Trading my xps1645 for a Precision M4500 - Is it good for gaming?

Hi,

I'm trading my xps1645 (720qm, 4gb ddr3 ram, 500gb 7200rpm hdd, ati radeon 4670, 1600X900 HD+ LCD) for a Precision M4500 with a 720qm, 4gb ddr3, 500gb hdd, geforce 1800m, 1600X900 HD+ LCD).

What do you think of this trade? Is it worth the extra bucks? Is the build quality really better for the precision M4500 model? Any heat or throttling problems on the precision? How does it handle games like Starcraft 2?

Thank you for your help.

 

In terms of gaming,

regardless of the price, should I go for the i7-620m or the i7-720qm?

 

You should be able to handle Starcraft 2 on low to medium settings since it's behind the 5730 in terms of performance. However, if you lowered the resolution to 1366x768, then you might even be able to run it at high settings.

The 1800M is a Quadro card, not a geforce card, so it's designed more for CAD, etc. but it will handle gaming. It's Geforce counter part is the 335M.

Starcraft 2 doesn't effectively use 4 cores and there isn't a large leap in performance from 2 cores to 4, so I'd go with the 620M since it has a lower TDP and is faster when using 2 cores. If you have particular applications in mind beyond games, then there might be a reason to get the i7-720QM.

 

Thank you for your quick reply.

Is there a huge difference between I7 720qm and 620m when multitasking?

Also, how is the build quality between the xps1645 and the precision m4500?

 

Unless you have applications that can utilize quad-core CPUs, you may be better off with dual-core for better battery life and less heat.

Build quality will be much better with the M4500. The business laptops feature a magnesium-alloy chassis, rather than plastic.

 

Since I can get a free upgrade to the 720qm should I take it? Taking into account that I want to keep this laptop for a long time and that more applications while be enhanced for quad cores would you still not take that free upgrade?

Also have anybody encountered ''throttling'' problems with 720qm in M4500 models?

From what I've understood, the throttling problem is a several performance slowdown due in part to bad heat management.

thank you for your help

 

If you're not trying to push for maximum battery life, it would be nice to have (especially since you said it was a free upgrade).

 

Thank you Robin for your quick reply.

I don't really mind about the battery life. I'm more concern about gaming performance of 720qm vs 620m and the lot more heat that the 720qm generate. What do you think about the 720qm in terms of gaming? Will I get similar performance in game?

EDIT : I encountered throttling problem with a 720qm on a xps1645 mainly due to bad heat management. Will the m4500 manage the heat better or should I just stick to the 620m even if I get the update for free?

 

It shouldn't be any worse than dual-core. You should see some improvement as other processes are shuffled around to other cores by Windows, putting less stress on the cores being used for gaming.

 

Sorry for double post but can you answer this question since you are almost instantly replying my post

I encountered throttling problem with a 720qm on a xps1645 mainly due to bad heat management. Will the m4500 manage the heat better or should I just stick to the 620m even if I get the update for free?

Thank you again for your help