Which of these 2 laptops would run Ms better
I'm trying to decide between 2 mid-ranged laptops to play Maple on. They are both HP, have 4gb of RAM, and are the same size and price. The differences between them are one is a Dual-Core Intel i3 running at 2.4ghz with an integrated Intel HD Graphics card and the other is a Quad-Core AMD running at 1.5ghz with an ATI HD Radeon 6582 (number may be incorrect) graphics card. Obviously, the Quad has quite a better graphics card, but if I'm correct Maple only runs on 1 core so the faster Dual would run the game better(?). And my friend told me that the Dual's cpu runs in a way that the Duals are split and run like a Quad, which if is true would mean that the game would run on about 1.2ghz, making the Quads 1.5ghz faster. I don't know too much about hardware and what's most important for games, so I'm having trouble deciding between the two laptops and what would run it better. I'm also having a hard time trying to find what the current system requirements for Maple are; I keep finding what they were pre-BB. Should I go for the Dual or the Quad and why?
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The technologies used in modern processors has made comparing clock speeds even more irrelevant than it was in the past. The AMD A8-3500M has a working clock frequency of 2.4 GHz; 1.5 GHz is that processor's idle clock frequency. The i3's hyperthreading only causes competition for cache levels, but does not in anyway impact the performance of the threads themselves, even if the same core was to handle two threads simultaneously on a single core. Core frequencies remain constant and each thread has that same frequency. The i3 performs the same functions the same as any other true quad core processor to the real-world general consumer.
If the AMD laptop contains an A8 or A6 APU, then it is technically the better computer for 3D gaming despite the weaker CPU. However, Maplestory is almost entirely CPU dependent because GPUs are very limited in the way how they handle 2D graphics. If the i3 laptop contains an i3-2110, i3-2330, or i3-2350 (any Sandy Bridge i3 and not the older Arrandale i3), then it is hands-down the better computer for Maplestory and general consumer tasks. The "Intel HD 3000" performs on-par with the Radeon HD 5450 and is capable of flawless Blu-Ray playback which the older "Intel HD Graphics" struggled with, but even that IGP, which has been reused in the "Intel HD 2000" was overkill for Maplestory.