Laptop CPUs for gaming.

[TheCheapGamer]

Ok so my friend is looking at getting a laptop mainly for his studies next year, and has the choice between two laptops.

An Asus FX550 and an HP Envy 17t.

Specs of both are almost identical except for the CPUs
GTX 950M 2GB
8GB DDR3 RAM
1TB 7200rpm HDD
1080p Screen (Asus is somewhat smaller though)

Now the Asus has a Intel i5-4200H and the HP has the new i7-5500u.

So far, all I can see good about the i7 is the really good power consumption that comes with the new architecture. And to me the i5 surely is more powerful because it can make use of hyper-threading in certain applications?

Both laptops cost roughly the same here, so which would be more suitable for light gaming (CSGO, Garrys Mod, Battlefield 3, Tomb Raider) and some programming applications for first year students. So not insane rendering or designing just yet.

Which would be the best to choose? Only taking the CPU into account.

 

[johnnyb105]

The I 7 WILL BE the more powerful cpu that's why we have I3 , I5 THEN I7 and either the I5 OR I7 is lower on power usage then a amd cpu... But the I 7 is faster...

 

[wildfire707]

As far as the processors go, they are both dual core CPUs with Hyperthreading (so the operating system sees four cores).

The big advantage here is that the i7 is a 15 watt processor and the i5 is a 47 watt processor. The i5 is a physically faster CPU, but since it uses three times the power to only get about 15% more computing speed, it will chew through battery much faster and make more noise from its cooling fan(s) to get rid of the heat.

I really hate how Intel blurs the lines between CPUs on the laptops, but unless you want more fan noise and less battery life you should go with the i7 CPU.

The Intel pages on theses CPUs can be found at:

http/ark.intel.com/products/75027/Intel-Core-i5-4200H-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz
http/ark.intel.com/products/85214/Intel-Core-i7-5500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz

Good luck!

 

[TheCheapGamer]

Thank you wildfire707, THAT was exactly what I wanted to know. Many thanks.