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    Will getting anything higher than a i7 3610QM give increased gaming performance when the GPU is only a GTX 660M

    Discussion in 'ASUS Gaming Notebook Forum' started by Tenbones, May 7, 2012.

  1. Tenbones

    Tenbones Newbie

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    Hi, first-time poster, long-time lurker here. I've been following the Asus ROG thread for quite some time and been doing research here and there, and one question that I have to hardware vets is:

    Is it worth it to get anything higher than a i7-3610QM when the Asus G55 GPU is GTX 660M? What will be the potential increase in performance by having a i7-3720QM or higher processor?

    I've decided to bite the bullet and pre-order out of giddiness but a logical part of me is still wondering if the processor upgrade is worth it :p
     
    Tenbones, May 7, 2012
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  2. James D

    James D Notebook Prophet

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    most people will tell you that such cpu is not bottleneck. i think the same. too small benefit.
     
    James D, May 7, 2012
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  3. Tenbones

    Tenbones Newbie

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    Hi James, thanks. I was hoping that it wasn't the case. It's too bad that there seems to be nothing higher on the G55 than the GTX 660m for pre-orders right now.

    In case you're wondering, the reason why I'm going for an Asus G55 as opposed to a Sager/Clevo is due to the global warranty Asus provides (no Sager/Clevo warranties in my country sadly).
     
    Tenbones, May 8, 2012
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  4. squawks

    squawks Notebook Consultant

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    If you Google benchmarks of gaming when changing CPUs, you will notice that CPU makes very small differences, if any at all unless you are jumping many generations of technology and even then, the difference is only moderate.

    For example, upgrading from the very old Intel Core 2 Duo (2006) to the very recent Ivy Bridge Core i7 (2012) typically only gleans you about 20-30% performance upgrade when considering equivalent clock speeds of processors. However, upgrading from a 2006 nVidia card to the equivalent 2012 model gives you many folds greater performance.
     
    squawks, May 8, 2012
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  5. hackness

    hackness Notebook Virtuoso

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    Won't be that much of a difference with the GTX 660M just because the CPU isn't bottlenecking, unless the Optimus feature is enabled (higher clock on the iGPU HD 4000 than on the 3610QM).
     
    hackness, May 9, 2012
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  6. Tenbones

    Tenbones Newbie

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    Thanks for the input guys. I've decided to settle for the i7-3610QM because of the above reasons. Unless there's a feature that allows the iGPU HD4000 to work in parallel with the GTX660M, looks like investing in more processing power will not be worth the cost tradeoff.

    Will just save the money for a future HDD/SSD or RAM upgrade. Or maybe a nice gaming mouse and headset :)
     
    Tenbones, May 9, 2012
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