cpu's,someone please help!!!

Clutchkick

I have a packard bell tj61 notebook with an amd athlon 64x2 (overclocked),its ****!.i got it the christmas before last and since then ive had to play games (mainly gta iv) with the lowest graphics settings possible and the game still looks like a stop motion college project,i've also never played a pc game online because "my computer is too slow".The batterys ****ed as well as the charger (for the second time).i've had enough,it's time i upgraded.

i was looking at the hp pavilon dv6 from what i can gather from reviews its great but what confusses me is the cpu options,my general understanding is that the core i7 and amd phenom are fairly much the best you can get but theres two things that dont make sense to me,they have a phenom option with 1.8GHz and an i7 with 1.6 GHz (the cheapest phenom and i7 options)but core i3's with like 2.3 GHz that are much cheaper,this makes no sense to me.

I want a good all around laptop but i want to crank up the the graphics settings in games to the last aswell as install some of those crazy new graphics and map mods for gta iv and the game to run smoothly.Does the GHz realy matter or is the name more important when it comes to gaming and do i need to worry about a graphics card or am i covered by a poweful cpu??

when i got this yolk i didnt know what a processer even was,i saw it had 4 gb ram(i thought i could take on the world with that),wich at the time was unreal for 479euro and still kinda is but i dont think il ever be able to use the full 4gb without haven to get peices of an amd athlon surgicaly removed from my body,i dont want to be cought like that agen seen as the main reason to get a new laptop is for gaming(and i dont want to pay thousands for one of those ugly ufo lookn gaming laptops)

can someone please give me some advice on what kinda cpu to go for??i know i can overclock but id prefer not to atleast not for a while seen as when it comes to overclocking i dont realy know what im doing and dont want to take the risk.heres a link to the dv6 range http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=hp+pavillion+dv6&tag=googiehydra-21&index=aps&hvadid=7280397115&ref=pd_sl_90vnr7cx73_b SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!..........sound!..

mari2222

can you put paragraphs in your post please - it will be easier to see what questions you want answering?

ED E

You've kind of got this all wrong.....

First off, games are **** on your current machine because the GPU cant keep up, not the CPU(or this is the most likely case). OCing wouldnt help and would just cause heat issues. You shouldnt ever OC a laptop.

An i7 is not just an i7, same for i5 and i3. Some i7s are dual core, some are quad core. The number of threads available also varies, and K models can be OC'd(not relevant here). Phenons are the higher end consumer models from AMD, coming in X2(dual), X3(tri) and X4(Quad) variations.

You have to look at the specific core(aka i7 2500) not just the series and the clock.



Next of all, you're trying to game on a laptop. Bad idea. Unless you have €800 to spend BUY A DESKTOP! For €480 suggested above you'll get a **** laptop that will last at best 2 years and will play modern games at about 5fps(aka Unplayable). On the other hand, that amount would buy you a decent rig, including the monitor if it had to, and a GPU you could change in a year or two to keep up. You sound like a student and if thats the case windows is cheapish.

dazzday

In 90% of cases the GPU is the bottleneck for gaming and you can get away with a relatively low-mid cpu. However some games are cpu intensive, notably WOW and Starcraft 2.

GTA IV is quite demanding on both gpu and cpu...it really is a cpu hog due to its poor coding. But at least it utilizes quad cores available on the i7 series.

In terms of cpus, there is ALOT more to them then clock speeds these days. For example some of the i7s utilize four cores (as opposed to dual core in an i3) effectively doubling throughput and efficiency in software that can utilise multicores. Also the i5 and i7 series have turboboost technology, so when you see an i5 at 1.6Ghz that is its standard clock speed but when it detects a more demanding task it can boost itself upto for example 3.5Ghz. Along with all the other technology, its safe to say the lowest sandybridge i3 will outmatch the majority of previous gen core2duos etc.

The HP you linked wont cut it. To pay GTA iV at medium-high setting you need an i5 cpu and Radeon 5650 gpu (minimum)or preferably an Nvidia 540M / Radeon 6650M.
Any higher id be aiming for a quadcore i7 and maybe a better gpu.

Something like this in you budget maybe:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5750G_1091432.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5560G_1091471.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Samsung_RC520_1087511.html

loads more on that site to look at, higher and lower specced.

