3610QM vs 3720/3820/3920

I was curious as to whether there are any advantages in getting a processor higher than 3610QM aside from the slight (and barely noticeable?) boost in processor power. Might there be any blatant differences in CPU heat and the % of failure, for example? Are there any advantages at all, or is getting anything above 3610QM really pointless for anyone who doesn't do video editing?

 

3610qm is more then enough for virtually anything other then getting the top scores in benchmarks or saving a few seconds that require high cpu usage.

If you are a basic user get an i5 3210m as that is more then enough as well. What laptop cpu do you have now?

 

Thank you for the reply. "Celeron Dual-Core T3000 1.80 GHZ" is my current processor (and is the fastest CPU I've ever had), so I'm sure I'd be blown away by anything at this point.

So are there are no other distinctions between 3610QM and the CPUs above it in terms of heat, reliability or anything else? Just the negligible few seconds is what distinguishes them?

 

the 3610qm is the basic 45w mobile quad core, only difference the others mainly have is more clock speed and cache while the 3920xm should be unlocked so good at overclocking.

Your celeron cpu is very slow so get an i5 3210m. I think my p7350 is slow but your celeeron makes mine look quite fast lol even if its around 20%.

3610qm is 4 times faster at least on some stuff and other things like video editing it will probably be 8 times faster.

An i5 3210m is perfect fit for you as that is very fast dual core cpu and can do most tasks and will have very good battery life and be cool.

 

Just because it's slow to you, doesn't mean it's slow. Most users never require the processing power of even the lowest the new generation CPUs.

 

If you really want high performance I would advise you to get a 3612qm 35w quad core i7 as it will not heat up as much. Anyway if you got a 3610qm compared to a celeron lets say you do video editing 60mins on yours maybe around 5-10mins depending on hdd on yours. i5 3210m would be around 10-15min. I know you say you don't but my point is for a basic user an i5 3210m is a massive upgrade. I think personally an i5 3210m or i7 3612qm is what I am looking to upgrade to and hopefully a laptop with gt 640m or 650m.

 

yeah I know to be honest I reckon the op uses it as a standard basic user that an i3 will be sufficient. However if he wants new get an ivy bridge cpu and the new 28nm gpu's and then nothing will be slow.

 

Get i7-3610QM over the i7-3612QM, the only thing the 3612QM does is adds cost at a slower speed, and it really doesn't run any cooler than the 3610QM despite one being a 35W and the other a 45W. It's a marketing ploy so Intel can say they have a 35W quad core.

It also depends on what the user wants to do with their machine. Just because i5 is faster doesn't mean he shouldn't opt for a quad core to get best performance. But IMHO, 3610QM is more than adequate for 99% of users out there for anything they throw at it. Any other quad core is money wasted unless you really need the VT-d option, which is supported in 3720, 3820, and XM, and if you have to ask what VT-d is, then no, you don't need it.

 

There is a very small group that needs hardware virtualization for whom, the 3720 is a good processor. There is another small group that does some very computationally intensive tasks that cannot be offloaded to the GPU or a server that they have access to for which, if they have the money (this makes that group even smaller), the 3920 is a good choice. The 3820 honestly is pretty much useless imo. I don't see why anyone would need/use it. For all other purposes (for which the group of customers is pretty large) the 3610 should be more than enough.

 

it is a 35w as the turbo's are less and they cut down the gpu I believe. It makes sense though 45w quads been around for ages 35w was gonna come one day. I prefer 3612qm as you don't need any real performance improvement and when running benchmarks it won't require as much electricity.

 

What is the cost difference between a 3612QM and 3610QM? If same cost, then I'd say take your pick. But if 3612QM is more expensive, you're wasting your money. The 3612QM *IS* the 3610QM just clocked slightly slower to fit in the 35W TDP. Check out the Clevo W110ER forums discussing this. There is literally no advantage to the 3612QM, and it draws just as much power as the 3610QM, it just costs more.

 

I agree completely. I don't understand why anyone would pay a few hundred more dollars over the 3720 to get the 3820 when all you are getting is another 100mhz. They both can utilize a modest OC, but the amount is the same so the 3820 holds no advantage besides the mhz difference. Oh, that and the extra 2mb of cache, but I don't think that adds any real performance gain. I've always wondered how important 8mb is and haven't found any real advantage. If someone knows of any please let me know because I'm curious.

The 3920xm can obviously be overclocked as much as your machine can handle. I'm curious to see how high it can reliably and safely go, especially since IB tends to run hotter. Could you even OC a 2960xm beyond the performance of an OCed 3920xm because of the heat issues?

 

'Tis true. The 3612 is the same chip as the 3610 except that it has a lower TDP. Lower TDP, especially if by only 10W, does not mean much. The chip is going to stay just as toasty as the 3610 (may be slightly less; no where close to justifying the cost though) under load. Under no load, it will consume a bit less power but if you cared too much about power (that too only a small difference) then you wouldn't be getting a quad core anyways.