Help with choosing an M11 model

Hi there,

Ive been looking at the M11x mainly for a bit of WOW and some first person shooters and today ive thought about getting the intel i5 model for a few hundred pounds more, i wanted to know is it worth getting the better processor for the money? is the core duo fairly old now?

Thanks
Matt

 

Really you won't get a huge amount of difference between the i5 and su7300, you won't get a huge amount of difference between the su7300 and i7 even without running ThrottleStop. I would say the R2's are for people who want better driver support and need a little bit of extra oomph from the CPU in games like SC2 for instance and any other high CPU demand game/app.

 

thanks mate, thats useful to know, i was worried about the core duo being outdated, but if the difference it not that major i may reconsider, as long as the games look good i dont mind if there not maxed out although it would be nice

 

If you can snag an i5/i7 for maybe 50 pounds or less difference I would do it as there is a difference, it's just not a major one. But if it's gonna cost you a few hundred pounds I wouldn't do it at all, before I bought the i5/i7 for a few hundred pounds more (aka $3-400 USD more! ) I would look at another computer if the cpu was necessary.

 

I just did some testing with my R1 and WoW

Ultra settings/ Avg. 20-24 fps playable when OC enabled
high settings/ Avg. 30-35 fps smooth and playable No OC
Good settings/ Avg 50-60 fps smooth No OC
Integrated card/ Avg 7-14 fps did not try OC

I'm completely satisfied with the R1 and yesterday I surfed the web for 7.5 hours before she needed a charge.. if you have the extra money go for it but if not don't feel bad about getting the R1 at all..

 

The single biggest difference between the su7300 and i5 is definitely driver support. It looks like the guys here have finally managed to get new drivers on the R1, in this thread, but I can't vouch for the ease/reliability of it.

WOW shouldn't be a problem in that regard. R1 owners seem to be running it fine. If you plan on continuing to buy new shooters, drivers might affect you more, as nvidia tends to optimize their drivers for many games shortly after their release.

 

So have or will nvidea stop making drivers for this CPU then?

 

It's not a nvidia issue, it's a Dell issue. The problem with the hybrid graphics on the R1 is that the nvidia driver and the Intel driver have to be packaged together. So, after nvidia releases a driver, Dell has to modify it. However, the last drivers that Dell has released date back to June. While I can't say for sure that there won't be future updates, it doesn't look promising.