AMD and Intel Mobile Rematch: Gateway NV5933u vs. Acer 5542
by Jarred Walton on June 18, 2010 1:14 AM ESTGateway NV5933u Overview
The Gateway NV5933u is the updated Intel version of the NV58 we looked at last year. In place of the 2.0GHz Core 2 T6500 processor and GMA 4500MHD graphics is the new i3-330M with HD Graphics. Performance in both cases is substantially higher than the previous incarnation, and the addition of a Blu-ray drive with a drop in price is impressive. Outside of those upgrades, the NV59 is identical in appearance to the NV52 and NV58.
| Gateway NV5933u Specifications | |
| Processor |
Intel Core i3-330M (2x2.13GHz + HTT, 32nm, 3MB L3, 35W) |
| Chipset | Intel HM55 |
| Memory | 2x2GB DDR3-1066 (Max 2x4GB) |
| Graphics |
Intel HD Graphics (12 Shaders, 500MHz base, 667MHz max Core/shared memory) |
| Display | 15.6" LED Glossy 16:9 768p (1366x768) |
| Hard Drive(s) | 500GB 5400 RPM (Hitachi HTS545032B9A300) |
| Optical Drive | 4x Blu-ray Combo (Optiarc BC-5500H) |
| Networking |
Gigabit Ethernet (Broadcom BCM57780) 802.11b/g/n (Atheros AR928X) |
| Audio |
HD Audio 2 stereo speakers with headphone and microphone |
| Battery | 6-Cell, 10.8V, 4400mAh, 48Wh battery |
| Front Side | None |
| Left Side |
Flash Reader MMC/MS Pro/SD/xD Headphone and microphone 2 x USB 2.0 HDMI VGA Ethernet AC Jack Kensington Lock |
| Right Side |
4x Blu-ray DVDRW combo drive 2 x USB 2.0 56K modem |
| Back Side | Cooling Exhaust |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Extras |
2MP Webcam Flash reader (MMC/MS/MS Pro/SD) |
| Dimensions | 14.66" x 10.19" x 1.02-1.46" (WxDxH) |
| Weight | 5.84 lbs (with 6-cell battery) |
| Warranty | 1-year basic warranty |
| Pricing |
$549 from Best Buy Note: 320GB HDD on that model |
In terms of features, the NV59 matches the 5542 in every area. Again, there's a Bluetooth Fn key combination but no hardware. If you want extras like FireWire, eSATA, ExpressCard, or USB 3.0 you'll need to shop elsewhere, but the NV59 does represent the entry-level Intel laptops quite well. Honestly, the price is much lower than most of the competition, especially with the Blu-ray drive. Searching on Google, the next cheapest i3-330M laptop we can find comes in at $600. Gateway seems to recognize this, as the updated NV59C (with different styling but otherwise similar features) looks like it will cost $150 more—though you do get a 2-year warranty with the NV59C.
You can read our comparison of the NV52/58 for comments on the design, as nothing has changed from that aspect. You get a glossy exterior and matte keyboard/palm rest, with a glossy LCD. The keyboard is different from the Acer 5542, however, and it's a case of one step forward and one step back. The touch of the keys is better in my opinion, but the keys are still tightly spaced. The number keyboard also moves the Plus key up top, the Enter key is in the bottom-right, and the Zero is a half-size key. Dedicated Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys are also missing unless you disable Numlock, making the 10-key almost superfluous. While the keyboard feels better for touch typing, I end up preferring the 5542 because of the layout issues. The LCD is also similar to the 5542, with a low contrast 1366x768 resolution panel. The Acer 5542 uses a Chi Mei panel while the NV59 uses a Samsung panel, but they look about the same and we're pretty confident that Acer and Gateway use a panel lottery so there's no guarantee which panel you'll get.
In a radical change from the last Intel IGP, the latest Intel HD Graphics with the latest Intel drivers actually close the gap with the HD 4200. The new HD 4250 should maintain a slight lead, and we don't expect either company to dramatically improve performance until the next generation IGPs come out. However, we do have to give Intel credit for investing some extra time in their drivers of late. Three months back, half of the games we tried on the Intel HD Graphics failed to run properly—GRID, DiRT 2, Fallout 3, and both Mass Effect titles were among the problematic games. The May driver release fixed most of our problems, and the latest Intel drivers fix the graphical corruption in Mass Effect 1/2. We wouldn't be surprised if other titles still have issues, but we ran some of our previous gaming benchmarks and didn't encounter any issues (other than Fallout 3 requiring a hacked D3D DLL in order to run, as it otherwise refuses to even try running in Intel graphics). If Intel can keep improving their graphics drivers, the showdown between Sandy Bridge and AMD's Fusion will be very interesting. We haven't seen any major improvements in IGP performance for a while—outside of the NVIDIA G320M in the latest MacBook, but that's a dead end since it only works with older Core 2 processors.
As a whole, the Gateway NV5933u package is quite impressive. Not only is it the least expensive i3-330M laptop we can find, but you get a Blu-ray combo drive as an added bonus. Performance in general applications is much higher than the Athlon II M300, with the Turion II M600 closing the gap outside of heavily threaded benchmarks. Battery life also favors Intel, though not by as much as the last time we looked at AMD and Intel laptops, and we no longer have the graphics performance deficit to complain about. AMD laptops are still cheaper, and when the NV59 disappears from Best Buy we'll likely see the price for similar laptops jump $100. At the current pricing, though, the NV5933u is a great deal with the biggest complaint being the keyboard layout—and that's something you can adapt to. The bigger competition is going to be AMD's updated lineup, and with prices closer to $550 this particular laptop still looks like it has a lead. As long as stock remains, we recommend the NV59 as a great entry-level multimedia platform.
