Intel PR Rating on the Centrino's: What's a 1.3GHz in P4 terms?

[Stealth1024]

A friend wants some concrete answers regarding relative speeds of the Intel Centrino Processor's in notebooks.

I was looking at a 1.3GHz Dell notebook with this processor, also considering faster variations, but with 3GHz P4's in all the press he complains any centrino will be much to slow... Anyone have some nice charts? Thanks.

 

[Pandaren]

General consensus is 1.30 GHz Pentium M is equivalent to a 1.8-2.0 GHz Pentium 4 depending on the application.

For most applications, the Pentium M is more than fast enough. That 3 GHz Pentium 4 might sound awfully fast to your friend, but I can gaurantee that he will hate the awful battery life and the awful heat output of a 3 GHz Pentium 4 laptop.

 

[GnomeCop]

just a guess but I think the 1.3ghz centrinos may be comparable to a 1.8-2.0 ghz p4... don't know about p4 desktop or p4m though

My friends 1.4ghz centrino laptop feels quite fast. And I've used a few 1.7ghz centrino gaming laptops with 7200 rpm notebook Hds and they felt like practically desktop speed. (~2.5ghz ???)

 

[SocrPlyr]

a decent rule of thumb, although not exact by any means but generally the clock speeds work out to be around.... p4 = 1.5 x pentiumM
thus 2.4 = 1.5 x 1.6...

Josh

 

[JBT]

I have a 1.3 centrino (P-M) and I think it is really quite fast plays games fine. and a much better bargin than the highier end ones plus average battery life of 4 hours and about 2 while playing games. It also recharges VERY quickly a nice feature. most of the P4 CPU's get about 2 hours battery life if that and half that when playing games so if u plain on always running to recahrge get the p4 I personally love not having to worry about being able to plug in.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: SocrPlyr
a decent rule of thumb, although not exact by any means but generally the clock speeds work out to be around.... p4 = 1.5 x pentiumM
thus 2.4 = 1.5 x 1.6...

That sort of works for the lower end Centrinos, but the higher end ones, I think you need to multiply it higher, maybe 1.6 or 1.7.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: dexvx
That sort of works for the lower end Centrinos, but the higher end ones, I think you need to multiply it higher, maybe 1.6 or 1.7.

I too feel 1.6 to 1.7 is a good multiplier for most Centrino's. Of course the P4 will do better than that multiplier for some programs, and the Centrino will do better than that multiplier for other programs. But on average 1.6 to 1.7 is a good number.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Stealth1024
A friend wants some concrete answers regarding relative speeds of the Intel Centrino Processor's in notebooks.

I was looking at a 1.3GHz Dell notebook with this processor, also considering faster variations, but with 3GHz P4's in all the press he complains any centrino will be much to slow... Anyone have some nice charts? Thanks.

For what purpose? Unless he's playing HalfLife2 or something, a 1.3 GHz Centrino is fast enough.

I'd guess somewhere around a 1.8+ GHz P4 on average.

More importantly, the Centrino laptops tend to be light and have killer battery life. No point in a 3 GHz P4 laptop if it weighs 10 lbs and lasts 30 minutes. I'd take a 1.3 GHz Centrino at 5 lbs that last 4 hours any day over a 3 GHz P4 monstrosity.

 

[josedawg]

I own a 1.3ghz Centrino, trust me, its plenty fast (look at Acer laptop in my systems list). When I bought it, I was under the impression that it compared to the P4 2.0-2.2ghz, although I could most likely be wrong. I think everyone will agree its ~2.0ghz, and that's more than enough power for your average user. Yes, I game on my laptop too, Q3 and RTCW:ET, both run pretty well. If he's gonna game, a 1.3ghz Centrino + Radeon 9600 Mobile (mine has a 9000 mobile and its pretty decent, ~200fps on Q3 Demo4) will definitely be enough. If he's gonna use the machine for just average use (internet, email) then a 1.3ghz with any video card is fine. He'll definitely enjoy the longer battery life. And JBTele is correct, my centrino laptop does recharge fairly quickly compared to an old p4 2.4ghz laptop I used.

 

[SocrPlyr]

Originally posted by: dexvx

Originally posted by: SocrPlyr
a decent rule of thumb, although not exact by any means but generally the clock speeds work out to be around.... p4 = 1.5 x pentiumM
thus 2.4 = 1.5 x 1.6...

That sort of works for the lower end Centrinos, but the higher end ones, I think you need to multiply it higher, maybe 1.6 or 1.7.

No doubt it is probably higher than 1.3... but i was just trying to make an easy number to multiply by and also play it on the safe side a little... Now in my experience a 1.6 Centrino is about the same as my 2.4 p4 on most things... so that is why i did it that way... also since you are giving it a PR rating basically safer is always better...

Josh