Is Alienware/Dell crazy?!

I'm sure i'm not the first to notice, but here it is.

Why is it on Alienware websites.. when choosing the processor, the Intel Core i7 620M.. it is shown as the fastest processor you can get.. even faster than the 920XM? It's deffinately shown as a i7 processor, and not a fast i5 processor. Its also the same price as a 720QM processor as well!

Surely if someone orders it thinking.. hey thats the fastest processor for a much cheaper price.. "I'll get it" (having heard i7 was the best).. but they find out their speeds aren't what they said it was on the website, they could sue Dell for false advertising/advertising of incorrect information?

Maybe I'm missing something.. but to me it seems like Dell has put a big typo.
Btw I checked other Alienware sites. Dell UK shows it abouyt 120 pounds more expensive than the 720QM processor.

In France its 140 Euro's more expensive than the 720QM Processor.

Is the 620M processor quicker?

 

Well, it's a dual core. The other i7s are quad cores.

It's significantly faster in terms of clock speed but obviously you only have two cores instead of four.

Many people still use dual core processors, because of the fact that most games use no more than 2 cores, or see little benefit from any more. Even modern games that do see benefit from a quad core still run well on a dual core.

So some people still prefer dual cores. And in terms of clock speed alone it is faster. Although, the other processors can turbo up to nearly the same speed, however I THINK with the dual core processors both cores can turbo up. Not entirely sure on that though.

 

Its got the highest clock on Turbo.Its a Arrandale dual core the 720QM,820QM,920XM are quadcore cpus.My 13 year old daughter knows the differance between dual core quadcore

 

It's a legitimate question if he didn't know the answer or see the difference. If you're going to be cheeky though, you should probably spell correctly.

Humour aside, I don't quite understand what the practical difference is - does that mean a higher clock speed on a dual core CPU will noticeably outweigh benefits of a quad core CPU? Or does it depend on the game/application?

 

Well spotted .Have a look at a comparison between Quad core / Dual core clocks.Have a look at a thread i started about i7 620M will give you a brief rundown on my experience on it .



i7 720QM

1.60GHz Base
1.73GHz Quad Core Turbo
2.40GHz Dual Core Turbo
2.80GHz Single Core Turbo

i7 620M

2.66GHz Base
3.06GHz Dual Core Turbo
3.33GHz Single Core Turbo

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/482539-i7-620m.html

 

It really depends on what you are doing most people said that 620, 720, and 820 won't give you that much boost in terms of frame rates. If your encoding a hd video that's a different story. As stated by SAUCE in different post 620M runs very cool, and here is a chart to compare the other 3. http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...026620-820qm-vs-920xm-intel-core-i7-cpus.jpeg

 

Its dependant on an individuals usage. For example if all you do is game and browse the internet then you have no reason to necissarily jump into a quad core CPU. If you do alot of processor intensive tasks all at the same time on a day to day basis. (outlook, Firefox, MSN, Stream Audio, Burn Discs) Etc the more cores you have dedicated to multiple process the smoother things will function.

Hyperthreading is another factor that can influence a decision in that it mimics more cores.

In the case of the i7's and the performance increase over a dual core CPU. lets take the i7 720QM, it is stock at 1.6ghz, and turbos up to 2.8, when 1 core is in use you get speeds upwards of 2.8ghz, when 2 cores are in use that number drops to somewhere around 2.3 and decreases dependant on use. So and i7 620M will beat the i7 in dual core processes every time. However once you start introducing more and more applications and processes into your test you'll start to see the benefits of having more cores running slightly slower.

Hopefully this makes some sense.

 

Bob have you used the 3d aspect of that monitor you've got? I was considering the 24" model but only to try out the 3D, (i'm hearing however that it may not be worth the effort)/

 

It depends... I also noticed how the prices differ...
In general, for most of todays softwares and games, the 620m is better. Though on the long run the 720qm will eventually outperform the 620. Either way, the difference is barely noticeable.

 

haha not yet too cheep to waste 200$ on glasses atm, keeping money for m17x atm (once 5870's come out) the monitor in it self is really nice though even without the 3d haven't seen better. I will buy the glasses after the m17x some time just to try it out, seen good reviews on the dell/AW site.

 

hahaha these kids today. My 13yo stepdaughter knows all the tech specs, but can't speak English...

