Solved! quad-core i7-6700HQ vs dual-core i7-7700U

[matermark]

I have a warranty swap, I currently have an Envy 17 touch i7-4700HQ quad-core that will be replaced by either:

A) similar to mine in options but dual-core i7-7500U + GeForce 940mx

--OR--

B) similar to mine in options but quad-core i7-6700HQ + Intel graphics
.........................

I use an architecture home design program as well as do some photo editing. ALSO, I use Chrome and always have 25+ tabs open, at least 15 are pinned; I also have 13 plug-ins or extensions running I also use Excel & Outlook, which has over 70 mail folders & sub-folders...

I AM NOT A GAMER!!!!!

Would it be better going with the quad-core or the dual-core/GeForce?

 

[molletts]

Unless the architecture program is particularly demanding on the graphics side, the discrete graphics isn't going to make much difference for you. (I'm not sure that it would anyway - it's fairly low-end.) The two CPUs are clocked similarly and there's not that much difference between the 6th and 7th generation that you would notice in daily use. Two extra cores is never a bad thing and your old system was quad-core. (And anyway, a dual-core-with-hyperthreading CPU is an i3 as far as I'm concerned. I don't care what Intel say. An i7 should have at least 4 cores plus hyperthreading.)

That said, memory is likely to be your main bottleneck, knowing what a memory-hog Chrome can be.

Overall, I'd go for the 6700HQ. The things that might sway it for me would be if the dual-core one came with a) much more RAM than the other one or b) an SSD instead of a hard drive. But RAM and SSDs are quite cheap so I would probably still go for the quad-core one then upgrade it.

 

[matermark]

Unless the architecture program is particularly demanding on the graphics side, the discrete graphics isn't going to make much difference for you. (I'm not sure that it would anyway - it's fairly low-end.) The two CPUs are clocked similarly and there's not that much difference between the 6th and 7th generation that you would notice in daily use. Two extra cores is never a bad thing and your old system was quad-core. (And anyway, a dual-core-with-hyperthreading CPU is an i3 as far as I'm concerned. I don't care what Intel say. An i7 should have at least 4 cores plus hyperthreading.)

That said, memory is likely to be your main bottleneck, knowing what a memory-hog Chrome can be.

Overall, I'd go for the 6700HQ. The things that might sway it for me would be if the dual-core one came with a) much more RAM than the other one or b) an SSD instead of a hard drive. But RAM and SSDs are quite cheap so I would probably still go for the quad-core one then upgrade it.

Thanks for replying. All have 12GB DDR3 RAM. They couldn't find a similar quad-core 17-inch model so moved me from an Envy to an Omen, with a 2.8GHz i7-7700HQ, with DDR4 12GB RAM and a GeForce GTX 1050 but I only realized in the middle of the nite that it wasn't a touchscreen like I have now. I'm hooked on a touchscreen and can't go back...I have to find a way to cancel the Omen build and order the 6700HQ...

 

[molletts]

Thanks for replying. All have 12GB DDR3 RAM. They couldn't find a similar quad-core 17-inch model so moved me from an Envy to an Omen, with a 2.8GHz i7-7700HQ, with DDR4 12GB RAM and a GeForce GTX 1050 but I only realized in the middle of the nite that it wasn't a touchscreen like I have now. I'm hooked on a touchscreen and can't go back...I have to find a way to cancel the Omen build and order the 6700HQ...

That's a nice spec - a fast quad-core CPU and a fairly beefy discrete GPU... Are you sure you can't live without a touchscreen?

 

[matermark]

Thanks for replying. All have 12GB DDR3 RAM. They couldn't find a similar quad-core 17-inch model so moved me from an Envy to an Omen, with a 2.8GHz i7-7700HQ, with DDR4 12GB RAM and a GeForce GTX 1050 but I only realized in the middle of the nite that it wasn't a touchscreen like I have now. I'm hooked on a touchscreen and can't go back...I have to find a way to cancel the Omen build and order the 6700HQ...

That's a nice spec - a fast quad-core CPU and a fairly beefy discrete GPU... Are you sure you can't live without a touchscreen?

Picture this: You have a Smartphone and spent the last 3 years mastering swipes, gestures and pinches, so much so that you can speed through any task. NOW, take away any touch features and you must use a mouse & keyboard. How productive would you be?

If it sounds unreasonable on a smartphone, then replace the phone with a tablet. That may be a better comparison. I find it often easier to look at the screen and touch a button than to move the mouse around to find the cursor then move it to the button & click on it. I seriously believe the future of computers will be touch or near-touch gestures without actually touching the screen!

By the way, my backup laptop is an i5 ThinkPad X230T, the one the screen swivels and folds down into a tablet where the entire 13" (12.5") screen becomes a digitizer tablet. It's both a touchscreen and a digitizer with a pen. It's only current drawback is just a 320GB hard drive.

Everything I have been using the last 3-4 years has been touchscreen, from a Toshiba Win8/10 tablet, HP Slate 10" Android tablet, HP Envy TS17, Thinkpad X230T, etc. It's too hard to go back[wards] now!