Core 2 Duo or mobile Core i7 for REAL Gaming? 720QM 820QM 920XM

hi all,

does mobile core i7 processors boost my games?

Simple question, complex answer. I'm about buying a laption during the next three months and I am wondering - should i prefer core 2 duo or mobile core i7 from intel?

I realy fancy a laptop that hosts GTA4 with full details.


the crowds from germany are fast as always, i found a comparison of the three core i7 720qm 820qm 920xm. the later is the xtreme version.

http://www.notebookjournal.de/news/comparison-of-the-mobile-core-i7-trio-720qm-820qm-920xm-nksj-1532



greezt, horse

 

That's a really big question, but short answer is yes. Even if your game can't take advantage of quad core cpu's (which I understand GTAIV can) the core i7 will turn off two cores and overclock the other two.

 

Just make sure you don't sacrifice GPU quality for the i7. If you go with the Clevo you should be fine, but don't fall for the new models with the GTS 250m.

 

These benchmarks are not fair... all the other laptops have dual core processors... can someone post some benchmarks with core 2 quads...

As far as i'm concerned , if you want a real gaming laptop get an alienware M17x with dual ATI 4870 GDDR5 cards and QX9300 which would own any other laptops... If i wanted core i7 power , i would get a laptop like a Sager NP9262, which has a core i7 desktop processor and single NVDIA GTX280M... own anything there is...

 

The GTS 250M w/ GDDR5 is equivalent to the GTS 160M/9800M GTS and is by no means a weak card. Even the GDDR3 version can beat any other 128-bit card (except maybe the HD 4830).

GTA IV is a CPU intensive game, if you're just playing that, a i7 will beat any C2D and be around the C2Q. How much better than the C2Q really depends on your budget (and CPU choice). However, a desktop i7 will destroy all notebook CPUs in performance and for the cost, and would be the recommended CPU if you just play that game.

 

Desktop Core I7 is nice. The technology makes sure everything is running at its optimum level.

If the mobile processors follow the desktop processors in this regard, I'd say go for it, Core 2 Duo is now only reserved for individuals doing tasks of Microsoft Office and standard definition video and picture editing.

 

At first GTA 4 wasn't optimized to use the best GPU's. Which made it horrible for people with modest configurations. It used the CPU for many instructions that the GPU was much better tasked to doing, even without the latest patch. In fact, people started using Pentium 4's and seeing if they could keep up with the best of graphics cards in GTA 4, since NetBurst and the new Nehalem architecture have much in common, especially to their predecessors, the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. Using simple logic the i7 should clearly be superior in games such as GTA 4 which still carry a huge demand for a decent CPU even after the patch. However to me, once you get into the quad i7 that is also hyperthreaded, it's such overkill.. that's 4 threads/cores, followed by 4 virtualized cores/threads which GTA 4 can not efficiently use.

 

Try for the i7 if you can, it really negates the quad vs dual argument, as the less cores are used, the higher the clock speeds will be.

 

Alienware is so god damn expensive!! I can buy a sager with the same specs for ~2k less.

 

I recommend an i7 but you will only see the benefit in GTA IV if it is paired with a good GPU.

 

is there a list out there in this forum, showing me all the laptops with mobile core i7?

I heard from MSI, Asus, Dell, Alienware, HP and Clevo.

graphics wise, I prefer ATI 48xx or nvidia GTs/x 280 minimum

cheerio, crazy

 

So you're telling me that your P9500 is only good enough for SD video, and light photo editing? Please, if your trolling, at least do it well...

 

get a i7 and a hi-end gpu and be happy

 

I don't think the Core 2 is going to be banished by gamers all around the world anytime soon... This won't be like the transition from NetBurst to Core in desktops, people were actually excited to get out of the literal furnace that NetBurst turned a piece of silicon into. Core 2 still delivers great performance and will only be 1 gen behind soon, i think if they've lasted for this long they won't go too easily from the mainstream.

 

I think he may mean if mobile processors follow the same trend with desktop processors. There is so much room for upgradability on a desktop compared to a laptop (in terms of cost as well) that people arent going to want to hang around on dual core processors when more games are being optimized for quad and the cost isnt that great for a q6600 which can be safely overclocked (in my experience) to 3.2ghz. Also with the ability of i7 processors to pretty much work with any kind of optimization, any serious gamer is going to be thinking about getting one of these. (especially when you can buy an i7 920 pre-overclocked to 4ghz, with a motherboard and 6gb of ddr3 1600mhz ram http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-003-OB )

Blazin

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=422844