HELP NEEDED PLEASE = ) (LAPTOP RELATED)

[RJ3YO]

I'm looking for a new laptop and was wondering if any of these would be able to run 2L decently. I do not want a desktop, I need a laptop for various reasons. Any help would be appreciated. 

First is the following specs 

AMD Elite Quad-Core A8-5545M Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon HD 8510G graphics

 

4GB DDR3L SDRAM i believe this is expandable as well

 

15.6" LED-backlit high-definition touch-screen display

 

500GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)

 

AMD Radeon HD 8510G graphics

Feature up to 2147MB total video memory 

 

Processor Speed 1.7GHz

The 2nd is as follows 

 

17.3" HD+ display 1600 x 900 resolution 

 

AMD Elite A8-5550M accelerated processor

Quad-core processing. AMD Quad-Core A8 APU handles the AMD Radeon graphics alongside the central processor to balance the load 

 

4GB system memory expandable to 8

 

750GB hard drive 

 

AMD Radeon HD 8550G graphics Integrated graphics chipset with shared video memory 

 

Video Memory Up to 2158MB (total)

 

Processor Speed 2.1GHz

 

Also would a i5 proccessor be better for second life or a A8 or A10? I'm really just looking to know if these types of specs are suffient enough to run 2L good and what type of processor is best. Thanks for the help guys. 

[beethros Karas]

Hello.. im NOT a tech.

I use Virtual worlds for many years though. I believe these days ALL Computers/laptops are able to perform SL good.. just because of the RAM.

-There are some spesific Graphic cards that cant perform SL. You can see who are they in the link bellow.

 

 

http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/

 

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Choosing_a_computer

 

Congs for your new laptop!!!!

[RJ3YO]

Thank you for the repsponse, I have looked over those threads already. I am looking for someone who may know more about these specifications regarding to second life than me, thank you. 

[KarenMichelle Lane]

RJ,

Your Radeon HD 8510G option is a Class 3 rated Notebook  in the tests performed by notebookcheck.net. However its benchmarked rating was 50% to poor and was designated as adequate for a light gamer only. The model they tested was on a Toshiba version of this processor & motherboard.

AMD Radeon HD 8510G

The AMD Radeon HD 8510G is a processor graphics card in some of the ultra-low voltage AMD Richland APUs (A8-5545M). It offers the full amount of 384 shader cores (VLIW4 architecture) and clocks at 450 - 554 MHz. The 8510G has no dedicated graphics memory, but shares the main memory with the CPU cores.

The integrated video decoder (probably UVD3) allows the full decoding of Multi-View Codec (MVC), MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX, xVid), MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and Adobe Flash HD videos.

According to AMD, the performance should be similar to the HD 7660G (3DMark 11: P1100). Thus, the Radeon HD 8510G would place on the same level as the dedicated HD 6550M or NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M. Without fast dual-channel memory the performance drops dramatically, however. The shaders of the chip can also be used for general computing.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8510G.87918.0.html

 

Your AMD Radeon HD 8550G option is a Class 2 rated Notebook in the tests performed by notebookcheck.net.

AMD Radeon HD 8550G

The AMD Radeon HD 8550G is a processor graphics card in the AMD Richland APUs (for example, the A8-5550M). It offers only 256 VLIW4 shader cores vs. the 384 shader cores of the 8650G. The 8550G has no dedicated graphics memory and shares the main memory with the CPU cores.

The integrated UVD3 video decoder allows for full decoding of Multi-View Codec (MVC), MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX, xVid), MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and Adobe Flash HD videos.

According to its clock rate range of 515 - 720 MHz (or 554 - 720 MHz in an A8-5557M), performance should be only a few percentage points above a Radeon HD 7640G. Thus, the Radeon HD 8550G performs similarly to a dedicated Radeon HD 7570M. Without fast dual-channel memory, however, performance drops dramatically.

The shaders of the chip can also be used for general computing.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8550G.89651.0.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Both these graphics processing system on the tested laptops will do excellent 2D Business Graphics & display blueray movies well. The 8550G clearly wins out in the gaming performance.

Now does this mean you will have an acceptable SL experience on the AMD Radeon HD 8550G laptop? Maybe if your expectations are not too high. A big con is that's is graphics chip set utilizes shared memory with the CPU. So when looking at laptops with on-board graphics AMD Radeon or Nvidia gForce are good starting points. If they also have dedicated graphics memory this is even better.

So use www.notebookcheck.net to check out your additional selections before buying.

 

 

 

[RJ3YO]

Would you recommended a third or 4th generation i5 or a accelerated a8 or a10 processor when it comes to running second life? 

[Katheryne Helendale]

I would personally go with the i5, but it really depends on which graphics processor it is paired with. Good 3D performance really needs a good discrete GPU with its own dedicated graphics memory.

[Sassy Romano]

---

beethros Karas wrote:

Hello.. im NOT a tech.

I use Virtual worlds for many years though. 

I believe these days ALL Computers/laptops are able to perform SL good.. just because of the RAM.

---

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with this.  It's not RAM that helps the most but the graphics adapter.  One of my laptops is a 2.4GHz 64 bit processor with 8GB RAM and the experience is utterly poor on it due to the integrated Intel graphics.  It's SO bad that I rarely bothered using it with a full viewer but would typically just use a text based viewer.

 

[RJ3YO]

Most of the i5 I am looking at in the price range of the ones with the amd radeon have those intel hd graphics card which I heard is not good at all for second life or gaming period. 