I wanna buy her an M15x as a "welcome-to-America-lets-see-commie-Mao's-economy-get-you-such-a-nice-toy" gift

 

Lets not forget that the i7 720QM is the weakest of the i7 series CPU's. its better to compare the 620 to the 820QM just based on capable processor speed. Even then its not fair to compare them in a dual core process.

 

The thing is 620M has also got Hyper Threading so with apps/progs optimized for 4 cores u got your 4 threads.

 

Meh why not compare it to 920XM clock speeds are even closer with ability to OC you could get higher clock speed jkjk... Its hard to compare dual and quad since its more of a preference and what ur going to use the comp for, dual is great that it consumes less battery and doesn't heat up nearly as much, but it sucks for encoding/ heavy multitasking.

 

Cores trump Threads, and with 4 cores you get 8 threads

 

Yeah i know that but where u needing 8 threads.99% of time i personally only use 2 max .

 

yeah im aware of that. Allthough a couple of benchmarks proved that the difference between the 620 and the 720 is barely noticeable.

 

SoccerThierry
I would be interested in seeing these benchmarks .You got some links?

 

This whole debate always seems to talk about what is best and which CPUs is better than other CPUs. The fact is that the different modern now at days CPUs have been design to deal with different tasks(ways of working). It is therefore not correct to say that Cores trump threads as it all depends on what kind of work your laptop/computer has to do. There are plenty of benchmarks ad well as articles on the net to proof this. The i7 720QM is excellent for doing a lot of different things at once but "Will I be having my firefox, a pdf file and my eclipse open when playing games ?" Probably not The i7 620M is my choice do to the high clock speed in turbo mode here and even when not needed to multi-task then the speed of 2.66 is great and coding in eclipse as well as listening to music is not something that will overload an i7 620M CPU. However if I would do a lot of music and 3D rendering as well as answering emails and chatting on the messenger while checking out the stock-market and update my excel files then I would opt for a CPU with more cores as this kind of demand is screaming for more CPU power. Conclusion must be that one must ask oneself this question "How do I plan to use my laptop?". My love goes with the i7 620M CPU as I find the reviews and benchmarks on the internet promising according to my demands(3D coding(on a small scale), C++, Java and occasionally gaming).

 

Doesn't everybody? Oh wait, only us cool computer geeks do.

 

Yeah, well first thing; this website ( I know its not the best reference)
Then, I was comparing my benchmark scores with a fellow M15x user powered by a 620M, at similar overclock, the 620M will get about 100 to 200 more points in 3dmark06's benchs.

And here's the thread I was looking for.

 

From what I've read so far, it's sounds like most of you would choose the i7 620M over the 920XM with both processors costing exactly the same..

 

A good way to see diffence between cpu ram and hard drives. Check out PassMark Software - PC Benchmark and Test Software.

 

Yea thats what it sounds like to me as well.. weird...

 

No not at all, it is not about the price but merely about what you are planing to do with your laptop/CPU. The i7 920XM has a max speed on 3.2 in turbo mode while the i7 620m has a turbo speed of 3.3, but a lot of reviews talk about how how threads constantly are running in the background in windows environments which means that you rarely get it to use all its core at once handling one task only and that could have you end up with a speed of 2.0 (worst case scenario) while the i7 620M with a single core has a speed of 2.660. So are you going to use it for gaming or 3D rendering? (it is not completely the same even though it sounds like it). Are you going to do small coding jobs on it or are you planing to design your own 3D software? It is simply a matter of what you which to do with your CPU. The i7 920XM is a very nice CPU , but the i7 620m is perhaps more useful for me at present time. Besides my my laptop is a replacement and I therefore do not get the opportunity to pick and chose But when I bought my m17x I chose the core 2 duo because it was able to run 95 percent of the games on the market, I found that pretty okay considering the price. Perhaps I am also a speed fan which makes me like cpus with an higher clock speed(starting speed and not turbo)

 

The 620 is a nice alternative to a quad core processor but it would in no way outperform a 920XM with it's unlocked multipliers.

 

Of course it's not faster than 920 XM. Dell's website is perfectly correct on this. A simple and short (2 mins?) google or wikipedia query on these CPUs would explain to him which ones have 2 and which 4 cores:

Let me google that for you

with descriptions, charts, etc. So the answer to the title is: In this case, no.

