Wait for Trinity A10 or go Ivy-Bridge

[Shen Shadow]

Hi Folks,

hope to post this in the right Forum.

I consider building a new system/ getting a notebook
and came up with this

Since may there was this preview of Trinity over at Anandtech, and i was eager to replace my aching Zotac Ion Atom with something that i can call a real PC.(i know everything is better than atom/ion )

So two questions:
1. Does anybody know when Trinity/FM2 will be out in the wild.

2. What is your Opinion about Desktop/Notebook gaming
so i thought of getting a beefier intel/nvidia notebook but then i wonder if the price premium is worth it (same for an intel desktop).

So what´s your opninion in this matter ?

many thanks and So Long
Shen

p.s. sorry for my bad english as its not my native language.

 

[Puppies04]

What do you expect this notebook to do?

 

[Shen Shadow]

What do you expect this notebook to do?

The main goal of the system would be gaming (sometimes at an external TFT@full HD so that´s something to consider if its a notebook)

and it should be able to run recent games @high settings
but as i am tight on budget i thougt of an APU system because i dont need the top notch cpu (should be sufficient to not limit the gpu) and that like Trinity looked like a good choice...

I am a bit overwhelmed with the recent combinations of AMD APU, IGP and dGPU
likewise the Performance of new Ivy Bridge (mobile parts) and nvidia GPU´s

for the record, i thougt of ~750$ ( or spending a bit more if the bang is right for the buck)

 

[dguy6789]

AMD's APUS are better than Ivy Bridge if you're talking about game performance using the integrated GPUs. If you consider game performance to be a huge deal then absolutely wait.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

1. Trinity/FM2 is already in the wild. Costco has A10 systems on their shelves right now and has had them on their shelves for a few weeks.

2. Desktop vs. notebook gaming: you have to decide whether you want a portable, lower-resolution gaming solution that's less capable or a fixed, higher-resolution gaming solution that's more capable. You also have to decide whether Intel + Nvidia/AMD is worth the price premium over and AMD Trinity system.

Bottom line: wait for Trinity to become more mainstream so you can objectively look at hard data.

 

[PowerYoga]

define "decent games" on "high settings". We really don't know anything until you give us examples of what games you play. Example, You're not going to run sleeping dogs with high res textures at 1080P at max on an A10. But A10 will run d3 on max (shadows on medium probably) with little to no issues.

 

[Shen Shadow]

Okay , i thougt so too but then when is Trinity scheduled ?
and how about a xfire setup with apu´s

And its a bit new to me atm. is a notebook for gaming a good tradeoff for less performance any opinions about that ?

many thanks

 

[dguy6789]

You only get a gaming notebook if portability is crucial to you. They are either significantly slower than a gaming desktop or significantly more expensive.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Best buy has an A10 notebook advertised this week for less than 600.00, and I have also seen them listed at costco. Trinity is decent at the 1366x768 resolution of most low/mid range notebooks at around medium settings. If you want to play recent games at high setting, especially outputting to 1080p, you would have to have a laptop with a discrete card in the range of a GT650 or 670M, and probably an intel quad core. My personal opinion is that Trinity laptops are still somewhat overpriced. Honestly if you want to output to 1080p, you will have to pay 1000+ for a notebook that will play high settings on recent games.

 

[Shen Shadow]

Right, sorry for the few details.

So i am aiming at games like BF3, Skyrim, Sleeping Dogs, Aion, Portal2

as i mentioned above right now i have an Atom330@2,6GHz + Gforce 8600 gts and that´s my "decent performance" but last week i got an old samsung R60 from a friend, and then i realized that core2duo t7250+ ati x2300 was a big leap forward in fps, at that point i fiddled with a new gaming notebook

first choice was an A8 like Asus K55N-BA8094C which is ~500$

edit: woah to slow :O

I will check the A10 offers ASAP many thanks

OK so for a real desktop replacement i have to dig depp in my pockets.
Atm i´m getting a bit bored with half baked soloutions that are "fast enough" but then of course IGP would never be the right way i guess

Many thanks for now
Shen

 

[cytg111]

You only get a gaming notebook if portability is crucial to you. They are either significantly slower than a gaming desktop or significantly more expensive.