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mojtabaalemi - Saturday, June 19, 2010 - link
I meaned 1005p with 11hrs (6cells, 48W/h) battery nor 3cell .could you please say what player you use with coreavc ? WMP ?
I read that wmp12 in win 7 can play 720p x264 on atom 1.66GHz beacuse of its multithread codeks . is it right?
mojtaba alemi from iran
JarredWalton - Saturday, June 19, 2010 - link
I used Media Player Classic Home Cinema in my more recent testing. I think I tried WMP11 in the past and it worked as well (maybe?), but I don't think I've ever tested with WMP12 and x264. I don't have any Atom laptops right now either, so I can't retest. :-|IntelUser2000 - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
No, that's because 3DMark Vantage uses the retarded scheme where it includes the CPU scores as part of the final score. 3DMark06 was barely acceptable as a gaming benchmark because it started that, Vantage makes it worse.
JarredWalton - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
Yes, it includes CPU performance as well, but you'll notice that nowhere in our CPU specific tests do we get 86%. In heavily threaded testing, we can achieve a 76% performance increase, but that's purely CPU based. Vantage includes CPU performance, but it's not as big of a factor as the GPU. 3DMark06 also includes CPU but shows only a 5% lead, which is more realistic.IntelUser2000 - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
You should test this out if you have the chance/time.The 3 reasons that it has such a vast lead from greatest to smallest
1. 3DMark Vantage scores=GPU score(which is affected by the CPU like in real games) + CPU score
2. Some some CPU offloading(Never seen the game do that on the HD Graphics though)*
3. DX10 behavior on Intel is kinda like Nvidia. There's less loss from DX9 to DX10 code than on AMD.
*You can test this out by using the graphics control panel and going from Application(hardware mode) and Software Processing(software mode)
OldPueblo - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
I just picked up a similar tigris laptop, except it had better specs and was only $380. At that price, I don't care if the Intel one wins because I doubt it'll ever compete at that price point. :) I didn't even bother with a warranty, it's disposable basic gaming on the go.M320 (2x2.1Ghz)
3GB RAM
250GB 7200RPM
Radeon 4200
802.11 B/G/N
8x DVD burner w/ lightscribe
5-in-1 card reader
etc.
OldPueblo - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link
Damnit! >:(http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2010/06/18...
JarredWalton - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link
What size battery is in that? Probably a 48Wh, but I'm curious. Looking directly at Frys, I can't find the laptop listed above. What's the exact Lenovo model? I'm guessing it's the G555, but with some downgrades relative to the Lenovo store model. But yeah, $330 it can break in a year and you still won't care much.Roland00 - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link
It is a G555, I can't tell you which exact submodel it is, but the chasis/generation model is G555Roland00 - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link
I know you are at the mercy of what OEM sent you (since you don't want to spend $1000 to $2000 buying hardware for a simple article), but please try to get some of these AMD processors for these are going to be the more competitive AMDs (and more relevant).Note all these processors have hardware virtualization unlike the atoms and some of the intel culvs/core 2 offerings. Also note that none of the current AMD mobile processors offer l3 cache
Nile platform (2010) 9W, 12W, 15W with DDR3 support. All these processors are Champlain processors
9W, AMD V105, Single Core*1.2 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache total
12W, AMD K125, Single Core*1.7 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache total
12W, AMD K325, Dual Core*1.3 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
15W, AMD K625, Dual Core*1.5 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
15W, AMD K665, Dual Core*1.7 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
Danube platform (2010) 25W, 35W, 45W with DDR3 support. All these processors are Champlain processors
25W, AMD P820, Tri Core*1.8 Ghz, 512kb L2 cache per core, 1.5 mb total
25W, AMD P920, Quad Core*1.6 Ghz, 512kb L2 cache per core, 2 mb total
35W, AMD N620, Dual Core*2.8 Ghz, 1mb L2 cache per core, 2 mb total
35W, AMD N830, Tri Core*2.1 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache per core, 1.5mb total
35W, AMD N930, Quad Core*2.0 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
45W, AMD X620BE, Dual Core*3.1 Ghz, 1mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
45W, AMD X920BE, Quad Core*2.3 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
While the instructions per clock per core is not going to change much with the
Champlain processors (Mid 2010 with DDR3 uses K,P, or N monikers) vs
Caspain processors (Late 2009 with DDR2 uses M moniker, the dual cores come only in 35w tdps).
The Champlain processors achieve lower tdps, have ddr3 support or have more cores for the same tdp with ddr3 support when compared to the Caspain processors. I did not list the other new Champlain processors (the "value" models) for performance wise they should be similar to the one you demoed today (P520, N530, P320, N330). We won't get processors with more instructions per clock per core until the upcoming Llano (fusion, phenom II based with 1mb l2 cache per core, 10watts and above) and Ontario (fusion, bobcat based, 1-10watts aimed for netbooks, tablets, and other low power devices) . AMD finally has a competitive line of notebook processors on paper, for low tdps they may have something as good or almost as good as intel culv, at higher tdps they may not have as many instructions per clock as intel but then they are fighting that with more cores, or against the i7 720qm an extremly lower tdp.
(finally I just want to say that I am not an AMD fanboy, the last 4 processors I have bought have been intel. I7 920, Q6600, SU2300 Notebook, T7700 Notebook)