how much faster are modern laptops?

kuepper

would I really notice much difference spending £350 today compared to £350 4 yrs ago?

kwikbreaks

Yes they are a lot faster. Whether you'll notice any real difference though depends on what you are using it for - if it's mostly browsing you don't need an upgrade and the perceived difference once it has booted up will be small.

Gratis

If the new one has USB3 ports, Bluetooth 4 and 5GHz 802.11n wi-fi, you’ll notice the difference with compatible kit. USB3 in particular.

slenderkitten

like the other poster said, it depends on what you are doing, if you are using apps that require alot of power then you need to upgrade. Think about future proofing your purchase and think about a higher budget.

I am using a 5 year old laptop i got 2nd hand, its fine for basic things. If you have a budget laptop then inevitably you will struggle with it quicker than something that has a better spec on it.

If i could afford it i would buy a gaming machine for future proofing; people say you dont need it but i am thinking about how much i am paying to replace a laptop eveyr so often.

Gratis

In my own experience, it's been the maximum amount of RAM a computer can take and address that eventually renders them obsolete.

warmasice

Gratis wrote: »

In my own experience, it's been the maximum amount of RAM a computer can take and address that eventually renders them obsolete.

There's a lot more to it than just RAM. There are many more elements that will have improved over the years. RAM is not the only performance factor.

Things don't tend to age very well. :money:

jaydeeuk1

Nowadays, I find the best feature of most 'modern' laptops/ultrabooks is the addition of an SSD. If you're just browsing the web, doing office work, emails, watching films, downloading music etc, then you might not notice a ton of difference in speed between an i3 with 4gb ram running windows 8, or an older core 2 duo with 1gb ram running XP. An SSD however will be immediately noticeable.

closed

for most tasks, you'd probably hardly notice any difference, processors have had enough power to do most things quickly for some time, ram on 4 year old machines is sufficient, it's only acccumulated software bloat that slows things down - factory restore is a quick (10 minute) way of putting them back to their former glory (but removes all data). Try a factory restore and see.

macman

Totally agree with closed. To do a valid comparison you need to have a clean install first on the 4 year old laptop.
I've seen 'fast' two year old laptops with W7 that run like 3 legged dogs, because they're full of junk software, and usually with plenty of malware on top.