Which AMD APU to get?

[Fenixgoon]

I'm going on work travel for 3 months and my desktop computer is too much to take with me (plus I'd rather not risk my hard drive getting wrecked during shipment).

So I've been looking at AMD APU laptops for some cheap, light gaming (league of legends). based on my reviews and price range, i've come down to the AMDA6-3400 and A6-4400, but don't understand the precise performance differences. Laptop benchmarks are so much harder to find

Toshiba L775D Specs:
AMD A6-3400m 1.4ghz/2.3ghz quad
6gb ram
Radeon 6520m iGPU
640gb 5400rpm hdd
17.3" screen @ 1600x900

Gateway NV52L06u Specs:
AMD A6-4400m 2.7ghz/3.2ghz dual core
4gb ram
Radeon 7520m iGPU
400gb 5400rpm hdd
15.6" screen @ 1366x768


for what it's worth, my current rig is in my sig. and i run 3x 21.5" monitors @ 1920x1080 for a total of 5760 x 1080.

 

[sm625]

I've tested LoL on an i5-3210M gpu and it plays just fine on max settings (with shadows turned down a couple notches). Due to the sheer volume of sales, you are able to find ivy bridge i5 notebooks with decent build quality for better prices than AMD A6 notebooks.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I've tested LoL on an i5-3210M gpu and it plays just fine on max settings (with shadows turned down a couple notches). Due to the sheer volume of sales, you are able to find ivy bridge i5 notebooks with decent build quality for better prices than AMD A6 notebooks.

any recommendations as far as models go? i dont know a lot about the laptop world, since i always built my machine myself

 

[crab0]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7520G.71728.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6520G.55734.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A6-4400M-Notebook-Processor.71726.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A6-3400M-Notebook-Processor.55753.0.html

Trinity A6 has better GPU but is let down by the move to dual-core and is closer to a last gen A4.

 

[Rvenger]

I recommend an A8 if you are going AMD. A6 and A4 are single module dual core variants. I have this laptop and I bought this over the i3-2370M. (Returned the Intel system due to bad USB port)


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+K-Series+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Indigo/Light+Indigo/6940249.p;jsessionid=EC92390324A4099A5E8173158A3A946A.bbolsp-app06-57?id=1218816101846&skuId=6940249&st=asus a8&cp=1&lp=1

 

[Fenixgoon]

I recommend an A8 if you are going AMD. A6 and A4 are single module dual core variants. I have this laptop and I bought this over the i3-2370M. (Returned the Intel system due to bad USB port)


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+K-Series+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Indigo/Light+Indigo/6940249.p;jsessionid=EC92390324A4099A5E8173158A3A946A.bbolsp-app06-57?id=1218816101846&skuId=6940249&st=asus a8&cp=1&lp=1

yeah i just saw that earlier today. sadly it's only available for in-store pickup, and there aren't any within about 2-hours of driving, otherwise i'd be all over it!

newegg has a similar acer A8 model..and once you factor in sales tax, it's about even, so i think i might go with that. the only sad part is neither have a BD drive, which would be nice for movies (but i guess on that small a screen it doesn't matter much...)

 

[Enigmoid]

If you are not getting an a8 or a10. I would recommend getting an i5 ivy. Very similar gpu performance (ivy i5 might be about 5-10% less) but will absolutely destroy trinity cpu wise. Intel graphics tend to perform quite well at low settings (equal to or better than trinity, might be because of amd cpu bottleneck) but poorly at higher settings ( worse than trinity). However, since neither is sufficient for higher settings i'd take an intel i5.

 

[stevech]

If you are not getting an a8 or a10. I would recommend getting an i5 ivy. Very similar gpu performance (ivy i5 might be about 5-10% less) but will absolutely destroy trinity cpu wise. Intel graphics tend to perform quite well at low settings (equal to or better than trinity, might be because of amd cpu bottleneck) but poorly at higher settings ( worse than trinity). However, since neither is sufficient for higher settings i'd take an intel i5.

wee bit Intel-centric?

 

[Enigmoid]

wee bit Intel-centric?

Nope.

Granted that the top of the line intel i7, i5s will be clocked about 10-20% slower. But trinity is a mere 20%-30% on average better than the hd 4000.
Cpu wise, trinity (the a10) is about equal to an i5 sandy in multithread and significantly less in singlethread. the dual core a6 gets absolutely destroyed.
However, trinity uses less power than ivy bridge so you might see slightly better battery life.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope/5

That lead evaporates when you realize that the a10-4600m that everyone compares trinity to has 384 gpu cores running at 496/685 mhz turbo, the a8 has 256 cores running 496/685 turbo and the a6 has only 196 running at 496/685. The a8 will be about equal to the hd 4000 (with a worse cpu), the a6 worse.

Unless you can get an a10 for the same price as an i5 ivy, stay away from AMD.

Note: Even though the a10 may have better graphics, cpu heavy game (gw2) may be unplayable.

 

[stevech]

AMD = value. Good enough.
Without AMD, what would Intel charge for PC CPUs?

 

[Torn Mind]

The Toshiba has a Llano while the Gateway has a Trinity, as indicated by the 3 and the 4 in the respective CPU model numbers. The Gateway has a worse screen resolution than the Toshiba. The Toshiba has the larger screen.

Hard Drives are slow.

APU graphics performance scales with RAM clocks. The Gateway has faster RAM with 1600 Mhz RAM.

The Trinity supports AVX, AES, and SSE4.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7520G.71728.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6520G.55734.0.html

The Gateway will give you modestly better performance, but its screen is crappier resolution-wise.

I do not think these laptops would provide superior performance to what is in your modest desktop rig. The 5770 is not much different from the 7750 performance-wise, and they are both two tiers above a x5xx class GPU. The screen on the Gateway is low resolution though, so you still could get good enough framerates.

They are single module dual core processors, so don't expect much greatness in CPU intensive tasks due to the lower single-threaded performance.

I would like the know the prices you expect to pay for these laptops, OP.

 

[Torn Mind]

AMD = value. Good enough.
Without AMD, what would Intel charge for PC CPUs?

In the past, yes. Now, not so much.

 

[klod]

I would like the know the prices you expect to pay for these laptops, OP.

I posted this in another thread, it seems very similar for $410:

http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=7015377&pid=1218821795328