 

Yes indeed but the price would also outperform my budget as well as many others(including small firms who have just started up). I would have to pay like 1350 us $ more for this nice i7 920XM CPU while the i7 620m cpu cost around 290 us $. So I think that the i7 620m is just about fine right now Should I one day need this hotshot CPU for my work well then I will invest in it then (and by then another one which is much better has probably already been invented and produced). Again it all comes to this "what are you planing to do with your laptop" and not I would like to have the best of the best. To be true I hardly think I will notice any difference by not buying the i7 920XM CPU (except that I will not have to encounter my wifes evil gaze as I spend like 1300 us dollars on a CPU ). All in all the people who invest in an i7 620m CPU instead of an i7 920XM will get a saving of 78.5 percent here in Denmark/Sweden and still have a very nice CPU that can deliver the task of gaming as well as a nice laptop to work on. Long live the i7 620m CPU And by the way I do not think Dell is crazy

 

The i7-620M is better than the i7-720QM, but I would still definitely take an i7-820QM or i7-920XM over the i7-620M if the price was the same.

 

Well, this tells a bit more of the story.. If you're on a budget and you're trying to say that the i7 620M meets your demands for the type of applications you'll be running then I can understand that. But it sounded a lot like you were overstating the 620m's performance just because that's the processor you have. I was just very surprised because it sounded (and still does a little) like you would still choose the 620m over the 920xm with all things being equal. The one thing I've noticed around here is that NO ONE, takes the "I don't need all that performace, this meets my needs just fine" attitude. All of us here want the latest and greatest, even if we don't utilized the components abilities..

 

SoccerThierry
Thanks for posting links.Seen Shirleys benchmarks before .
Dwarf maybe you have not seen this review before so link below 4 ya.

Intel Core i7 620M review from TechRadar UK's expert reviews of Processors

 

Well our animal instinct tells us to go for the best hardware we can get, but our resources(money etc) will often have an effect on out choices. Also why spend like 1000 dollars more if 300 dollars can do the job and make sure that you can use your laptop for the next 3 years. I will for sure invest in another Alienware laptop after 3 years. I would have chosen the i7 920XM if I had to program my own 3D engine(as well as investing in the best of the best GFX card I could get my hands on). So I am satisfied with the kind replacement I have been offered from Michael Dell(his secretaries) as you can see that this was an upgrade(this made me very happy indeed). But was I offered the i7 920XM I would not say no. I simply state that the i7 620M is hard not to fall in love with due to its multi threads technology and the price it comes with as well as its performance So my conclusion must be that the 620m cpu is kind of charming due to its low cost and fair performance. I would guess that it could run around 95 -98 percent of the software/games on the market right now. So this little dwarf of an i7 620m is very welcome in my kingdom Thanks for the link SAUCE

 

I'll agree with this... Anyone who's on a budget, the i7 620m is a very good choice. Props to intel for offering a great processor at a good price..

 

This link is also very nice

Notebookcheck: Review Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Processors ?Arrandale?

 

I think alot of people forget to realize that it will be different for each user. The 720QM will crush any dual core for the type of work I do. I Multitask heavily at work and home and there is no substitute for more physical cores. While HT technology is cool and all it will always be < a physical core. While the 720QM in my future dellienware may not be as fast in a single threaded situation, I rarely if ever have that little open and when I do I usually walk away and use my phone for that task. Plus the real world difference will be near impossible to tell.

 

That is mostly true, but what you're missing is that a dual-core with twice the clock speed will be equal or better than a quad for any task (assuming all other architectural features are equal - you obviously can't apply this to a Pentium D). Turbo boosted, the i7-620M reaches 3.067GHz which isn't quite twice the speed of the i7-720QM's 1.73GHz, but it's close - and since the majority of applications can't use extra cores as efficiently as they can use extra clock speed, you will find that most of the time the i7-620M is faster.

Look at the benchmarks here - the i7-620M even beats the i7-720QM in Cinebench, which loves quad-cores.

The fact is that even though the i7-720QM is a quad-core, it just isn't a very fast one by modern standards. Compared to desktop CPUs, the i7-720QM is barely half as fast as the fastest quads, while the i7-620M is more than three quarters as fast as the fastest desktop dual-cores.