3610QM vs 3720QM (AGAIN!)

I know this question has been asked many, many times, but I have a very particular condition.

I'll be buying a Sager from XoticPC very soon, and the difference between a 3610 and a 3720 is $160. Currently, I use a C2D e6750, so I have a very poor perspective when it comes to quad i7s.

I plan on using this computer for both CAD work (ProE) and heavy gaming, but my main point of contention is game recording. Will springing for the 3720 give me significantly better performance when capturing 1080p footage, or will the 3610 even break a sweat with it's 8 magical threads?

Currently, my cores go up to about 80% when playing TF2, and trying to record just causes the whole thing to buckle. I'm looking for something that could smoothly record BF3 at max quality with some room to spare for future-proofing.

 

tbh I'd get the 3720QM for a variety of reasons. VT-d could be helpful if you ever plan to run VMs (you may not now, but who knows about the future). The partially unlocked multiplier is available on the P170EM and I'd be surprised if it remained locked permanently on the P150EM. It is a bit faster, even without the overclock - this means higher performance in single-threaded applications that are demanding eg older games that use intensive graphics, console emulators.

Personally, I'm getting it in my P150EM, and I don't feel at all that I am making an unwise decision.

Also the faster processor will help you render the videos you're bound to make with your recordings a bit faster. That never hurts.

 

I don't really expect to use VMs in the future (I have my pile of ancient computers for that ). According to notebook check, the video rendering performance of the 3720 was 6% faster in practical tests.

On the other hand, that extra .3ghz and unlocked multiplier could make it infinitely more valuable in a couple of years.

 

This is true. And 6% could be a lot honestly. I don't know how long it would take either processor to render a 30 minute 1080p video with narration, but I imagine you could save yourself some considerable time, especially once you add it up that you're going 6% faster EVERY time, not just once.

And I agree about the future, that was the main reason I went with the 3720QM. That and I skimped out on CPU last time, picking the 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo and thinking to myself "oh this will be fine, games don't care much about CPU." Well it turns out 3 years later that in fact it is not fine. Many games easily max out my CPU, crumpling it to its knees in seconds.

 

Why are we still awake? Let's not all start pointing fingers, but this is entirely your fault, George!

EDIT: lawl, George deleted his post. (I was just kidding!)

 

There is little difference in 3720QM and 3610QM. VT-d is very specific use in VM's that very few people use unless they do development work in a VM.

For recording you are better off with a fast drive, SSD preferably. You're better off putting that $160 towards a large SSD.

And that was video RENDERING not video encoding. Sure the 3720QM in general might give you a 5-10% improvement, but unless you do it ALL the time it won't make a lot of difference. Just to put it in perspective 5% is 3 minutes every hour of CPU running at PEAK load. For CAD you're not going to be rendering all the time, and surely not going to take an hour every time you do it. It may shave off a few seconds here and there but nothing of substance.

 

I wouldn't give $160 extra for 300MhZ difference.
The cpu's are overpriced as is.
Stick with the 3610QM and you'll be fine - even in CAD based software (or software that uses CPU in general).

 

the 3720qm has a partially unlocked multi...up to 4x. So you can overclock the 3720qm another 400mhz, that's on top of the 300mhz difference between the 3610 and 3720

i believe this feature is fully supported on the p170em's.

it is 100% enabled on Alienware m17x and m18x. You can easily ramp up the multi's in the m17x R4 bios to 40,39,38,38 (i.e., 4ghz with single core in use, 3.9ghz dual core and 3.8ghz 3-4 cores)

No such feature is available on the 3610, so if you are going to do CPU intensive processing, i'd get the 3720...if you're just gaming, the GPU is the bottleneck, so the 3610 is more than adequate

 

I don'y see a 3720qm bottlenecking you in any game in next 4 years. Notebookcheck did a test and found only an i3 2310m bottled necked something like a gtx 560m at 1080p. Core 2 duo's were a good leap at the time but the extra memory bandwidth with the new core i series and starting at 32nm meant laptops now could play gta 4 like i3 330m has 2c 4t made gta 4 run better then maybe even a c2d x9100.

 

wut ?

