AMD Turion 64 X2

[frugalman]

can somebody comment on this processor for laptop -
is it better than intel atom?

can it handle HD content (720p)?
any other disadvantages?

[board123]

Better than Atom - they're not in the same market segment. Turion is much faster.

720p - yes

[frugalman]

thanks - can the atom handle 720p?
i'm guessing atom is designed for power consumption savings

[board123]

Atom is an extremely low power, low performance CPU that's pretty much reserved for netbooks right now. If you want decent performance, then you shouldn't be looking at Atom at all.

With that said, Atom cannot software decode 720p.

[Seiphas]

I'm pretty sure that the Atom can easily do 720p decoding. I have an Asus Eee 701, with a Celeron 900 in it, and I can get that to do 720p decoding with a combination of CoreAVC + MPC. I'd imagine that something like an Atom can do it no sweat.

[board123]

It depends on which Atom processor you have. The newer dual-core Atom should be able to decode without too many problems. The single core is likely to struggle with high bitrate files.