I5 or i7 for 3D?

[northZephyr]

Hi
I need a laptop that would run some heavy 3D programs for architecture school,
as well as photo/video software for my personal use.

Programs include 3DSmax, AutoCAD, Rhino, Photoshop CS5, Sony Vegas, AfterEffects, Lightroom.

I'm customizing my laptop and just wanted to know which processor would be better:

Intel® Core™ Quad i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz)
or
Intel® Core™ i5-540M processor (2.53GHz)

they are roughly the same price, but I'm confused on which to choose for the most effective workflow with the mentioned softwares.
of course, when I work with any of the softwares, I tend to leave Messenger, music and browser opened at the same time.

Thanks!

 

[Maziar]

Hello
The programs you mentioned benefit from a quad core cpu,so go with the i7 740qm

 

[northZephyr]

thanks!
I thought the i5 was a quad cores and i7 eight cores?

 

[Maziar]

No i5 540M is dual core,and i7 740QM is quad core,however they both have HT technology so you'll see double number of cores in task manager.

 

[northZephyr]

Yes thank you a ton, Maziar!

problem solved. Ordering today!

 

[northZephyr]

Best answer selected by northZephyr.

 

[frozenlead]

Make sure you get as much memory as possible if you'll be doing FEA or other types of stress analysis.