A question for the tech heads

[JRMacumber]

Okay, I'm looking into getting a notebook PC, and for the most part I know what most of the jargon means and al that, but since I have very little experience with mobile PCs I'm ignorant about Intel's line of "Mobile Technology." More specifically, can someone help me understand how a Centrino processor compares to a Pentium. How would a 1.73Ghz Centrino match up to a 3Ghz P4? Are they comparable? Will I get the same work out of both?

Help this poor out of date guy out.

[The Raeven]

The fairly generally accepted thing is to multiply the Pentium-M (centrino) clock speed by 1.6 to find it's approximate P4-M equivalent (dunno how a P4-M compares to a P4 though...).

So...
1.5 = 2.4
1.7 = 2.72 (which would compare nicely to a 3ghz P4... I think)


Seemingly a Pentium-M processor does way more things in one clock-cycle.
What makes them so good for Notebooks? A Pentium-M processor consists out of multiple steps/layers regarding clockspeeds. When my DELL notebook isn't running any applications (except windows, zonealarm etc. etc.) it sometimes falls back to 16 mhz (yes, mega not giga). Simply to preserve power

[mid]

That's the main thing. The PM/Centrino notebooks usually aren't much faster than the P4-M ones, but you can actually get some work done on them before the battery dies.

[PeteBrant]

The "Centrino" badge does not apply to a type of processor, it infers a Pentium-M processor along with a Intel 855 chipset and a 802.11b wireless card. It is these three components which make up a Centrino laptop.

Some laptops out there which seem to have all the requirements of a Centrino based laptop, are not called Centrino. This is usually because the wireless card used is not the exact same Intel brand. The components have to be precise. Otherwise, it cannot be labeled a "Centrino".


The P4-Mcompares to a far higher clock speed, due to the relatively large amount of L2 cache on chip - 2MB. This is desireable because the lower the clock speed, the lower the power consumption - So a P4 3.0GHz would drain battery life quicker than a P4-M 1.7GHz, but the mobile variant offers similar performance.

[randombs]

As The Raeven has mentioned, there are, in fact, three types of Pentium processor to be found in laptops:

1) Pentium M (found in Centrino-branded laptops, as explained by PeteBrant)
2) Pentium 4-M ('mobile' version of the desktop Pentium 4. Similar clock speeds, but designed for laptops)
3) Pentium 4 (these are basically the standard desktop chips put into a laptop. You could take one of these out of the laptop and use it in a desktop, or take a desktop Pentium 4 and use it in the laptop)

The Pentium M is the best for battery life, as it has been designed specifically for portability (the large cache helps in spite of the seemingly lower clock speed)
There aren't that many Pentium 4-M chips doing the rounds - in my line of work, I tend to come across them at speeds of around 1.7GHz to 2GHz.

The desktop processors require immense heatsinks and fans, so laptops using these are larger and noisier than those using the Pentium-M.

To make matters slightly worse, the Celerons also follow the same pattern; Celeron M (like Pentium-M but with less cache - it's more or less the older version Pentium-M but rebadged), and I think I've seen Celeron-M chips which are like the Pentium 4-M in that their clock speeds are identical to the desktop chips, but they're a bit less power-hungry. Then there are the standard desktop Celeron chips in laptops, that will tend to range from around 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz, although obviously there are older machines with lower-specced ones.

If you're planning on gaming, then you'll need to decide whether portability, heat and noise are major issues or not. Personally, while I love to play Counter Strike, I spend much more time on these forums or using general internet/messenger stuff, so I am currently deciding as well!

I recently tried out an Acer Aspire 1682WLMi which has a Pentium M 1.7 and a Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card. While it runs Counter Strike stunningly (in proper widescreen, too) and handled Far cry quite well (I didn't play around with the settings too much, mind), it didn't take to the Half-Life 2 demo very well, and I had to lower the settings down immensely. Mind you, the demo isn't as PC-friendly as the full game, which has more options (including, crucially, the choice of either DirectX8 or 9 mode, with 8 being slightly faster but not as good-looking).

I found a round-up on a site that used Pentium M's in desktop motherboards (they've started making motherboards that support it) which made Half Life 2 fly, but they used proper graphics cards such as the Geforce 6800 and Radeon X800, etc, which are much more powerful than the mobile graphics cards...

[JRMacumber]

Great information guys. This laptop would be for the wife, and about the only game she plays is The Sims 2. The notebook I'm looking at is a Sony VIAO. It says that it has a 1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M Processor 740. All she does with her PC is surfing the net, watch some media files, and play The Sims 2. Should this notebook work well for her?

[PeteBrant]

Great information guys. This laptop would be for the wife, and about the only game she plays is The Sims 2. The notebook I'm looking at is a Sony VIAO. It says that it has a 1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M Processor 740. All she does with her PC is surfing the net, watch some media files, and play The Sims 2. Should this notebook work well for her?

It may struggle with Sims2 - That's quite an intensive game, graphically speaking. What graphics chip does the Viao have in it?

[SubparMario]

TV adverts have reliably informed me that you need at least 3GHz to send an email to your grandchildren.

[JRMacumber]

It may struggle with Sims2 - That's quite an intensive game, graphically speaking. What graphics chip does the Viao have in it?

NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 graphics with TurboCache technology supporting 128MB video memory.

[Pavey]

TV adverts have reliably informed me that you need at least 3GHz to send an email to your grandchildren.

Get a Mac.

[PeteBrant]

NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 graphics with TurboCache technology supporting 128MB video memory.

Hmmm, It will run Sims2, but I daresay not at the level of detail your better half is used to. Turn the detail level right down and you will get some level of performance. But it will struggle if you start turning things up - Like many laptops, 3D gaming is not its forte.

[JRMacumber]

Understood. But, when you look at the recommended specs, it says that the lowest CPU it needs is 800MHz. So, shouldn't a 1.7GHz Mobile Pentium handle things okay? Especially with that video card?

[randombs]

your processor is fine, although the guys here think the graphics card won't be up to it...

[JRMacumber]

Well, the numbers on it look to be better than the video card I have in my PC (a GeFroce 4 4200), and I can run the game perfectly fine. I don't know why hers would have an issue.

[PeteBrant]

Well, the numbers on it look to be better than the video card I have in my PC (a GeFroce 4 4200), and I can run the game perfectly fine. I don't know why hers would have an issue.

Essentially in term of sheer power, a Geforce 4200 is a better card than a 6200 - And the "go!" verison is throttled even futher.

THe 5200 was basically a very cheap Dx9 card (although it was not a fully featured Dx9 card), the 6200 is basically the updated version of this, ift is not much cop at all - It is basically a modern GeForce MX440 - A very limited card. Conversely, the 4200 was a decent mid range Dx8.1 card - And would cope with games like the Sims2 far better, albeit without Dx9 features.