P7450 vs i7 720QM

[goose84]

Hi,

Please could you tell me which processor is better the i7 720QM or the P7450.

Cheers

 

[reflux]

The i7. Quad core, hyperthreading, turbo boosts up to 2.8ghz.

 

[goose84]

so the fact that the clock speed is 1.6Ghz and not 2.x the i7 is still faster?

Also I cant see how much level 2 cache the i7 has? all i can see is that it has 6mb level 3 cache. Is this better than level 2?

 

[reflux]

The i7 runs stock at 1.6ghz but can overclock itself to 2.8ghz if the situation demands it.

The chips have 256kb of L2 cache per core. The L3 cache is shared between all four cores. You can't compare the the numbers to the P7450 though as the architectures are different. But the i7 is quite a lot more powerful.

 

[goose84]

Ok so if you have the i7 you personally dont need to overclock it, the processor does it automatically based upon the usage?

 

[JonJ678]

In a laptop I'd rather have the P7450 on the basis that it's likely to use much less power, making for a cooler and more reliable laptop with longer battery life. Personally I'd wait for the generation of laptops based around i3/i5.

It depends what definition of "better" you're working to.

Self overclocking is not the same as turbo boost. Turbo boost is Intel's first move towards self overclocking processors, it's not there yet.

 

[reflux]

Ok so if you have the i7 you personally dont need to overclock it, the processor does it automatically based upon the usage?

In a manner of speaking. You can't overclock laptops anyway.

Core 2s are more power efficient but I wouldn't even look at them these days unless you want to save money. However, if heat and power use concern you more than raw performance, you might be best off waiting a bit for the i5 and i3 laptops to come along though, as they will be, as Jon points out, a bit more power efficient but still retaining most of the processing capability that i7 has.