[RJ3YO]

Also what do you mean by the graphics adaptor? Where can I find this on the product information page? Thanks

[beethros Karas]

Yes! Exactly Right! Thanks for the correction. What I really wanted to say is that the memory RAM provided in the laptops these days, is sufficient to meet the needs of a good graphics card that it might have.

[Coby Foden]

---

RJ3YO wrote:

Also what do you mean by the graphics adaptor? Where can I find this on the product information page? Thanks

---

The "graphics adaptor" is more commonly called "GPU" (Graphics Processing Unit). This is the hardware which draws everything what you see on your display (it performes some other functions too besides graphics).

Most cheap low grade laptops have an Intel GPU; integrated in the computer motherboard. Those usually share the memory with the CPU (Central Processing Unit). Intergrated graphics are very innefficient and slow for any graphics intensive software (like games, Second Life, etc).

Therefore for good performance a dedicated GPU with its own dedicated memory will be required for smooth 3D experience. So look up for "GPU" in the product information page and read what it says there. If there is "Intel" and/or "intergrated" then stay away from that laptop. That would perform poorly in Second Life.

You might want to read this article for reference:

Top 10 Best Gaming Laptops

 

[RJ3YO]

So would a AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M Accelerated Processor Or a AMD A10 processor be good enough with a decent graphics card? 

[Katheryne Helendale]

---

RJ3YO wrote:

So would a 

AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M Accelerated Processor Or a AMD A10 processor be good enough with a decent graphics card? 

---

Given that your Intel i5-based choices only have Intel integrated graphics, either of these APUs, the A8 or the A10, should be able to outperform the i5. That being said, I'm afraid I don't know much at all about AMD's APUs, so I really can't tell you which would be better. Hopefully someone with more experience with APUs can chime in.

Were it my choice, I would save up a few hundred extra dollars and go with an Intel i5 or i7 laptop with discrete nVidia or Radeon graphics.

[Coby Foden]

---

RJ3YO wrote:

So would a 

AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M Accelerated Processor Or a AMD A10 processor be good enough with a decent graphics card? 

---

Google is your friend. I searched some info:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A8-4500M-Notebook-Processor.74884.0.html

"If compared to Intels Core-i3-series, the A8-4500M offers less performance in most cases."

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A10-4600M-Notebook-Processor.74065.0.html

"If compared to Intel, a Sandy Bridge Core i3-2310M is roughly on a similar level to the A10-4600M"

 

 

Personally I would go for Intel i5 or Intel i7 processor and NVidia graphics card. To get good performance on a laptop in Second Life be prepared to spend considerable amount of money.

 

Some examples of laptops suitable for gaming (and Second Life):

 

"Lenovo IdeaPad Y500" at around 1250 US dollars.

[CPU: Intel Core i7-3630QM] [GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 650M]

 

"MSI GX70 3Be-007US " at around 1399 US dollars.

[CPU: AMD A10-5750M] [GPU: AMD Radeon HD 8970M]

 

"MSI GX60 1AC-021US" at around 1299 US dollars.

[CPU: AMD A10-4600M] [GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7970]

 

"CyberPower FangBook X7-200" at around 1549 US dollars.

[CPU: Intel i7-3630QM] [GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX]

 

 

(To answer your question: Yes, even an AMD A10-4600M processor with good graphics card most likely would give fairly good performance in Second Life. Good graphics card with its own memory is the most important component what comes to graphics performance. One more thing: For enjoyable viewing experience I would go for 17 inch screen size laptop with 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200 resolution - plus a no-glare matte screen. Naturally those are heavier to carry than 15 inch laptops.)

 

[RJ3YO]

So do you think either laptop with 

 

AMD A10-5745M accelerated processor, 8GB system memory , 1TB hard drive, and an AMD Radeon HD 8610G graphics 

or

 

AMD Elite Quad-Core A10-5745M Accelerated processor, 6GB DDR3 SDRAM , 750GB hard drive (5400rpm) , and AMD Radeon HD 8610G graphics 

would be good enough to run SL pretty good?

[Coby Foden]

By looking at the specifications I wouldn't recommend either one for Second Life use.
Second Life is very graphics intensive application and it needs fast GPU for pleasant experience.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8610G.93719.0.html says the following:

"The AMD Radeon HD 8610G is a processor graphics card in some of the low voltage AMD Richland APUs (A10-5745M). It offers the full amount of 384 shader cores (VLIW4 architecture) and clocks at 533 - 626 MHz. The 8610G has no dedicated graphics memory, but shares the main memory with the CPU cores."

..and..

"Without fast dual-channel memory the performance drops dramatically."

So, to explain what is the problem:

• AMD Radeon HD 8610G is integrated graphics processors
• It shares the memory with the CPU (Central Processing Unit), which is very bad news concerning operation speed

You should look for a system with dedicated GPU (i.e. graphics card), these give much better performance than intergrated ones do. What is dedicated graphics card you may wonder. Here's explanation:

"A dedicated GPU (aka graphics card) is not necessarily removable, nor does it necessarily interface with the motherboard in a standard fashion. The term "dedicated" refers to the fact that dedicated graphics cards have RAM (i.e Random Access Memory) that is dedicated to the card's use, not to the fact that most dedicated GPUs are removable. Dedicated GPUs for portable computers are most commonly interfaced through a non-standard and often proprietary slot due to size and weight constraints."

So, a dedicated GPU has its own memory in it. No need to share the memory used by the CPU. This makes graphics operations faster.