I'm in the market for a new computer, in particular a laptop. I found a really good price on a customizable HP Pavilion dv6z Quad Edition Entertainment PC, with specs options better than my current desktop. While I haven't edited recently as much as I used to (I'd mostly be using this computer for day-to-day checking email, surfing the web, maybe streaming a few movies, etc.), I still want to keep it an option, especially since I do have one or two projects coming up that I'd like to do for a special occasion.
That said, price is certainly a concern with me. The only thing I'm not sure about this computer is the graphics card. They give me two options, but I can't find much information on exactly what their specs are or if it's REALLY worth it to get the pricier option. Here are my choices, as presented to me by the website:
Option 1: AMD Radeon(TM) Discrete-Class Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
Option 2: 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
When I click on "help me decide" this is the information I'm presented with:
AMD Radeon(TM) Discrete-Class Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
The new A6/8 delivers intense visuals, stunning power, and improved battery life***? Multi-tasking and content creation shift into overdrive with HP Pavilion dv powered by the AMD A6/8 APU.***Battery life will vary depending on the product model, configuration, loaded applications, features, use, wireless functionality and power management settings. The maximum capacity of the battery will naturally decrease with time and usage. See MobileMark07 battery benchmark http://www.bapco.com /products/mobilemark2007 for additional details. AMD's numbering is not a measurement of clock speed. Quad-core is a new technology designed to improve performance of certain software products. Not all customers or software applications will necessarily benefit from use of this technology. A/C Power required to enable Perfect Picture HD and HD content is required for HD display
1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD Dual Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
AMD RadeonTM notebook discrete graphics series offer enormous performance for powering DirectX(R)11 games and applications. It offers HD entertainment technology, such as MPEC-4 part 2 formats (DivX7, Xvid) and MVC decode, which delivers stunning video playback quality. With the new GPU accelerated features in Microsoft(R) Office(R) 2010 and Internet Explorer(R) 9, experience improved graphics performance, visual effects and video rendering for outstanding visual computing. DISCLAIMERS: Battery life will vary depending on the product model, configuration, loaded applications, features, use, wireless functionality and power management settings. The maximum capacity of the battery will naturally decrease with time and usage. See MobileMark07 battery benchmark http://www.bapco.com/products/mobilemark2007 for additional details. High definition (HD) content is required to view high-definition images.
This is all the information they seem to have on the site and Googling it hasn't been much more help. Mind you, I'm not going for super-expensive-top-of-the-line as a requirement. Option 2 costs $77 more than Option 1. Basically, I want to know if either of these are any good and, if so, can I get away with the cheaper option without too many problems?
