Quad core i7 vs. dual core i5 for gaming

I was asking because I read some tech review a few months ago mentioning that HT, even though present in the CPUs has to be called by the software... which almost none used it. I may be wrong, so that's why I'm asking...

 

Well, after going back to read on HT which i hadn't done in a while, whether the OS is "aware" that HT i present or not will have in an impact if the OS handles the threads it's sending to the CPU differently. The OS still sees 8 logical cores and will send 8 threads if it can, it might not do so in an efficient manner though. Besides, there isn't a lot of software that is coded for more than 4 threads so on a quad core HT won't be used often. Video encoding is faster with HT though.

 

There are PLENTY games out there that will run fine on my i5. I play Deus Ex:HR, Black Ops, L4F2, Fuel, MW2, BF:BC2, Minecraft (with a bunch of mods), League of Legends, CS:S, Homefront, and more. Of course new games will not run well (I tried the witcher 2 and had bad framerates) but for the majority of the already great selection of games out now, I'm able to run them all at 50+ FPS.

I'm not sure about BF3, MW3, and skyrim, but I have a feeling those will run alright as well. Developers are starting to include lower settings in games more often now (bf3 will be playable on dx9 as stated in an interview) so I honestly don't see your statement making sense compared to getting a better GPU.

 

As people have mentioned, due to having a decent GPU like 540m, CPU will hardly be the bottleneck.

It will only be noticeable when using high end GPUs anyways. Deus Ex benefits a lot from 3 cores, but only if your graphics card can really get it going.

In the end, dual cores work. I wouldn't get one because I use it for a lot other than gaming, and they don't feel as fast or fluid anymore (currently using a 3.2Ghz Core 2 Duo) on a lenovo, and it just isnt as fast as my 740qm for anything I can see. It feels slower at general multitask.

Gaming wise there isnt much of a difference in games up to this year, except a select few.

 

OP, since your budget is $500-750 I think you should check out this quad core notebook with an AMD Radeon HD 6720G2. If they have some in a Best Buy near you then go and pick it up, if not you can ask them to ship it from a state that has then (like Florida, I hear they have some in Texas too). They stop selling them on September 10th.

ASUS - Laptop / AMD A-Series Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Brown Suit - K53TA-BBR6

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/601808-k53ta-best-deal-ever-could.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/607232-k53ta-owners-lounge.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/608772-k53ta-bbr6-cooling-mods.html

 

I already purchased my laptop over 2 weeks ago (specs in sig)

EDIT: Actually my laptop model is K53SV. They changed it. Very similar to yours.

 

No matter how many times this is said about Bad Company 2, it isn't true.



Review Intel Sandy Bridge Processors Gaming Performance - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Yes, but it used to be true and maybe that's what causes the confusion.

 

Yes, but it's kind of annoying when we've already cleared up the confusion in this very thread, and people are still relying upon Bad Company 2 as a reason why I'm allegedly giving "bad advice" (boldface, red, all-caps) when I give a thumbs up to an i5-equipped, 540M-equipped laptop for someone spending $750.

I mean, in March of 2011, NotebookCheck.net wrote:

Sure, if you're going to spend $1200+ on a machine with a high-end graphics card instead of a midrange graphics card, dropping a bit more for a quad-core might be a decent investment. But all this talk about i5s being like Pentiums, not making sense for gamers since mid-2010 (that's before the Sandy Bridge i5 was even released), etc...it's just not true. Particularly when we're talking mid-range GPUs (540Ms and the like) and laptop prices of under $1000.

 

That, for someone on a sub $1000 budget, i'd recommend an i5 + 540/555m. When looking at gaming laptops though, there's no point to getting a dual core considering that if you're willing to fork out ~$1200 + the step from an i5 to an i7 isn't too expensive compared to going from a 560m to a 580m which would bust your budget by a fair margin.

 

are there quad core mobile i5 processors?

 

It depends on the type of the game. Since the latest trend in game is 3D with insane post-effect and physx, GPU will always be the bottleneck, even with gtx580m/amd6990m.

and for sub $1000 budget, the msi barebone with i5+gtx560m is the best bang for the buck for gaming.

 

Just checked on wikipedia, all mobile i5 are dual cores.

 

i5 is a dual core with four threads. I opted to get a i5 with my machine because I could upgrade it later when the prices of the 920XM drop down to a more reasonable price. Get what you can afford!

 

Strange I was just about to say exactly the same thing as long as you can stick in an I7 at a later date go with the I5 and when you need to upgrade you can stick in the 920XM and it will be a noticable upgrade, the prices are falling on these models all the time as well so 6 months down the line you could save yourself some money....

Which you can put towards an SSD

 

920xm is droping in price, already as low as 250dlrs in some places with some sellers.

SSDs are also not THAT expensive. I am going to buy a pair of Crucial M4 SSD128GB, along with a 920xm to enjoy maximum power!