i5-520m vs i7-720QM

I was wondering which of the two cpu's would be better for a game like Starcraft 2? I would guess the quad core, but does Starcraft 2 utilize all cores evenly? Because if it doesn't then ill just go with the i5 and save $150 bucks.

 

GPU's are a more important factor in Blizzard games.
I am not sure on Diablo 3 and SC2 utilizing all cores evenly, but Blizzard has a knack of making their games run on lower end hardware, so either choice will likely be more than acceptable.

If it were me, I'd go with the i7 Quad. But that's because I use 3ds Max and would prefer a quad core for rendering (among with other multithreaded programs).

 

You couldnt be more wrong, blizzard games are more cpu bound than anything, my guess if the SC2 engine is a heavily modified W3 engine like WoW was that the 520 will have the upper hand against the much slower clock speed of the 720qm. And looking at the res of your laptop the higher clock speed will make a big difference, unless you were at 1080p+ res or using alot of AA/AF the GPU will scale with the faster CPU.

 

Heh, guess some people still haven't figured out clock speed doesn't equal faster.

 

In this case it does.

 

Whatever floats your boat.

 

The SC2 beta ran at 25-30fps on minimal settings on my e1505 (see sig), and 60 fps with tons of crap turned on with the Studio 15. Honestly, gameplay-wise it all felt equal, it's just a question of eye candy. I wouldn't worry about i5 vs i7 for SC2. You might be able to add on an extra particle effect or shadow or something other random thing, but it's not going to be a huge jump. Maybe down the road at the very end of the SC2 trilogy + some crazy custom map, it might make a difference, but not as it was in the beta.