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I've been trying to find a powerful laptop to run pcsx2 and I found 2 laptops, they are both made by Asus and cost about $1700, one has i7 720qm cpu and the other q9000, the 720qm has 1.60 ghz and q9000 has 2.00ghz, and I thought you need like 3.0 ghz or more to run pcsx2 smoothly, so what's going on, these laptops are so expensive but the ghz is so low???
Or am I wrong?
The 720m has something called turbo boost. when working correctly it bumps up the clock rate depending on the program you run.

So, if a program mainly uses 4 cores, it will bump up the clock rate to about 1.7GHz, if it is uses two cores, the clock rate will bump up to about 2.4GHz, if a program is using just one core it will bump up to 2.8GHz.

Plus the i7 is faster clock for clock. The i7 cpu is the better buy.
(02-19-2010, 05:14 AM)wormer Wrote: [ -> ]I've been trying to find a powerful laptop to run pcsx2 and I found 2 laptops, they are both made by Asus and cost about $1700, one has i7 720qm cpu and the other q9000, the 720qm has 1.60 ghz and q9000 has 2.00ghz, and I thought you need like 3.0 ghz or more to run pcsx2 smoothly, so what's going on, these laptops are so expensive but the ghz is so low???
Or am I wrong?

Laptops CPUs will always be slower than desktop processors, it really isn't fair to expect them to perform the same. Desktops generally don't have to worry about overheating or power draw issues, laptops do.

Not to mention laptops don't have full-sized GPUs, and PCSX2 relies heavily on them. I wouldn't buy a laptop specifically for PCSX2 unless you find someone with the same specs that can play the same games you want.
Quote:Laptops CPUs will always be slower than desktop processors, it really isn't fair to expect them to perform the same. Desktops generally don't have to worry about overheating or power draw issues, laptops do.

Not to mention laptops don't have full-sized GPUs, and PCSX2 relies heavily on them. I wouldn't buy a laptop specifically for PCSX2 unless you find someone with the same specs that can play the same games you want.

Why, I've always been told that pcsx2 needs mainly CPU power and saw people with rather crappy GPU who seem to do just fine. Anyway recent middle and high end laptop GPU aren't that bad especially for small res even if they don't compare with their desktop counterparts...
What kind of GPU you need really depends on the game. Some can run acceptably on anything, some don't even run well with the best card on the market. Both CPU and GPU are important, to a point; but the big issue is in general you can't compensate for one with the other. If you have a 1.3Ghz single-core, you can't offset the difference with a great GPU. If you have a 3.0Ghz dual-core and integrated GPU, it doesn't even out or anything.

I too know people that have run PCSX2 on absolute garbage hardware, but that doesn't mean it was any good. Dropping $1,700 on a laptop that may not even play the games you want is something I'd be cautious of.
1) PCSX2 needs more CPU power than GPU, so if you're basically buying this laptop for PCSX2 you shouldn't really worry about GPU. A laptop costing 1.700 US$ will surely have one that will do the job. Echosierra is talking about PC games. In PCSX it IS about CPU, much much more than GPU.

2) This isn't a case when you can say "laptops CPU are slower than desktop CPUs". Take a look at i7 720qm benchmarks. It will outperform almost any Core 2 Duo or even quite a few Core 2 Quads with much more Ghz speed (2.8 Ghz for example, vs i7 1.6)

This processor is faster clock for clock. Its like.. remember the days of AMD Athlon and Intel's P4? You could have a P4 at 3.2Ghz and be beaten by an AMD Athlon at 2.2Ghz. Well this is the same. Core i7 technology is different. That i7 outpowers almost any Core 2 Duo (stock) and a lot of Core 2 Quad. Just search for benchmarks.

But bear in mind that I don't know how both of them will perform in PCSX2, all I know is PCSX2 only uses 2 cores and 2 threads at the momento (will be using 3 threads in some time, but still 2 cores only), so, if you want it "only" for PCSX2, then better get a high-clocked dual core, like a Core i5 540m or something like that. It will be faster in PCSX.
I think my statement stands. Integrated graphics suck hardcore, and if you buy a laptop with integrated and expect it to run PCSX2 well I think you'll be sorely disappointed. Beyond that we just have to agree to disagree Tongue

For $1,700 it better not have integrated, otherwise you're getting ripped off; especially if it's being billed as a gaming laptop. What's the specific models?
Both are close in performance,i believe q9000 is a little cheaper,I7 720Qm is a little faster,for games it won't matter you can go with any of these two,it will matter the GPU
both are close in performance,i believe q9000 is a little cheaper,I7 720Qm is a little faster,for games it won't matter you can go with any of these two,it will matter the GPU
Thank you dotHack - I guess I'll go with the i5-540M, maybe i7-620M for a few extra bucks just in case, I guess it should do the job.