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Question

Laptop w/ Better Specs Slower Than Desktop

by Jun 20, 2011 5:03AM PDT

My laptop has 200 MHz and 384 MB more RAM than my desktop. Same type of RAM and Processor (PC133 and Intel Pentium 3), but my desktop is faster. How come?

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Answer
Better specs?
by Forum moderator Jun 20, 2011 5:12AM PDT

You don't give full details of the specs of the laptop and desktop, but there are other factors.

1] Processor speed and performance

2] Disk speed, 2.5" versus 3.5"

3] Graphic card performance. More often than not a laptop has it's video card integrated with the motherboard and shares RAM. On the other hand, desktops can have dedicated graphic cards with their own memory.

4] Running processes, and viruses and other malware.

That Intel Pentium III seems an old type now. dating back to 1999. How old are these two computers?

Mark

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Re: Better specs?
by Cg2916 Jun 20, 2011 5:41AM PDT

1. Laptop is 1200 MHz, Desktop is 996 MHz

2. Laptop has old HD, desktop has new one, probably 7200RPM

3. Laptop has ATI Mobility Radeon, Desktop has
AGP 2.0

4. They are kept very low.

They came out 2000-2002.

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Yep, getting on a bit now
by MarkFlax Forum moderator Jun 20, 2011 6:14AM PDT

and with systems that age we expect rheumatism and arthritis to set in. Happy

1200 Mhz and 996 Mhz are quite slow by today's standards, although interestingly my own Intel Processors are only 965 Mhz. But the difference is I have 4, (quad-core), and they work in tandem to share the load.

If both of your computers run XP then the slower speed processors will make a difference, and so will the amount of RAM. The minimum recommended for XP is 512MB, although it will work with 256MB

I'm betting that ATI Mobility Radeon is one of the first generations and they have only 128MB of RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon X1300.

I don't know anything about the AGP 2.0 but that is already a difference between the two systems.

As to processes, you say they are kept very low, but that doesn't tell us much, and all I can suggest is to compare the two. But one is a desktop and the other a laptop, so there willbe significant differences.

Mark

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