Notebook Forums - Centrino Processors vs. athlon 64 and p4m

Notebook Forums - Centrino Processors vs. athlon 64 and p4m:

spasticmunkey
05-29-2004, 04:08 AM
I've been browsing the market of new laptops and had my list rather whittled down, when i read on Voodoo PC's site that centrino processors run effectively 1.8 times the actual clocked speed (ie the dothan 1.8 is quoted by voodoo to be running at the equivalent of 3.24). This was new information to me, and openned up the centrino based notebooks into my search. For a gaming notebook that isn't going to be plugged in on a desk 24/7 (I travel a bit) what processor would you recomend? I was looking at, among other things Athlon 64's and P4m's. Also, if anyone knows, do benchmarks give this 1.8x coefficient consistently?
Tommi
05-29-2004, 05:16 AM
Nope. It depends on the application. Pentium M's are efficient in encoding, I believe the 1.8 coefficient holds for that use only. I've seen the P-M -> P4-M efficiency multiplier ranging from anywhere of 1.35 to 1.9 in CPU tests. Generally, 1.5 or so could be used as an average value.
Tourney2112
05-29-2004, 08:56 PM
Yes, 1.5 is the general value because the 1.6GHz Pentium M usually compares to the 2.4GHz P4 in performance. Thus you can expect to see the 1.8GHz Dothan run like a 2.8GHz Pentium M. Now to get to your question about processors.

First lets talk about battery life (while doing casual things such as wordprocessing:
Pentium 4 (desktop version): usually expect 60-90 minutes
Mobile Pentium 4: expect around 2 hours.
Athlon 64: 3 hours
Pentium M (used in Centrino package): up to 5 hrs.

Performance:
of the three processors, the Athlon 64 shows the best performance. Coupled with AMD's hypertransport technology, the athlon64 can have up to a 1600mhz bus speed if the mobo supports it. Otherwise is runs with an 800mhz bus speed. Thus the athlon64 gives you a three hour battery life while a comparable P4 (with 800mhz fsb) would give you 1 hr. Although Pentium M gives you wonderful performance, it can't compare to the Athlon64 in performance.
Athlon64 will give you best performance with average battery life. If you get the Pentium M it can still handle any game out there especially with a M11 video card. Stay away from the P4. They aren't meant to be used in lappys. laptops are meant to be portable. P4's weigh ten pounds and have virtually no battery life to speak of.