Pavilion DV2 CPU bottleneck (AMD Athlon Neo 1.6ghz) for gaming

[wh0rse]

I just bought an HP Pavilion DV2-1030us laptop at office depot for $600. Overall I am very impressed with it; it's form factor, video card, design and general performance are all I could ask for. My only problem is that I was hoping it would be able to play some Steam games so I could LAN with my friends, mostly Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead. These games run stuttery and slow when any action is happening on screen, and I noticed that generally changing the graphical settings up and down has little effect on this. TF2 ran just as slow in DX9 mode with all medium settings as it did in DX8 mode, all-low. This has lead me to believe that, while the rest of the DV2 is fully capable of playing these games at medium/high settings, the single core Athlon Neo MV-40 is just not up to the task. This is really the opposite of how it is on most laptops, with the CPU usually being more than powerful enough and the integrated graphics being the problem...

So my question is this: if I return my DV2 and get the new DV2z, which just came out, will it noticibly improve my FPS in these "CPU-intensive" games? How much of a step up is it from the single core Athlon MV-40 to the dual core? What about the "Turion" Neo? I know they all run at 1.6ghz, but would the Turion Neo X2 be able to run L4D and TF2 without a problem? All I know is its the next naming scheme up from "Athlon", I dont know if it's actually that much better

Anyone who can speak from experience on this issue would be GREATLY appreciated. As would any other comments, of course : )

Thanks

[Huffer]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a benchmark comparing the Atom, the Neo and a Core 2 Duo 1.6 Ghz with X3100 graphics:

Benchmark

The Neo is right between the 2; faster than the Atom (Intel netbook cpu) and slower than the low-end Core 2 Duo. I would not try to run any kind of game even on a 1.6 Core 2 Duo with the X3100 graphics. The 1.6 Turion x2 or Athlon x2 would be just a shade less powerful than the Core 2 Duo, so between it and the Neo. 

Doesn't the dv2z also have the Athlon Neo? Basically it is a glorified netbook (albeit a very good netbook) and not a gamer. You need a laptop with a dual core processor (get the Intel is my advice) and a dedicated graphics card. Anything less is going to leave you unhappy.

[samschilling]

Definately agree with Huffer.

I would never play a new game on a single core 1.6GHZ processor

[wh0rse]

All I really care about playing is TF2 and Left 4 Dead, and I just want them playable, they dont have to look good. Do you think TF2 would be playable at, say, ~30fps with a Turion X2 version of this 1.6ghz processor? Graphics card not being an issue, say its a GTX 280 or something... TF2 and L4D also have a new "Multicore rendering" checkbox in their advanced video options, which has given mixed results to people with dual cores (so I've heard). Some get huge boosts, others have gotten graphical glitches.

I guess a 1.6ghz dual core Neo might be comparable to a 1.4ghz Core 2 Duo? Would that be about right?

[RoyalSerpent]

It's a cheap/thin/poorly-ventilated entry-level notebook, Z or no Z.  Not suitable for gaming.  Get a cheap $500 custom desktop if you want to play game.

Buy a notebook for portability.  Go with a cheap custom desktop if you want performance. 

[badcyborg]

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wh0rse wrote:

I guess a 1.6ghz dual core Neo might be comparable to a 1.4ghz Core 2 Duo? Would that be about right?

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That's a good guess. Here's the dual core Neo's actual rank. It's too bad we don't have the dual core model in Malaysia or this would be a sweet subnotebook to get for light gaming. Here for the benefit of the uninitiated, you may sample games being run on DV2 single core. It's actually not too shabby, especially for gaming on the run. I don't think you can find similar 1.6kg notebook packing the same power at such low price.

Message Edited by badcyborg on 08-06-2009 12:33 PM