CPU choices vs integrated / discrete GPU.

[thinkpadcollection]

Let say T400 notebook for now, two types. integrated or discrete GPU. To mix into this sweet stuff, different CPU lower end and high performance CPU. Gaming is not required. I was shocked (may be not true that ATI GPU is 35W on T400/T500?).

Now, Do 2.8GHz 6MB cache (T9600) helps with integrated GPU performance some compared to lower performance like 2.53GHz 3MB? Reason is I am trying to make notebook runtime longer as possible as this can be.

By the way I had HUGE, huge problem with automatic GPU/iGPU switching on T500 so I left ATI GPU as default and go into bios to switch manually to integrated GPU as needed. No fun.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[Cigarguy]

As with any computer, it depends on what you need it to do. My T400 is used for email, Internet and some Office stuff so a dedicated GPU only add heat and shorten battery life. Integrated is more than fine and a P8700 is perfect. A SSD is a must for any machine as it brings the biggest improvement.

Heat the is anemia of longevity and battery life.

[dr_st]

For non-gaming tasks the integrated GPU on the T400/T500 is plenty enough.

[brchan]

Agreed that the integrated cpu should be more than enough for today's basic web surfing, email, and documents. However, if you plan to keep the laptop for a long time, a discrete gpu will begin to play a larger roll since many operating systems and web browsers are taking more advantage of gpu acceleration.

[SkiBunny]

I have one T520 with Core i7-2620 & no GPU and another T520 with Core i5-2540 with NVS4200. Per my signature.

The former runs noticeably warmer than the latter, according to both CoreTemp and touch, under low load and moderate load, probably due to optimus in the latter turning off the GPU when unneeded. I prefer the latter thinkpad and it cost less. Also FWIW, the former thinkpad scores just 5.9 on WEI vs 6.4 for the latter due to the difference in graphics performance.

[SkiBunny]

Heat the is anemia of longevity and battery life.

My W520 is the coolest running thinkpad I have ever owned. Significantly cooler than the T520 and T420. Must be a heavy-duty cooling system.

[brchan]

I also have a W530 and can confirm that even with discrete gpu only via bios, it runs cooler than all the other thinkpads in my sig.

[thinkpadcollection]

I mean higher CPU freq (2.8GHz 6MB vs 2.53GHz 3MB) help with integrated GPU like youtube? I can notice little hiccups with this on integrated with 2.53GHz.

My budget is always 150 to 200 for complete different notebook or rebuild the ones I already have. Not concerned about the GPU for now, already have T500 with GPU, unless there is a alterative good thinkpad with efficient sole GPU, not the automatic switch or leave GPU on as default. Also another reason current linux distributions no longer supports T400/T500 GPU.

Also with few several brushes with intel's idiotic CPU designs, like atom, P4 on notebook, intel's integrated GPU I'm slowly moving to AMD on future computer purchases.

Thanks for replies, keep coming.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[Cigarguy]

Not a lot of correlation between CPU speed and built in GPU speed. The internal GPU up until Sandybridge was pretty anemic IMO. In addition SB CPU was also much more energy efficient. Still nothing compared to AMD's APU in terms of pure GPU capability. As I said for my usage pattern, an integrated GPU on a T61 is sufficient.

[brchan]

I mean higher CPU freq (2.8GHz 6MB vs 2.53GHz 3MB) help with integrated GPU like youtube?

In some cases, yes. I went from a t7200 in my t61 to a t7700 (from donor laptop) and flash playback was noticeably smoother in fullscreen 1080p.

[thinkpadcollection]

update:

Windows 7 home premium OS.

T500; switched from 25W 2.53GHz 3MB to T9600 2.8GHz, 6MB 35W. Added about 2 hours on integrated GPU with old battery life of 75% remaining. The 2.53GHz with discrete GPU consumed about 4:40 hours, also fan kept spinning and much warmer while playing youtube, now T9600 hardly spin the fan and when that does, spins on low and lukewarm. Playback is nicer, browsing is great what I wanted. For odd reason power management might had worked more properly this time?

Think about it, Intel usually rates the TDP all the same for many speed grades of same series of CPUs but at the low clocks on battery the highest grades of CPUs tend to be cooler than the lesser speed grades if you pin all their high speed in one place at upper part of graph and trend downwards to their lowest speed which is for mobile C2D are either 35W or 25W will be in different heat outputs at their 800MHz.

Some day grab the P9700 CPU and try that, it is 28W, 2.8GHz 6MB. I wished that intel did make a 25W 3.06GHz CPU for our goodies.

Cheers, Jason

[SkiBunny]

T500; switched from 25W 2.53GHz 3MB to T9600 2.8GHz, 6MB 35W. Added about 2 hours on integrated GPU with old battery life of 75% remaining. The 2.53GHz with discrete GPU consumed about 4:40 hours, also fan kept spinning and much warmer while playing youtube, now T9600 hardly spin the fan and when that does, spins on low and lukewarm. Playback is nicer, browsing is great what I wanted. For odd reason power management might had worked more properly this time?

Interesting, my experience slightly differs from yours. I have two W500's, one with T9400(2.53GHz 3MB) and another with T9600(2.8 GHz 6MB). Both have clean, unclogged vents. I think the T9600 is a little warmer and spins the fan some more. With switchable graphics set to integrated, I don't notice any performance difference while browsing. They are both nice laptops and, yes, I slightly prefer the T9600 one, but mainly due to its 1920x1200 screen which bests any successor thinkpad I've seen.

[bit_twiddler]

To answer the OP question, there is probably little benefit in going to the higher spec CPU
if you are looking for better graphics performance. But, if you are doing textual work, like
programming or using Office, you are unlikely to ever notice.

What you need entirely depends upon your application. In my case, I need ECC ram for development
work, so no laptop is going to do everything that I need (sigh). But, I recently acquired a W500 with
a terrific 1920x1200 display, and am using it as a terminal. I'm planning on building a mini-itx box
with a server motherboard in the future for portability.

People running Windows have reported good results by plugging an eGPU into their machines.
Unfortunately, this is not a good option for Linux at this point, although this may change in the future.

So, depending upon how much thought and research you are willing to put into a solution, I'd say
that the most important elements of any laptop are its keyboard, display, and expansion options, such
as expresscard. There is no need to buy the newest stuff for mucho $$$ because it may fall short in these
departments.