you don't need 8 GB of RAM for games and could probably settle for 4 GB instead.
As for graphics card, that looks good enough. You could certainly get better, but it should be sufficient for Dragon Age.
www.notebookcheck.net is a good website to look at if you are shopping for a laptop. They run benchmarks on laptops with a variety of processors and graphics cards, and compile them into lists. Here's their graphics card benchmarklist and their processor benchmark list.
http://www.pcgamesha...cores/Practice/
So I would recommend at least a triple-core, for Dragon Age. However, most games don't rely on multiple cores like Dragon Age, and instead rely on clock speed. In that case, getting a dual-core with a high GHz would be preferrable.
I agree with RaenImrahl about getting an Intel processor, not AMD. Intel's current lineup of mobile processors majorly outperforms AMD. You could get a relatively low-end (for Intel) Core i3 laptop dual-core processor and get more performance out of it than all but very high-clocked AMD laptop quad cores. I also agree that you don't need 8 GB of RAM for games and could probably settle for 4 GB instead.
As for graphics card, that looks good enough. You could certainly get better, but it should be sufficient for Dragon Age.
www.notebookcheck.net is a good website to look at if you are shopping for a laptop. They run benchmarks on laptops with a variety of processors and graphics cards, and compile them into lists. Here's their graphics card benchmarklist and their processor benchmark list.
#4
Posté 28 février 2011 - 02:37
MASSEFFECTfanforlife101
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How about this: 17.3 inch HP Pavilion Laptop
•AMD Phenom II P960 Quad-Core Processor
1.80GHz, 2MB L2 cache
•4GB DDR3 memory
•640GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
Store 333,000 photos, 142,000 songs, or 263 hours of HD videos and more
•17.3" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1600 x 900 resolution)
AMD Radeon HD 6370 switchable graphics with 512MB DDR3 with up to 2173MB total graphics memory
Would this be a good laptop for Mass Effect 1 & 2?
•AMD Phenom II P960 Quad-Core Processor
1.80GHz, 2MB L2 cache
•4GB DDR3 memory
•640GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
Store 333,000 photos, 142,000 songs, or 263 hours of HD videos and more
•17.3" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1600 x 900 resolution)
AMD Radeon HD 6370 switchable graphics with 512MB DDR3 with up to 2173MB total graphics memory
Would this be a good laptop for Mass Effect 1 & 2?
Modifié par MASSEFFECTfanforlife101, 28 février 2011 - 02:38 .
#5
Posté 28 février 2011 - 02:41
SSV Enterprise
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The processor is decent, but the graphics card is weak. You'll want a better graphics card if you want to play in high resolution and graphics details.
#6
Posté 28 février 2011 - 02:48
RaenImrahl
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It's a respectable laptop... but I dunno... I love my AMD desktop CPU's... but for a laptop, I've always found Intel to be a better performer... even though they cost more. I wonder if anyone else out there can speak to that?
EDIT: Probably should mention, although you may already be aware of this, that "officially" laptops are not supported for either DAO or DA2.... Take is for what its worth.
EDIT: Probably should mention, although you may already be aware of this, that "officially" laptops are not supported for either DAO or DA2.... Take is for what its worth.
Modifié par RaenImrahl, 28 février 2011 - 02:50 .
#7
Posté 28 février 2011 - 03:11
MASSEFFECTfanforlife101
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SSV Enterprise wrote...
The processor is decent, but the graphics card is weak. You'll want a better graphics card if you want to play in high resolution and graphics details.
How much higher for a graphics card? What about Intel Core i5-480M
Modifié par MASSEFFECTfanforlife101, 28 février 2011 - 03:14 .
#8
Posté 28 février 2011 - 03:12
MASSEFFECTfanforlife101
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SSV Enterprise wrote...
The processor is decent, but the graphics card is weak. You'll want a better graphics card if you want to play in high resolution and graphics details.
How much higher for a graphics card?
Modifié par MASSEFFECTfanforlife101, 28 février 2011 - 03:12 .
#9
Posté 28 février 2011 - 04:04
MASSEFFECTfanforlife101
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sorry for posting twice lol...
What about this: HP Pavilion
•Intel Core i5-480M Processor
2.66GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.93GHz
•4GB DDR3 memory
•750GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
•17.3" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1600 x 900 resolution)
AMD Radeon HD 6550 graphics with 1024MB DDR3 with up to 3738MB total graphics memory (discrete graphics)
Does the Mass Effect series even work well with Intel graphics? I've constantly seen mixed opinions and anwers about it.
What about this: HP Pavilion
•Intel Core i5-480M Processor
2.66GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.93GHz
•4GB DDR3 memory
•750GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
•17.3" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1600 x 900 resolution)
AMD Radeon HD 6550 graphics with 1024MB DDR3 with up to 3738MB total graphics memory (discrete graphics)
Does the Mass Effect series even work well with Intel graphics? I've constantly seen mixed opinions and anwers about it.
Modifié par MASSEFFECTfanforlife101, 28 février 2011 - 04:07 .
