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biggy

biggy

biggy

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16 Jul 2009
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Hi all,
looking to get a dell xps15 and have narrowed it down to two options.

The 1st option has Core™ i5-560M Processor (2.66 GHz,3M) with a 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420M Graphics Card

The 2nd option has Core™ i7 Processor 740QM (1.73 Ghz, 6MB, 4C) with a 2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 435M Graphics Card

So 2 questions, which combination is best for gaming,surfing,watching movies and multitasking?

Also why is the i7 only 1.73 Ghz and the i5 2.66 Ghz ? am I wrong in assuming the i7 should be faster?

cheers
 
The i7 has turbo boost, up to 2.93GHz.

For gaming and such, definitely the i7 version. The GT420M is medium settings gaming at best, the GT435M is high settings. It's still not ultra settings gaming. The i7 is quad core, the i5 is dual core.

The second will give out a lot of heat when stressed, so it depends how efficient the cooling is. It will also have no battery life to speak of (maybe two-three hours max, endurance mode). The first option is more casual, and will have enough battery life, I believe the new XPS are optimus-enabled, and the i5 has integrated IGP.
 
Last edited:
Paul11 said:
i5 is a dual core

i7 is a quad core

i7 has a max of 2.93 when in needs it

i7 will kick the i5's butt
Click to expand...

Yes and no.

The i7 in question *can* turbo up to 2.93ghz but only on one core and only when it is below its TDP/TDC max. The i5 560 on the other hand can turbo on both cores at the same time up to 3.2ghz.

i7 740QM

i5 560m

In this scenario the i7 will only be faster when an application is heavily multi threaded. Light threaded applications (such as most games) will either run similarly on both processors or faster on the i5 (thanks to a higher base frequency).

This is a good comparison: i7 640m vs i7 720QM

The i5 560m performs similarly to the i7 640m (similar stock speed and max turbo) whilst the 740QM is merely a slightly higher clocked 720QM.

Unfortunately comparing gaming performance is harder as you often find to many variables to truly test the difference the CPU makes.

As for the GPU's, well tbh neither the GT420m (96 shaders 500mhz core) or GT435m (96 shaders 650mhz core) are that powerful (The 435 is just a 420 clocked higher). I would aim for medium settings in more recent games to keep consistant framerates. The likes of Crysis and Metro 2033 will only be playable using a combination of low and medium settings for the most part.
 
biggy said:
Thanks lads that pretty much explains everything.
Oh what is optimus-enabled and IGP?
Click to expand...

Optimus is switchable graphics. The i5 has an integrated, low power GPU (IGP). It means that when you do not need all the power of a dedicated graphics card (GT420M, GT435M), the system would switch to the integrated GPU in the i5, and use less power.

When you need the power (games), the system will switch to the power hungry dedicated GPU. Sometimes, the dedicated GPU is not available on battery power, or is throttled, to save batteries. Even then, gaming on batteries would reduce battery life substantially.

The i7 quad-core does not have an IGP, which means that the dedicated graphics card is always on, drawing more power, and reducing battery life. Even on idle, a dedicated GPU will still use more power than the i5 IGP, which provides minimum support systems for graphics (deciding HD, even a bit of 3D).

Some laptops (older dells) do not enable have Optimus enabled, even when it could be availabled, which means the laptop cannot switch off the graphics card and wastes energy. So Optimus is good is you want to use the laptop on the move, or away from the mains from extended periods of time (3 hours or more).

Optimus is usually geared towards low power notebooks, 13'', 14'', that require long battery life by design.
 
oweneades said:
As for the GPU's, well tbh neither the GT420m (96 shaders 500mhz core) or GT435m (96 shaders 650mhz core) are that powerful (The 435 is just a 420 clocked higher). I would aim for medium settings in more recent games to keep consistant framerates. The likes of Crysis and Metro 2033 will only be playable using a combination of low and medium settings for the most part.
Click to expand...

hmm yes, the GT420M is actually quite decent. Less difference there was between the GT 320M and the GT335M.

It will still do gaming on medium-high (BFBC2, MoH, COD:MW2) quite well.

If you want proper gaming, then you'll have to look at gaming laptops like the MSIs.
 
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