Lenovo IdeaPad Z580

daveyb2

hi - considering this laptop (i5)...its available here on dabs.ie http://www.dabs.ie/products/lenovo-ideapad-z580-i5-3210m-8gb-750gb-dvdrw-15-6--w7hp-white-85VW.html?q=z580&src=16 or via the Lenovo website here
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/ieweb/LenovoPortal/en_IE/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=FD6DB49790C7411D933567FC361231FB&current-category-id=C3261BBAFC0060EEA5C689F7F0BCA57E&action=init

Can someone confirm if the only reason for the price difference would be the dedicated graphics card in the one from Lenovo direct?
Thanks

Torqay

daveyb2 wrote: »

Can someone confirm if the only reason for the price difference would be the dedicated graphics card in the one from Lenovo direct?

Pretty much so. The GT 610M is Nvidia's current entry level GPU and not really worth any consideration. Why they put in a GT 610M together with the HD 4000 is beyond me, as Intel's integrated graphics seems to be faster than the 610M anyway. Just because a few applications benefit from the CUDA cores?

You'd also get 2 GB less ram from Lenovo direct.

There's another Z580 (Core i7 3520M/6GB RAM/750GB HDD) at komplett for €690 (delivered). Although only a dual core CPU, the Core i7-3520M is still a good bit faster than the Core i5-3210M when it comes to number crunching (Passmark score: 4601 compared to 3970) at the same TDP (35W max) so it shouldn't have any impact on the battery life.

daveyb2

Torqay wrote: »

Pretty much so. The GT 610M is Nvidia's current entry level GPU and not really worth any consideration. Why they put in a GT 610M together with the HD 4000 is beyond me, as Intel's integrated graphics seems to be faster than the 610M anyway. Just because a few applications benefit from the CUDA cores?

Thanks. So, would I notice a difference between the GT630M in the Lenovo direct one versus the integrated graphics in the one from Dabs? With discount I can get them both at roughly the same price.

Torqay wrote: »

There's another Z580 (Core i7 3520M/6GB RAM/750GB HDD) at komplett for €690 (delivered). Although only a dual core CPU, the Core i7-3520M is still a good bit faster than the Core i5-3210M when it comes to number crunching (Passmark score: 4601 compared to 3970) at the same TDP (35W max) so it shouldn't have any impact on the battery life.

Tempting but 600 was my original budget so pushing that already. Thanks

Torqay

daveyb2 wrote: »

Thanks. So, would I notice a difference between the GT630M in the Lenovo direct one versus the integrated graphics in the one from Dabs? With discount I can get them both at roughly the same price.

I think, the GT 610M is only dead weight and will draw more juice from the battery when active. Re gaming performance, I just found this:

Anno 2070 benchmarks both and the GT 610M comes up as 28% less performance than the Intel HD 4000.

In COD: MW3 the GT 610M is 10% faster.

In BF3 the GT 610M is 24% slower.

Both are about equal in FIFA 12 with the HD 4000 being 4% faster.

In F1 2011 the GT 610M is marginally faster by 7%.

Deux Ex: HR the GT 610M is slower by 12%.

In Crysis 2 the GT 610M is slower by 24%.

Mafia 2 the GT 610M is slower by 13%.

In StarCraft 2 the Intel HD 4000 is 2% faster than the GT 630M so that means it should be faster than the GT 610M by a wide margin.

Considering that the HD 4000 is only 6% slower than the GT 630M in Metro 2033, the HD 4000 is by default faster than the GT 610M.

But there are some applications (in the realms of imaging, video editing or 3D rendering) that benefit from the CUDA cores in the Nvidia GPU.

So, the choice is yours.

MarkY91

what choice did you make in the end? its on some website for around 710 with 8GB ram and 1TB hdd..no dedicated graphics though. is the laptop good?im thinking of buying it soon..