AMD v Intel

[RC3250]

Hi. I'm going to be buying a notebook. 17.3" screen. I'm going to be doing Photoshop and CAD, but no gaming. Is there any obvious advantage of Intel over AMD? I was given a long talk about shaders, that AMD had many more of them on the chip, etc. so it was far superior in terms of rendering. No idea if this is correct.

Thanks.
R

 

[Stuka87]

Any AMD discrete video card is going to blow the on board intel HD2000/3000 out of the water. Now if you are talking llano vs Sandy Bridge, I would say go Sandy Bridge with a machine that has discrete graphics. CAD applications will most likely not make use of the HD2000/3000 card. But will make use of a discrete card like a Quadro.

 

[RC3250]

Just so I don't get confused a bit, you are saying the AMD blows the onboard Intel graphics unit out of the water. But if the machine has a discrete graphics card like a Quatro (NVidea), you'd go Sandy Bridge rather than llano (AMD). So, if it's on-board v on-board, go with AMD; if it's discrete graphics cards, stay with Intel.

Is that correct?

 

[Jovec]

CPU Power: Intel is much better than AMD

IGP Power: AMD Llano is much better than Intel HD3000, non-Llano IGPs from AMD will be roughly equal to the Intel HD3000.

Discrete GPU Power: Roughly the same between AMD and Nvidia at a given price point, but Nvidia's Optimus technology to seamlessly shutoff the discrete GPU and use the IGP gives them the edge.

GPGPU Power: Nvidia has Cuda support and should be a noticeable perk in apps that support it. OpenCL support in apps is much less widespread, although both AMD and NV will support it.

You should try to balance the above based on your needs and budget. An Intel CPU and Nvidia discrete GPU will give you the most power and versatility. Since you don't game and if you are sure none of your apps will beenfit from Cuda, you might be able to get by on just an Intel CPU with it's built in IGP.

 

[RC3250]

Good. So on board it's AMD, discrete, it's Intel. Yes? (And I know not that simple).

 

[pelov]

It's tricky...

I'm in the same boat and am debating on splurging a bit of cash on a new laptop, but I've found I'm constantly at shifting my focuses and which I'd favor more. Your usage differs from mine, though, and it's easier to choose.

Photoshop uses openGL so either discrete option will work, but a Llano APU will also use that advantage and better than an Intel SB-based chip. There's plugins to get CUDA to work, but how effective they are is something I can't personally attest to. Currently it isn't officially supported. The CAD software will likely lean on the GPU, but whether it prefers CUDA or openCL or openGL depends on the software.

I think you'll definitely benefit from a discrete GPU and an SB-based laptop. I have a core i3 SB laptop at 17.3" Toshiba that I like quite a bit. The processor has plenty of power and if you're adding a good discrete GPU you'll get great performance from it. Just be careful about your processor and GPU choices because laptop parts tend to be named very differently from their desktop counterparts. For instance, there are dual-core i7 SB laptop processors and AMD/nVIdia can have 2-3 different GPUs under the same name.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core i7 Mobile I7-2617M.html
http://www.anandtech.com/print/5200

Pick a price range first then start narrowing down.

 

[RC3250]

THANKS SO MUCH. This is a lot to digest but these comments are extremely helpful.

 

[Cerb]

Hi. I'm going to be buying a notebook. 17.3" screen. I'm going to be doing Photoshop and CAD, but no gaming.

Assuming that by CAD you mean AutoCAD, any current-gen Intel (Core ix-2xxx) will be good enough, usually (some people have video issues, but not many, and it's not so slow as it used to be). Still, the experience with discrete video will be better. HD2000 can be fairly jerky and flickery, though it does tend to work.

Photoshop should be about the same way: it will work, but you will be better off with add-on video.

I would go for AMD video just due to the Mobility Catalyst Driver (IE, your computer vendor won't be your sole source for driver updates).

The thing about Llano (AMD A-series 'APU's), you see, is that I've had better CPU performance than Llano in my desktop for about four and a half years. I would not want that kind of performance for applications that may put real stress on the CPU, since much faster options are available today.

 

[3DVagabond]

Most 3D programs use the CPU for rendering. Intel wipes the floor with AMD in this area. If your particular program uses the GPU for rendering then, as others have said, nVidia discrete is the way to go, simply because of compatibility with most of the programs. Photoshop itself doesn't leverage CUDA, although there a a few plugins that do.

All in all though, Intel with discrete nVidia pro graphics will be superior. This is assuming you have the budget for it, which will be much, much, much more than an AMD APU.