# Gaming Laptop - i5 or i7 ??



## harpreet115 (Dec 24, 2010)

I am planning to buy a laptop.I would be using it mostly for gaming, surfing and movies.
I am confused whether the dual core i5 460m 2.53 GHz(Turbo upto 2.8 GHz) OR the quad core i7 740qm 1.7 GHz(Turbo upto 2.93 GHz) would be better for gaming.(Or both perform equally well along with 1GB discrete graphics).
I have heard that most games fully utilize only 2 cores rather than 4 so the i5 would be a better option because of its higher clock speed and that the i7 is better in multi threaded applications like animation, video editing but not for gaming.
Also, the i7 has turbo enabled upto 2.93 GHz but that is only enabled in 1 out of its 4 cores rather than in i5 which has turbo upto 2.8 GHz in both its cores.Would that affect its performance while gaming??
I have planned to buy Dell XPS 15 which gives me the following options:
1) i5 460m with 1GB GeForce 420m graphics
2) i7 740qm with 2GB GeForce 425m graphics

The latter would obviously be better but is it worth to spend the extra Rs 11000(approx.) on it.Would there be a drastic difference in the performance of these 2 in games??

I am a B.Tech 1st year student in Thapar University, Patiala and I am going to use this laptop till my graduation or even beyond.So I want it to be able to play future games also atleast at low settings and the current ones like GTA 4, Crysis Warhead, NFS Hot Pursuit etc. at high settings.
Please Help me take a wise decision....


----------



## desiibond (Dec 24, 2010)

core i5 460 is a dual core processor while core i7 740qm is a quad core. IMO, it's better to go for core i7 if you plan to keep the notebook for more than 2yrs. do note that it takes more battery than core i5 460. Another thing to remember is that some of the current gen games/apps that utilize not more than 2 cores will be faster on 460 as it runs at higher clock speed but any app/game that utilizes more than two cores will be lot lot faster on 740.


----------



## harpreet115 (Dec 25, 2010)

desiibond said:


> core i5 460 is a dual core processor while core i7 740qm is a quad core. IMO, it's better to go for core i7 if you plan to keep the notebook for more than 2yrs. do note that it takes more battery than core i5 460. Another thing to remember is that some of the current gen games/apps that utilize not more than 2 cores will be faster on 460 as it runs at higher clock speed but any app/game that utilizes more than two cores will be lot lot faster on 740.



But some people are saying me that there would be not much difference in performance between i7+2GB435M and i5+1GB 420M while gaming.
Do all the games nowadays utilize 2 cores?Does any game use 4 cores?Are there chances that most of the games in the future(about 1 year or so) will utilize 4 cores??In that case I would prefer the i7 but it has clock speed of just 1.7 GHz.Would it be able to play the future games smoothly at high settings.

Also would Alienware m15x or HP envy 15 be a better optionthan Dell XPS 15?
I can stretch out to max. Rs 65000.


----------



## desiibond (Dec 25, 2010)

yes. there won't be much of a difference now. core i7 runs at 1.7GHz but when turbo is enabled, it goes till 2.9GHz. given that you are going to keep the laptop for more than 3yrs, it's better to go with the best processor/GPU that you can get. as times goes on, a quad core gets better in gaming while dual cores slowly phase out. and yes, m15x with gtx260m would be much much better. also check asus n53jq.


----------



## Erneste (Dec 25, 2010)

in my opinion both i5 and i7 are not for gaming , core 2 duo with windows xp and high graphic card is the best machine to play games , and yeah DDR3 too .

EDITED


----------



## desiibond (Dec 25, 2010)

Erneste said:


> in my opinion both i5 and i7 are not for gaming , core 2 duo with windows xp and high graphic card is the best machine to play games , and yeah DDR3 too .



was. c2d was good for gaming. that was because the games were optimzed for c2d's architecture. start playing new games on c2d and core i5 with same GPU and you will know the difference. 

And windows XP?? you better change your calendar


----------



## modder (Dec 25, 2010)

Erneste said:


> in my opinion both i5 and i7 are not for gaming , core 2 duo with windows xp and high graphic card is the best machine to play games , and yeah DDR3 too .



 

gonna be... wait for it... Legendary 'GAMiNG'


----------



## harpreet115 (Dec 27, 2010)

desiibond said:


> yes. there won't be much of a difference now. core i7 runs at 1.7GHz but when turbo is enabled, it goes till 2.9GHz.



But the i7 has Turbo upto 2.93 GHz enabled only in 1 of its 4 cores and the other 3 cores will be running at 1.7 GHz only.


desiibond said:


> given that you are going to keep the laptop for more than 3yrs, it's better to go with the best processor/GPU that you can get. as times goes on, a quad core gets better in gaming while dual cores slowly phase out.



So, finally if the games to be developed in the next 3 years would require 4 cores to run, then i7 would be my choice.Are there any such games now or are there chances for such games to be developed in future?
Otherwise I would go with i5......As my primary focus is better performance in games and not in heavy multitasking.

Also can somebody tell the price and specifications of Alienware m15x ?Is it customizable?


----------



## modder (Dec 27, 2010)

harpreet115 said:


> Are there any such games now or are there chances for such games to be developed in future?
> Otherwise I would go with i5......As my primary focus is better performance in games and not in heavy multitasking.



Most modern games can run in multi-core environment, see NFS HP 2010 running on my hexa-core setup:

*dl.dropbox.com/u/8951488/proccyaff.jpg

i7 gives better benchmarks too. Gaming notebook like Clevo and its Sager, always give i7 a preference and its worth it .


----------



## harpreet115 (Dec 27, 2010)

So the quad core i7(1.7GHz) would be a better performer in games than the dual core i5(2.53 GHz).....OK

Also Intel's Sandybridge are going to be launched in January.Should I wait for them or should I go with the i7 now?


----------