In your situation it depends.
But genereally speaking people need to stop worrying so much about the CPU, we're not in 1999 anymore... i7-3610qm is more powerful than an i7-2920xm (stock) and that thing has way more horsepower than you'll realistically ever need for gaming purposes (it's the GPU that matters).

 

Uhh where did you get that 3610QM > 2920XM? Lol I'd like to see the numbers on that one.

 

Uh... easily.

See:
PassMark - Intel Core i7-3610QM @ 2.30GHz - Price performance comparison

See:
PassMark - Intel Core i7-2920XM @ 2.50GHz - Price performance comparison

 

If you look at Passmark CPU scores, you can see that the i7-2920XM (with 74 samples) scores around 7500 points and the i7-3610QM (with 158 samples) scores around 8300 points. Thus, at least for that series of benchmarks, the 3610QM is more powerful than the 2920XM.

edit:and tilleroftheearth beat me to the answer

 

Haha wow I'm really impressed. I was not expecting that at all. Thanks guys.

 

I reckon any new core i series will be good for gaming. However to record with fraps I would recommend getting something like an i7 3610qm or 3612qm which is a lower tdp as dual cores may struggle with that.

My dream is still to get 3612qm and gt650m gddr5 or 7770m.

 

I see posts about the 3612QM and it has zero improvement in thermals or power consumption over the 3610QM despite TDP rating. Save your money and buy the 3610QM.

 

I guess I should ask one more thing:

Since I'm going with Sager, does the NP9170/NP9150 BIOS support all the overclocking features it should? In other words, will I actually be able to access that multiplier?

 

I saw some saying otherwise. Notably I remember seeing a post about it from some clevo reseller that said their test showed the i7-3612qm running noticeably cooler.

 

unofortunately only the NP9170 does

 

Alright, now we're getting to the serious stuff. This greatly affects the difference between the 15" and the 17" for me. Thanks for that.

 

I'll have to dig up the links, but even users with Sandy Bridge i5 and Ivy Bridge i5 are running comparable temps to the 3610QM.

 

Well don't hesitate to share them if you find them, I'd be interested. These tests were done on the same notebook ?

I'm not so surprised on the other hand that i5 dual cores would reach temps as high as i7 because despite consuming less power the die is also smaller.

 

Bumping this thread...

Would the 3720qm give better GPU overclocking results (FPS boosts) than 3610qm? by how much? (680m GPU)

 

About 13%...

See:
Compare Intel® Products

 

The only reason to get the 3720 is if your laptop of choice supports unlocked multipliers.
As some have stated, it is not supported on the 9150 but may be supported on the 9170. Best to double check on the sager sub forums to be sure.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Is there a guide on how to OC my 3720QM using XTU. I have searched everywhere.. Or is just a matter or changing the multi's to 40,39,38,38 ? Anything else I should change.. or do?

 

Change the multipliers and then up your power limits so that it does not just thottle back straight away. The amount you can raise it depends on your temps.

 

Hello,

I am going to buy an 17" laptop for gaming. And I have one question.

And I am goint to buy AMD 7970M.
Which of this 2 CPU (3610QM or 3720QM) is better for AMD 7970m GPU?

 

No it's not.

That's only because of the faster quick-sync in all Ivy Bridge cpu's, which throws off the entire benchmark score. Unless you are using video encoding that uses quick sync, a 3610 is quite a bit slower than a 2920xm/2960xm. There are very few apps that use this at this point.

The temperatures have very little to do with what actual CPU is in the system, it is pretty much dictated by the fan profiles. The system is programmed for target temperatures, so with a slower cpu the fan will just run less and it will still heat up to just about the same temp. Also with a faster cpu the fan just runs more.

 

Hi
Why u just dont buy top one from this chart 3940XM
(mine is on pos. 17 2860QM)

 

Well, it'd be kind of hard to buy a chip that hasn't been announced yet.

 

Preorder

 

I don't know about core i5s but i've tried Core i3 2310M and pentium B960 rated at 35W and they aren't cooler than my core i7 2720qm.
Actually the fan is off more often with the core i7 cause idle temps are way better. Same thing at load. For some reasons the fan was louder with the dual cores. Bigger die is best i'd say for thermal dissipation despite the higher TDP.

 

The I3s tend to be the hot junk cores tbh.