i3217u vs i5 4210u

[Lucifer1127]

I'm looking to get a new laptop for school purposes; mainly word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing, videos, etc. I was looking at two different laptops this Black Friday with two different processors with the Asus one being cheaper by $50:

Hp 15-p151nr
i5 4210u
4gb
750gb HD

or

Asus X551CA-BI30804C
i3 3217u
4gb
500gb HD

I was wondering if turbo boost should be a big factor when considering processors and if the i5 will offer a noticeably better performance.

Thank you in advance.

 

[unreal9400]

Go with the i5 since it is newer and faster while requiring less power to run.
And the i5 has AVX2 instruction while the i3 only has AVX. (More futureproof)
i5 = 15W
i3 = 17W.

 

[jaguarskx]

The max clockspeed difference between the CPUs is 900GHz. Actually performance difference is actually slightly more, but not large by any means since overall on average a 4th generation Core CPU is 6% more powerful than a 3rd gen Core CPU assuming the same clockspeed. This means potentially the laptop with the core i5-4210u will last you longer before you feel that the laptop is slow. This is because as time goes on programs and the internet will eventually require more horsepower since hardware performance generally advances and software advances to take advantage of that extra performance.

The biggest difference between the 3rd and 4th generation Core CPU is the integrated graphics core. The Intel HD 4400 is about 25% - 30% more powerful than the Intel HD 4000 which means if you want to use the laptop to play games, the newer i5-4210u would be more ideal. PC games always advance. Generally speaking games released this year needs more graphic power than games released in 2013. The same can be said of 2015 games.

 

[Lucifer1127]

Thank you for the quick responses.

 

[jaguarskx]

Just be aware that the Intel HD 4400 is still weak compared to dedicated graphics card. But Intel has come a long way since 2010. As long as you keep your expectations low, then you can play games with it.

Do a search in Youtube for "Intel HD 4400 Games" if you are interested in it's performance in many games.