Laptop Guruji - Processor

AMD Processor

AMD calls its processors APUs (Accelerated Processing Unit). They combine CPU cores and graphical cores onto a single chip. Currently, these are the following lines of AMD mobile APUs:

The A4 is the budget range and they contain 4 cores, integrated Radeon R3 graphics and lack support for dual graphics. Their clock speeds reach 2.5 GHz when running multi-threaded applications.

The A6 also contains four cores but it comes with integrated Radeon R4 graphics which have higher clock speeds than the R3 ones.

The A8 contains either 4 cores or 4 CPU cores and 6 graphical cores combined to form what AMD calls 10 compute cores. Dual graphics support is added and the integrated GPU is a R5 model.

The top of the line A10 adds faster R6 graphics and more advanced audio technology.

Types of Intel Processor

INTEL CELERON

INTEL PENTIUM

INTEL CORE i3

INTEL CORE i5

INTEL CORE i7

INTEL CORE M

Intel Celeron Processor

CELERON processors are found in low end budget laptops and netbooks. While good enough for simple tasks like web-browsing and reading books, the CPU will start to struggle with intensive applications like playing games and watching full HD videos. The advantage of this line is that they are very efficient and do not consume a lot of the laptop's power leading to excellent battery life. This efficiency is due to the CELERON CPUs taking around 4W-35W power (technically called TDP:"Thermal Design Power") and their clock speeds rarely crossing 2 GHz.

Intel Pentium Processor

PENTIUM processors supplement the CELERON as the faster line of Intel's budget offerings. As CELERON CPUs are just stripped down PENTIUMs, the performance of these processors is faster than the CELERON. Gaming is possible thanks to an Integrated Intel HD Graphics and so is HD video watching. While more power hungry than its smaller brother, the PENTIUM's have faster clock speeds generally around 2.5 GHz and more cache.

Intel Core i3 Processor

The Core i3 line is the starting line of Intel's mainstream Core series. All i3 mobile processors come with 2 cores, integrated Intel HD Graphics and hyperthreading (where the 2 physical cores of the CPU are joined by 2 more logical cores to give a total of 4 threads and 25% more performance than a normal dual core processor). Cache is less and the general performance will obviously be less than an i5. One feature lacking in the i3 is Turbo-Boost (the ability of the CPU to increase its clock speed for a limited time when running intensive applications). TDPs vary from 15W-35W depending on the series of the processor so do not netbook like batery life.

Intel Core i5 Processor

The Core i5 sits in the middle of Intel's core lineup and provides very good performance at decent pricing. It has turbo-boost, but again with only 2 cores (4 with hyperthreading) and faster integrated graphics than the i3. TDPs vary from 15W-35W depending on the series of the processor and the battery life span is similar to the i3 laptops.

Intel Core i7 Processor

Core i7 represents the top end of the Core lineup and the best that Intel could come up with at the given price point. These processors come with 2-4 physical cores depending on the series and hyperthreading. More cache, higher turbo boost clock speeds and better Intel HD Graphics differentiates it from the i5, but in real life scenarios the performance difference between them will be hardly felt and the i7 can showcase its extra oomph only in multi threaded applications or heavy workloads like HD video editing/rendering and CAD.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT CORE PROCESSOR

When you look at the specifications of an Intel processor, you will see something like this: Intel Core i7 4900MQ. Looking at just the i3, i5 or the i7 is not enough as even in a single lineup there are huge differences in the performance. The first three parts namely Intel, Core and ix (x=3, 5 or 7) are pretty straight forward. Let's take the next term that makes all the difference between different processors. The first digit represents the generation of the processor. 3 means third generation, 5 means the fifth and so on. The next 3 digits represent the SKU number. Larger the SKU number, the better and faster is the processor. This number is then followed by an alpha suffix. Various suffixes include:

This is the standard Mobile processor having a TDP of 35 W.

This is the Ultra Low Voltage line of processors having a TDP of 15 W and underclocked integrated graphics and low clock speeds than the M series.

HQ stands for High Performance Graphics and these are found only in i7's that have very fast integrated graphics.

This is the Mobile Quad Core line of processors that comes only with i7's and have four physical cores.

MX stands for Mobile Extreme and only the fastest mobile i7's get this suffix.

These are extremely low power processors that come in 2 in 1 style devices.

Tl;dr

If money is a constrain and you want fast integrated graphics, look at AMD as they provide more cores that only the top end Intel CPU's can provide but take note that the performance of individual AMD cores is not very good. So expect not so good performance in single threaded applications but a boost in multi threaded ones. If looking at Intel, try to consider only the i3 and upward models as they are the best bang for your buck. Though most of Intel's processors are dual core, thanks to hyperthreading you get extra logical cores, hence improving performance. The Intel HD Graphics are no slouch either but AMD provides better. Also, Intel Processors provides better battery life and run much cooler than its AMD counterparts.

Recommendations

Intel is about to launch its 7th generation processors codenamed Kaby Lake, so look at laptops that provide Kaby Lake chips. Their previous generation of Processors codenamed Skylake are still very good and the difference between it and Kaby lake is expected to be negligible. On the AMD side of things, it is better to wait for the release of their latest Zen Architecture as they are touted to be much better than any of AMD's past offerings

PROCESSOR