i7 3630QM thick and outdated laptop vs new and super thin i5 5200U laptop.

[leon226]

Hi,
They have the same price range,
But i7 3630QM is quad core and really thick and heavy, the model I choose is Asus n56, has gtx 745m. i7 3630QM has ~7700 passmark CPU
Whereas other model is ASUS K501LX has equal 8GB RAM, extra 128GB SSD and 950m graphics. i5 5200U has ~ 3500 passmark CPU
I need to carry this around in my university in lecture hall and mainly use PC for programming. Which one should i choose?
Thanks

 

[jaguarskx]

For gaming purposes you want the laptop with the more powerful GPU. That would be the GTX 950m. Even games that can use more than 2 cores will perform better on a laptop that only has a dual core CPU, but a more powerful GPU.

 

[leon226]

For gaming purposes you want the laptop with the more powerful GPU. That would be the GTX 950m. Even games that can use more than 2 cores will perform better on a laptop that only has a dual core CPU, but a more powerful GPU.

I don't need gaming I already have a good PC. for programming, does 4 cores really outperform 2 cores?
Thanks

 

[jaguarskx]

Depends on if the programs you are using can take advantage of more than two cores. If the program compilers you are using can make use of more than two cores, then your programs will compile faster with the Core i7 CPU.

Generally speaking, for everyday tasks there should not be much of a performance difference between dual and quad core CPU performance. In most cases it is the relatively slow access speed of hard drives that can make laptops feel sluggish since read and write speeds are pretty low compared to a SSD (solid state drive). That is why many people will say that a SSD can give an older laptop a new lease on life.

A SSD makes a laptop feel more responsive because of very high read / write speeds. But it does not improve CPU performance.