i5/670M bottleneck

[cskoler]

Hello,

I'm looking at the Sager NP9130 (Clevo P151EM1). I'd like to know if gaming performance at 1080p with the 670M will be bottlenecked if I opt to go with the i5-3210M CPU instead of the upgraded i7-3610QM for $70 more. I just want to know if I'll notice a difference and if it's worth the extra money.
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9130-clevo-p151em1-p-4340.html

Thanks for the help.

-Charlie

 

[Komomu]

I'd go with the upgrade, I've been wondering the same with the sager 6165 and it will give a nice performance boost in games that utilize more than 2 cores, it is a particularly good choice especially if you intend to keep the laptop for more than a year (which I'm thinking you are) because it will also help when you are extracting files etc. (and also with future proofing-meaning, future programs will be easier to run)

 

[cskoler]

I'd go with the upgrade, I've been wondering the same with the sager 6165 and it will give a nice performance boost in games that utilize more than 2 cores, it is a particularly good choice especially if you intend to keep the laptop for more than a year (which I'm thinking you are) because it will also help when you are extracting files etc. (and also with future proofing-meaning, future programs will be easier to run)

Thanks for the reply. Could you give me some examples of games that utilize more than two cores?

 

[sabot00]

I honestly would recommend the i7, especially for just $70 (HP made me pay $110 more), not only does it have double the cores but it also turbos far higher than the dual core, so even single/dual threaded applications will see benefit.

I think Starcraft II/SupCom II can use multi-cores in the RTS arena. Pretty sure BF3 is threaded pretty well. Civ 5 can use up to 12 cores.

 

[rubbateckie]

Civ 5 can do 24 threads?! (The i7's, i5's, and I believe i3's do two threads per core, correct?)

 

[sabot00]

Civ 5 can do 24 threads?! (The i7's, i5's, and I believe i3's do two threads per core, correct?)

I just remember Intel used Civ 5 as a tech demo for their 6-core CPU's (12 logical cores), so Civ 5's proven to use at least 12 cores decently enough.

 

[cskoler]

Thanks for the help. Just one other thing--is there any other difference (besides the higher turbo clock speed and the extra cores) between the i7 and i5?

 

[chugot9218]

I thought only the i7 had hyperthreading which basically emulates 2 threads per core, I believe the i5 and i3 do not offer hyperthreading (only one thread per core).

 

[waarth]

No that's incorrect all three have HT on them. the I7 has 4 cores always with HT and Turbo Boost while the I5 always has 4 threads whether that be 2 cores with HT or 4 cores without HT as well as having Turbo Boost as well. where as the I3 is always a dual core HT without Turbo Boost.

 

[rubbateckie]

Desktop quadcore i5's do not have hyperthreading. Mobile i5's DO have hyper threading. (and turboboost, just not as much). Otherwise, the i7's with QM at the end of their product names are quadcore so they have 4 physical cores (8 logical cores with hyperthreading.). All mobile i5's are dual core so they have 2 physical cores (4 logical cores).

 

[cskoler]

I'm looking right now and the i7 only turbos 200 MHz higher than the i5 anyway (3.3 vs. 3.1 GHz). So not a huge difference.

 

[sabot00]

Well, the i7 supports some more "features" like other instruction sets.
Go on Intel's page for both processors and they will list features.

 

[cskoler]

Alright, thanks everyone. I think I'm going to go with the i7. It's not too much more anyway.