This.

Not all that uncommon though, I've seen more than a few friends go this route cause the wife/gfu cant fit a real desktop in the "house envoriment". No shame tho .. whatever floats the boat

edit : I read up on the tech a few years back, but it wasnt ready at the time, maybe it is now. If you are gaming in your house anyway, it
_may_ be possible for you to 'stream' the game from a more powerful desktop to your (less expensive) laptop, wirelessly.

 

[Shen Shadow]

This.

Not all that uncommon though, I've seen more than a few friends go this route cause the wife/gfu cant fit a real desktop in the "house envoriment". No shame tho .. whatever floats the boat

Yeah but then i would end up with a book like Asus ROG or likewise ? or any alternatives on that side ?
Is such a notebook worth the investment ?

Thanks to the many replies

 

[daveybrat]

Here's the best gaming laptop i found for the price range, it's currently on sale for $629 w/free shipping from Newegg:

lenovo G780 (21823LU) Notebook Intel Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834246491



You get the latest Ivy-Bridge i5 processor, a higher resolution 1600x900 17.3" screen and a dedicated Nvidia GT 630M 2GB graphics card.

This laptop will beat any Trinity based laptop with ease.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Here's the best gaming laptop i found for the price range, it's currently on sale for $629 w/free shipping from Newegg:

lenovo G780 (21823LU) Notebook Intel Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834246491



You get the latest Ivy-Bridge i5 processor, a higher resolution 1600x900 17.3" screen and a dedicated Nvidia GT 630M 2GB graphics card.

This laptop will beat any Trinity based laptop with ease.

Yea, that is a nice laptop and a killer price. That 630M is a rebadged GT 540M though, so it will probably struggle if you try to output to 1080p. It will be faster than Trinity though.

 

[Hubb1e]

If you try and play BF3 at 1080p on any low end laptop you're gonna have a bad time.

Your best bet for gaming is to get yourself a desktop unless you have a real need for portability. You can get a pretty good gaming desktop for $500.

 

[Shen Shadow]

Yeah the lenovo looks reasonable though.
but then on the other side it´s not the whole picture

right now i figured that what i am realy looking for is an upgrade to my aging desktop.... so despite all the mobility i think i prefer performance over portability especialy if i look at the price premium for a gaming notebook
never realized what´s the big difference till now :O

But then on the Desktop side... it feels like the only choice is a i5 3570 + gpu ?
any recomendations on a amd build (it´s realy cheaper though)edit: and i definitely want a ssd in my build so i guess i could spend the price premium on intel elsewhere ?

so to this point thanks alot for pushing my thougts in the right direction :thumbsup:
apreciate this forum

@streaming games... tho that looks like a bigger investment but the idea feels right :O

 

[happysmiles]

give us a price range

 

[Shen Shadow]

I thought about 600 $ for the system (mainly cpu gpu and ssd@128GB)

i´m digging for a build tonight, will post my thougts then.

So far thanks for the help
So long
Shen

 

[daveybrat]

Do you have a Microcenter near you? If so, an AMD solution would be perfect.

 

[AtenRa]

FX6100 + CM Hyper + Mobo(970 chipset) + Mem + HD7850 2GB + OCS Vertex 4 128GB. Should be close to $600.

OC the FX6100 and HD7850 and you will be fine for every game at 1080p.

 

[BD231]

define "decent games" on "high settings". We really don't know anything until you give us examples of what games you play. Example, You're not going to run sleeping dogs with high res textures at 1080P at max on an A10. But A10 will run d3 on max (shadows on medium probably) with little to no issues.

No, it won't. Tried it myself and the damn thing struggles at resolutions as low as 800x600 minimum texture settings. Stay far away from trinity if you want to play newer titles, it's dog slow. Same goes for Ivy. Dedicated graphics is a must for decent gaming on a laptop, APU's aren't there yet.

