AMD A8-3550MX - How does it compare to the Mobile i5/i3s?

I am looking for a new laptop and i notice that HP is offering up the DV6 with the new A8-3550MX, Paired with an 7690m (1gb).

The price is really nice, with BD and an 160gb SSD for under a Grand..

However, i haven't had an AMD since the X2, and im a bit un-familiar with their mobile parts. How does the A8 stack up against the Intel line?

The descreet 7690m Should pretty nice IMO.. what are yall's thoughts on that?

AMD's mobile CPU line is slower than Intel's, but it's harder to notice in most laptops, since their hard drives are usually really slow. Battery life is probably better in the Intel camp, but a lot of it comes down to the laptop's hardware and software being used and Windows power policies, so this varies a lot between different people and laptop models.

That 7690m is very good for a mobile card and should be a little faster or equivalent to an nVidia 555m. Of course, it all depends on the resolution of the screen it's driving and the game you're playing...

Don't forget about the ability to have hybrid crossfire.

the dual graphics (hybrid crossfire) probably would make the AMD laptop a little better overall. From what I've seen, the laptops will often only engage the discrete card when it's needed, saving a considerable amount of battery life.

As far as power-usage/performance ratio, I can't see the intel laptop having anything on the AMD chip. While the i5 might be 35w and the 3550mx is 45w, the AMD's integrated graphics make up for the difference. I have a business laptop with a newer i5, all I can say is, don't even bother with i3... The i5's on-chip graphics in this laptop can't even run minecraft at a tolerable framerate in windowed mode...

I own a DV6 with the a8-3500m and a 6750m, its a great laptop. Its tough to ask it to do heavy CPU loads because the 3500 is sort of a dog.. But I have read that the 3550mx is quite a bit faster.

the AMD cpus have a very low stock clock speed, but with 3rd party app like K10 stat you can set your own speed. Many have set their A8 to 2.4ghz, but much over that is to hot for 24x7 use.

Ive seen some 2.8-3.0ghz suicide runs for benchmarks. I am guessing when you clock the A8-3500 up it won't be a "dog" anymore. on the GPU side its really no contest. My experience with Intel graphics is even if the application doesn't blue screen of death it will be nearly unusable

Why did I not know of this k10 stat?