Best Processor For a Laptop

The one single factor which will significantly affect the performance of your laptop computer is the processor speed. When buying a new laptop, the first thing to be checked out is the computer processor specification. It will decide the performance level of your computer.

How to Choose a Processor?

For those of you who are new to computing, let me share some tips on choosing the best laptop processor.

• Clocking Frequency: The one thing that you should primarily look for is the clocking frequency of the processor, which is usually mentioned in specifications. Greater the frequency of a processor, greater is its processing speed. The clocking frequency is always mentioned in GHz (Gigahertz) and some of the best computer processors in the market today have gone beyond the 3 GHz frequency barrier.
• Number of Cores: Besides the processing speed, the second thing you should look for is the number of processor cores. Today processors are built with as many as two, four and even six cores! So more the number of cores, more is the number of threads or independent tasks that a processor can handle simultaneously. So go for a processor with higher number of cores.
• Cache Size: The third factor to be looked into, while shopping for the best laptop processor is the L2 or in some cases, L3 cache size. This size, usually specified in MB affects the processor performance substantially. It being the working memory of the processor cache, a higher L2 and L3 cache translates into faster performance. Besides this, it helps if the processor has low heat dissipation and an integrated GPU (graphics processing unit), which can boost your video card performance.

Which is the Best Processor For a Laptop in 2012?

There are only two prime brands to choose from, when it comes to buying the best laptop processors. One is Intel and the other is AMD. Currently, Intel is miles ahead of AMD, because of the recent breakthroughs made by the company in the Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost technologies. AMD chips are substantially cheaper than those of Intel, but the latter offers the best chip in the market now.

Best Intel Mobile Processor For a Laptop
The Intel Core i7 2960XM is the best chip. With four cores, 8 threads and a maximum processing frequency of 3.7 GHz, this is undoubtedly the best processor in the market today. However, it comes with a price tag of $1096, which will be more than double the price of the laptop itself. Besides this top end line processor, some of the other good Intel processors are:

• Intel Core i7-2920XM ($1096)
• Intel Core i7 2860QM ($568)
• Intel Core i7 2760QM ($378)
• Intel Core i7-2720QM ($378)

Best AMD Processor For Laptops
The forerunner is AMD A-Series A8-3550MX, with four built-in cores and clocking frequency of 2.7 GHz. It's a top-of-the-line processor, offered at a very reasonable price. All these processors are based on AMD Fusion technology, which combines a processor and graphics card, providing superior gaming performance. Some of the other AMD processors worth considering are:

• AMD A-Series A8-3530MX
• AMD A-Series A8-3510MX
• AMD A-Series A8-3520M
• AMD A-Series A8-3500M

Choose the processor which offers the best tradeoff between features, performance and cost. I would personally recommend you to go for the core i7 series of processors, if you can spend that much, as they are the top rated processors in the world, at this point of time. Ultimately, the decision is yours to make.