Current tech vs. upcoming tech

[aakerman]

I am at a crossroad - should I buy a notebook now, or wait a couple of months, and take advantage of a) Dothan, b) 802.11g, c) Mobility 9600.

I need it for school, so graphics power is really not the greatest concern, although I'd like to play a few games - battery life is what concerns me the most (I need it to last a whole day of school!).

a) - Will the Dothan architechture provide noticeably improved battery life?

b) - Why is everyone anxiously awaiting 802.11g - where is the major improvement over 802.11b, and why is it so important?

c) - How much better perfomance will the mobility radeon 9600 offer, over the 9200, and will it provide noticeably better battery life? - I could only find a 5600GO vs mobility 9600 article, not 9600 vs 9200!


I hope someone knows some of these answers!

 

[Pandaren]

a) Dothan will be faster than Banias, but the power consumption remains about the same

b) 802.11g is already a finalized IEEE specification. It offers 54 megabits/sec peak bandwith, and 20 megabits/sec practical bandwith, while the older 802.11b spec offers a mere 11 megabits/sec peak and 5 megabits/sec practical bandwidth.

c) The 9600 steamrolls the 9200 in 3D performance, but I don't know if it is any more power efficient (my gut feeling says it eats more power than the 9200).

 

[dnuggett]

The Dothan will have double the on die L2 cache (2MB). Rumor has it that there will be low voltage and ultra low voltage due out at the end of the year. They will be rated somewhere around 12W and 7W. The current M is rated at 25W. This is alot less heat !!

The power consumption goes up from the Banias to the Dothan- 1.0 to 1.25 W. While you may not think .25 is significant, keep in mind it is also a 25% increase. Metaphorically speaking what if your car used 25% more gas? If you work out the math here... there is a difference that is worth mentioning.

 

[Pandaren]

The power consumption goes up from the Banias to the Dothan- 1.0 to 1.25 W. While you may not think .25 is significant, keep in mind it is also a 25% increase.

Keep in mind though that other system components consume power as well. When I'm working on my T40, and my screen is at half brightness, power consumption is anywhere between 8 and 12 watts.

 

[aakerman]

of course

so from a "battery" stand-point, I should go for the Banias? Maybe a banias with 9600?

Regarding the 802.11b/g, if I were to have a g-solution, then in order for it to be useful, my friends would also need g-solutions... the only time I would need such high speeds, would be to transfer large files to and from each other - and none of them currently have 802.11g! The internet at campus is only 20mbit total, so the possibility of me exceeding the 5mbit limit set by the 802.11b card, would be very very small =) - right?

 

[dnuggett]

Keep in mind though that other system components consume power as well. When I'm working on my T40, and my screen is at half brightness, power consumption is anywhere between 8 and 12 watts.

I didn't know I needed to state the obvious....

 

[Pandaren]

I didn't know I needed to state the obvious....

I thought some people might have been confused. You asked: what if your car used 25% more gasoline? But a car is a complete system, and a CPU is not. Even if Dothan eats 25% more power than Banias in idle mode, it may not impact battery life all that much.

 

[thuned]

Originally posted by: dnuggett
The Dothan will have double the on die L2 cache (2MB). Rumor has it that there will be low voltage and ultra low voltage due out at the end of the year. They will be rated somewhere around 12W and 7W. The current M is rated at 25W. This is alot less heat !!

The power consumption goes up from the Banias to the Dothan- 1.0 to 1.25 W. While you may not think .25 is significant, keep in mind it is also a 25% increase. Metaphorically speaking what if your car used 25% more gas? If you work out the math here... there is a difference that is worth mentioning.

You forgot one part. With a faster cpu, calculations get done faster. And the faster the calcs are finished, the sooner the cpu goes into idle mode. And pentium-m's excel at saving energy in loww usage mode (even the cache gets shut off).

 

[perksy]

802.11g is compatible with 11b. Just in a 11g environment, it'll be able to run faster. Also, 11g is more secure; 11b's WEP encryption apparently is flawed.