 

[2is]

I have a feeling if you wait for Trinity, you'll start a new thread titled:

Wait for Haswell or go Trinity A10

 

[Shen Shadow]

FX6100 + CM Hyper + Mobo(970 chipset) + Mem + HD7850 2GB + OCS Vertex 4 128GB. Should be close to $600.

OC the FX6100 and HD7850 and you will be fine for every game at 1080p.

So i looked through the interwebs and that realy looks like the best way to go.
So i choose this Parts
AMD FX 6200 150
ASUS M5A97PRO 100
ATI 7870 275
VERTEX 4 128GB 125
~650 $
figured the like 40$ more for 7870 is a deal
hence i have a PSU and all the other stuff that looks like a solid build to me .
Since any intel build with i5 will start around 100$ higher thats nothing i am willing to pay for the CPU alone

So yeah i think that would be the end of my search..

I guess in the end i expected more of the APUs (Trinity) then they are meant to be (and didn´t quiet get the Performance difference of Mobile Parts)

So no there will be no new Thread like Hasswell i think thats somewhat a comparsion between apples and grapes

Thanks alot for the help
Cheers
Shen

 

[happysmiles]

Awesome!!!! ^_^ I'm surprised that it was all resolved in one page.

Enjoy your new system

 

[Zap]

Atm i´m getting a bit bored with half baked soloutions that are "fast enough" but then of course IGP would never be the right way i guess

Right!

it
_may_ be possible for you to 'stream' the game from a more powerful desktop to your (less expensive) laptop, wirelessly.

There's a service for this, but it costs monthly and streams from their servers.

Onlive

right now i figured that what i am realy looking for is an upgrade to my aging desktop.... so despite all the mobility i think i prefer performance over portability especialy if i look at the price premium for a gaming notebook
never realized what´s the big difference till now :O

Yes there is. If there wasn't a huge price as well as a performance difference, most of us would already be on notebooks for gaming.

Yes I own notebooks, but I game on my custom built desktop.

So i choose this Parts
AMD FX 6200 150
ASUS M5A97PRO 100
ATI 7870 275
VERTEX 4 128GB 125
~650 $
figured the like 40$ more for 7870 is a deal
hence i have a PSU and all the other stuff that looks like a solid build to me .
Since any intel build with i5 will start around 100$ higher thats nothing i am willing to pay for the CPU alone

How likely are you to upgrade the system? If very, then you may be better served by a lower end Intel Core i3 dual core, with a future upgrade to a Core i5 quad core.

Will you be overclocking? I think at stock speeds the Core i3 is very competitive in gaming (excepting certain titles) versus AMD CPUs.

AMD FX 8150 vs Core i3-2100

I think the FX 8150 is similar (bit slower) to the FX 6100. Look at the bottom of the charts for the four gaming benchmarks. The Core i3 wins 3/4 of them. That's for a cheaper CPU that has half the TDP wattage and an upgrade path.

For the SSD, IMO it isn't worth the extra money for the "faster" Vertex 4. Unlike things such as graphics cards where a faster card can mean smoother framerates with settings turned higher, a faster SSD means... it benchmarks faster. Seriously, among what are considered the higher performance SSDs, I don't think ANYONE without the benefit of benchmarking in some way (whether custom benchmark software, or merely using a stopwatch to measure booting times) will notice a real world difference. Thus, among the top SSDs you can just shop based on price. By this I mean don't pay more than $90-100 for a 120/128GB SSD. As to which other SSDs are decent, anything that is a current SATA 6G model by Plextor, Intel, Crucial, Corsair, SanDisk, Samsung and probably some others.

With the money saved on the slightly cheaper CPU and SSD, you may be able to either pocket it for future upgrades, or spend it on a higher end graphics card. I think I've seen recent Hot Deals on Radeon 7950 for as low as $310.