Comparing Processors

Practically speaking and in real world usage, will I see any difference in performance between an i7-2720QM processor and an i7-2630QM?
This would be in a new XPS15, for personal and home office use. Internet, email, MS Office, watching an occasional video or movie. No gaming.
Also, how do they compare with an i7-2620M processor?
Thanks, gents.

 

I would suggest you go with the i5, you don't need an i7 for such tasks.

 

I realize that any i7 is overkill for my computing needs. But what I'm wondering is would there be any noticeable performance difference between those processors?

 

There is always noticeable performance depending on what you are doing, for the tasks you have mentioned i'm sure there won't be. If you want an i7 processor, the i7-2630QM will be fine.

 

For what you are doing the 2630QM will be plenty, you will see no boost with the 2720. The upgraded CPU is for heavy CPU-intense stuff otherwise it doesn't do you much.

2630QM is a great solid processor with plenty of power for your future needs. I only got the upgrade because I game and do a lot of heavy FEA sims on it, which need CPU power. movies can get by on a single-core atom with no worries.

 

you will not notice the difference.

hell i doubt you'll notice a difference if you went with the i5, seeing that all you do is general office / leisure work.

i suggest you stick with the 2630 and get yourself an SSD. you will get a much bigger boost in overall performance and feel.

 

Along the same lines, considering my usage with this laptop, will there be any noticeable difference between the GT525M 1GB graphics card vs the GT540M 2GB card? It's a $100 difference. That's a lot of beer.

 

I doubt you will even need to use the video card, the intel hd graphics will do almost everything for you fine, maybe for watching movies it will switch to the nvidia card, there will be no noticeable difference so stay with the 525m.

 

Agreed here. Videos don't even need the NVidia card honestly. Gen 1 Intel i-series graphics can handle Blu-Rays after all. Might as well stick the with 525m and get that beer unless you think you will do any gaming in the next couple years on it. Even then there isn't a massive difference between the 525 and 540 anyway.

 

I think some other differences between the processors is the 2720QM supports virtualization and AES encryption encoding.

If you have no need for these, I would just go with a dual core i5 like zjacobss mentioned like the 2410m. The i5's drain your battery slower too. The i5 2520m supports virtualization and AES encoding as well if you needed those. Virtualization is for things like XP mode on Windows 7 Professional. The AES would let you encrypt your data faster if you use encryption on your files/hard drive

I don't know if MS office can use a quad in spreadsheets, but if you are dealing with large databases a quad may be worth considering.

 

i5 and i7 drain similar power unless they are heavily loaded. For simple word processing or even movie-watching the power draw will be practically identical.

 

The rig I am looking at building is definitely overkill for my needs. But I'm also looking at this purchase long term. I'm a buy and hold guy, and so I'm trying to do some "future-proofing", so to speak.

 

good point, I forgot how they down clock