i5 540m vs i7 720qm

[attack]

Looking into a gaming laptop and can choose between the two. The price difference is negligable (due to 2 different retailers).

The 540m goes to 3.06gz IIRC and the 720 2.8hgz but the 720 has 4 cores.

This is gaming only, I want it to last a while (2 years) so what's the best option?

The video card is going to be a 5870m.

 

[baris_]

How hot will that get? Lol.

What games will you play? If you're looking to play games that use multiple cores, than the 720 will beat the 540 very easily.

In any case 3.06 isn't a lot faster than 2.8 so for the 4 cores I'd get 720 anyway.

 

[David]

The 540M runs at 2.53 GHz, two cores, each with two threads. My gf has the 2.4 GHz model.

The 720QM runs at 1.60 GHz, four cores, each with two threads.

The 3.06 and 2.80 GHz figures are the Turbo Boost figures: the 720QM will AFAIK shut off 2-3 of its cores in order to hit 2.8GHz for single-threaded apps.

If you're running heavy multi-threaded apps, get the i7-720QM. E.g. video editing.

If you're doing mostly gaming, get the i5-540M or look into the i7-620M (2.66 GHz, more cache, two cores, each with two threads).

EDIT: http://www.intel.com/technology/turboboost/ for a description of the technology. There is a limit to how fast the i7 will boost before shutting off a lot of cores.

 

[attack]

mmmm didn't know about that 620m, that looks like the one I want. And the core reduction on the 720 is what I was concerned about...makes it almost not beneficial. Also I really don't ever plan on video/photo editing with my laptop, I have a desktop with more screens and CPU power for that...

Now to find those 620m's!

 

[David]

mmmm didn't know about that 620m, that looks like the one I want. And the core reduction on the 720 is what I was concerned about...makes it almost not beneficial. Also I really don't ever plan on video/photo editing with my laptop, I have a desktop with more screens and CPU power for that...

Now to find those 620m's!

I think Dell do the 620M in the Studio XPS16 (don't know about the Studio 15s) which has a decent VGA chip and I know Lenovo do the 620M in the T410 and T510 but their graphics cards aren't fantastic.

 

[attack]

Hey, found em on ebay for 245! that's 15 cheaper than the OEM 540's I was getting!

I'm going through RJtech barebones clevo 860cu...so this is perfect!

Thanks David