1binkdock

Join Date 06/2011

Llano or Sandybridge for Elemental?

Hi, I'm going to be buying a laptop soon. Which would be a better choice for Elemental?

Sandybridge has a really strong CPU-core, paired with an barely adequate integrated graphics core.

Llano has an older weaker CPU-core, paired with a state of the art ATI graphics-core.

The their comparative advantages seem to be pretty much reversed. So, which would be better for Elemental?

A stronger CPU-core for AI-calculations? or a stronger Graphics-core smooth 3D rendering and gameplay?

Is Elemental more CPU-calculations intensive? Or more 3D graphics intensive?

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Get a sandybridge and an awesome videocard and overclock the heck out of the sandybridge.

not that EWoM needs that kind of power, but it would be fun.

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Tridus

Join Date 03/2008

+110

I'm not sure it's going to matter a lot either way for Elemental, but if your intent is to play games on the laptop you're going to want the stronger GPU. Anything that uses shaders and such (and Elemental does) will benefit from that tremendously.

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Charon: if I wanted to overclock, I would be building a desktop rig instead of buying a laptop. Overclocking would be guaranteed to kill my battery-life.

Tridus: Thanks. The info about the use of shaders in Elemental is useful. It definitely helps me pick between Sandybridge and llano for Elemental.

I guess I'll go with llano, then. Best case scenario would be to wait for Trinity (newer Bulldozer cpu-cores matched with state-of-the art graphics-core), but I don't think I can wait that long. Since Bulldozer is coming out this year, that means Trinity is probably going to be next year, and I want a new laptop in the next couple of months.

I just wanted to make sure my new laptop works well for Elemental. Thanks for the advice, guys.

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Somehow I missed the part where you said laptop...sorry about that.

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kyogre12

Join Date 07/2008

+100

Sandybridge has a really strong CPU-core, paired with an barely adequate integrated graphics core.

Llano has an older weaker CPU-core, paired with a state of the art ATI graphics-core.

I'm confused. Why can't you get a laptop with Sandybridge and a good graphics card? I've looked around, I know you can find them. Or have you narrowed it down to just those two?

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Quoting kyogre12,

reply 5

Sandybridge has a really strong CPU-core, paired with an barely adequate integrated graphics core.

Llano has an older weaker CPU-core, paired with a state of the art ATI graphics-core.
I'm confused. Why can't you get a laptop with Sandybridge and a good graphics card? I've looked around, I know you can find them. Or have you narrowed it down to just those two?

Mostly because it usually doesn't make sense to get an expensive bells-and-whistles laptop. For the price of a laptop with all the fixin's like a topnotch discrete graphics card, you can buy the equivalent spec top-notch desktop AND and a basic laptop for mobility at the same time. Though over 50% of new computers purchased are laptops, laptops are usually much more expensive then their spec-equivalent desktop, and weaker than their price-equivalent desktop, sometimes significantly so.

I just wanted to make sure my basic laptop can play Elemental . I won't be bothering to rebuild my desktop till I see how the Bulldozer thing pans out (and then you've got upcoming IvyBridge vs. 2nd gen. Enhanced Bulldozer following that up) . My new laptop should tide me over till I see how the dust settles before planning my next desktop build. Now to play the waiting game for Llano to reach retail and hunt for good deals....

Edit to add: Been reading some recent llano gaming reviews...They say that llano outperforms SandyBridge in framerates on games except for a couple of cpu-bound titles. Elemental is not a cpu-bound title, right?

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