Clutchkick

wich of the two would you recomend the Nvidia or the 6650m??
thats some site everythings dirt cheap!,do they deliver to ireland?

dazzday

yep they deliver to ireland...about €8 iirc. Search the forum for plenty of experiences with them and how to order.

The difference between the to gpus is minimal, the radeon will exceed in some games and vice versa. The radeon does have a lower tdp so may run a little cooler. But go with whatever brand you prefer.

Good site to compared gpus:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-540M.41715.0.html

( as can be seen at medium settings the 540m will run gta4 at 60+ fps.)

ED E

After past fiascos I'd have to recommend the Radeon.

Overheal

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

You've kind of got this all wrong.....

First off, games are **** on your current machine because the GPU cant keep up, not the CPU(or this is the most likely case). OCing wouldnt help and would just cause heat issues. You shouldnt ever OC a laptop.

An i7 is not just an i7, same for i5 and i3. Some i7s are dual core, some are quad core. The number of threads available also varies, and K models can be OC'd(not relevant here). Phenons are the higher end consumer models from AMD, coming in X2(dual), X3(tri) and X4(Quad) variations.

You have to look at the specific core(aka i7 2500) not just the series and the clock.



Next of all, you're trying to game on a laptop. Bad idea. Unless you have €800 to spend BUY A DESKTOP! For €480 suggested above you'll get a **** laptop that will last at best 2 years and will play modern games at about 5fps(aka Unplayable). On the other hand, that amount would buy you a decent rig, including the monitor if it had to, and a GPU you could change in a year or two to keep up. You sound like a student and if thats the case windows is cheapish.

Normally you would be right about the CPU and GPU but GTA IV in particular is extremely CPU dense. Even after a jump to a 6770, from integrated, my brother's desktop was still a slideshow in game. So we chucked the Athlon X4 for a Phenom II X4, went from 2.0Ghz to 2.8Ghz and it's blazing. Starcraft II had the exact same problem. The GPU could draw all day long but the CPU couldn't crunch the positions of all the glibs and bullets/lasers flying everywhere. Because in SC2 bullets don't really "miss" A laser will still hit a target thats moving erratically. The CPU calcs the intercepts.

As for the Cheap i7 - thats a no-brainer if it was a really low end model. A Proper i7 has up to 8 threads (8 Logical Processor Cores - Octo Core) And the proper i3 while being physically a dual core also has 4 threads/Quad Core-like Performance. And with Phenom it *really* depends on what you were looking at: an X2, X3, X4, or X6. Presumably a nicer X4. I haven't seen the X6 in a laptop yet. Then theres the AMD A8 but gosh thats another story.

To pay GTA iV at medium-high setting you need an i5 cpu and Radeon 5650 gpu (minimum)or preferably an Nvidia 540M / Radeon 6650M.
Any higher id be aiming for a quadcore i7 and maybe a better gpu.

Max runs fine on my brothers aforementioned build.

Clutchkick

What about this http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_Pavilion_DV6-6002Sa_1081532.html i know its not gonna be the best but at that price its a bargain and if ye havnt noticed ive a bit of a fetish for hp with beats audio

Overheal

You could go raiding on that, sure. Bearing in mind its on the mid-to-low end though its not going to be BLOPSing like crazy or anything.

ED E

Clutchkick wrote: »

...that price its a bargain and if ye havnt noticed ive a bit of a fetish for hp with beats audio

:rolleyes:

Overheal

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Apparently with the beats they use their own dedicated audio processor off of the north or southbridge, and shielded analog cabling. So not exactly just gimmicky sponsorship. And in practice (I do sell these things all day) they do have better, and louder speakers than just about anything else on the shelf.

Clutchkick

ok,im still kinda confussed when it comes to cpus,what are the most important things to look out for dual core,quad core,threads or clock speed because they vary so much in the same kind of cpus??

ED E

As overheal has mentioned, some games are particularly CPU heavy, but for most the GPU is the sticking point. If you are really into GTA and SC, then you can bias towards a really good CPU, otherwise, you wanna look for a decent cpu and as good a GPU as you can find. That would leave you at a middle of the range i3.