I've used Intel processors my entire life, and I've found it particularly easy to differentiate from one to the other. Yet, I have no way of telling the difference between specific AMD processors.

For example, Intel has an image that tells you what its best technology is, rating it as "genius" or "smart", yade yade yah. It gives no specific information about the quad or the duo core processor, just that the guad is more of a "genius" than the duo core. Maye seem silly, but they seem to be getting the job done. Is there anything AMD offers in respects to this?

If it is any constellation, I am looking for a tablet PC. A majority of the tablet PCs that are on the lower end in regards to price consist of AMD. Some questions do arrive from this.

-Should I stick with Intel tablets or make the move to AMD.
-Would I be "suffering" from performance issues if I do?

I don't want to generalize about AMD -- that's not my approach to life. Yet when it comes to technology, staying afloat is difficult. Especially with school.

Thanks in advance.

The simple truth are that you have to compare apple against apple and in a laptop/tablet PC you will have a hard time to find any good measurement. You have to know that different chipset, harddisk and GPU can change what combination that will work best for your need.

After reading some benchmarks for harddisk I have learned that it is not as simple as 7200 RPM (common for desktop) will equal better performance against 5400 RPM harddisk for laptop/notebooks in 2.5" form factor. There are several other factors that might make a fast CPU slow or v.v.

I would say that around 2 GHz or better would be a good goal for a mobile CPU from both Intel or AMD and it should be a dual core version. You need also to have 3 GB DDR2 RAM as system memory (32 bit limit) or more if you use 64 bit OS. A dedicated video card on board with its own memory would be better, then an IGP as it would off load system memory and probably have some more power to do other task. (AMD HD3200, Intels X4500HD and nv8200 IGP will all be good for watching plain video content and you can read about them if you google for "benchmarks" to judge yourself how good they are for your usage.)

Don't forget about battery life and other features that are connected to portability and might be as important as raw speed on a CPU.


Some basic question:

Do need a Tablet PC or will any other form factor be good? How large/small screen do you need? What ports and hardware to connect do you have that you want to be able to use? What weight and size would be too big or too small for you?

Do you have any plan for storage and capacity? Do you have a desktop and how do you want to use this laptop/table PC in conjunction with it?

What kind of application do you run or need to be able to run?

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Abit AT8-32X (Xpress3200)/Athlon64 X2 4200+@stock/Corsair VS 2GB/Samsung SATA II 2x 250 GB/Club3D X1950XT GDDR3 256MB+ PowerColor Theatre 550 pro (PCIe x1)

Edited: 10/21/2008 at 12:48 PM by blizard

blizard.. that was a well framed answer my dear.. and for choosing a PC/laptop, make sure that you are Considering your needs as well.

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Vishnu M
http://beautifulminds.in

Don't know AMD, better choosing what you used before , AMD processor are more for the expert user......

@Turion64Ultra: That's nonsense of course. That a manufacturer has a problem managing/marketing its portfolio effectively doesn't mean that its products are only suitable for the ones that are familiar with it.

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Adrian Offerman
Maintainer of The ChipList

Move from Intel to AMD is easy. Go for it! :-)
I would recommend to you to buy AMD Turion Ultra (ZM-84/ZM-86/ZM-88)-based laptop (Tablet PC).

Soon or later you would give a try to Virtualization tools.
And VirtualBox works very well on AMD processors, thanks to hardware visrtualization support.

Performance Index in Windows Vista for AMD Turion Ultra processors is comparable to Intel Penryn processors, while RAM transfer speed is higher than for Intel (thanks to HyperTransport technology)
If you need exact comparision numbers - pls feel free to let me know.
I have those numbers, collected from several notebooks in computer shops.

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Vadim Plessky

Here are the basic differences the QL series has two speeds full and one half. The RM series has four speeds full one half and one quarter this give it a lower power usage than the QL series when the processer is not working hard. The ZM series is the same as the RM series except it has two megabytes of L2 cache where the RM has one megabytes of L2 cache this make the processor a bit faster for the same clock rate as the RM series and uses a bit less power. The RM and ZM support faster RAM than the QL 667 versus 800. The TL and TK series are the older processor designs. A computer with these processors may have been sitting on the shelf of a year or two. Lithium ion batteries degrade over time so a computer with a TL or a TK may have a weak battery. I would not buy these unless you get a good price. The other processor numbers are generally single core processors nothing is wrong with them they run at about half the speed as the dual core processors. The emachine is an example of a new single core laptop.

thats a vague answer. You first say you dont know amd processors then you say they are for the experts? If your in the field then you would know that this isnt true. Yes there architectures are different but to say only experts use amd is pointless.

Blizard replied with a good answer. It really depends on your needs and ask yourself if a tablet pc is really what you will need. just a quick question. Tablets do tend to be more expensive so why consider it if you are looking at the amd supported tablets which are cheaper? Why not a different laptop? you could get one for considerably cheaper.

Also, not to highjack this thread but can anyone help me. I want to be able to check posts Ive created or posts Ive been helping others with by sending an email to me when someone replies. I couldnt find it in the control panel. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

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Computer Help & Repair