Core i5-460m vs i5-520m

i'm comparing two laptops ( Y460 on lenovo's site) and they seem to be the same, the only difference is the processor

why the i5-520m is priced $50 more than the i5-460m being a little slower?


there has to be some technical difference that justifies the price difference, it is just that i cant find it

 

i5-520M has a bit more aggressive TurboBoost (2.93GHz vs 2.8GHz) and supports a number of features, which the i5-460M doesn't support:
-Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)
-Intel® Trusted Execution Technology
-AES New Instructions

 

The additional maximum performance is in line with the $50 price premium (around 4-5%).

When taking the points Marecki_clf makes into consideration it more than tips the scales towards the 520M (imo) if you are purchasing this system with any long term view (over 2 years).

However, maximum computing performance aside, the 460M may well have better heat dissipation (even at the same TDP of 35W) properties as it is newer than the 520M and it has a slower top clock speed too.

See:
Intel® Core? i5-520M Processor (3M Cache, 2.40 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBNA, SLBNB, SLBU3

See:
Intel® Core? i5-460M Processor (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBZW, SLC22


So, do you need maximum performance, or a cooler running notebook?

 

I don't know exactly what's the range of applications of the instructions missing in the 460M but I think they're useless for most people. The 460M has higher clock & higher turbo on 2 cores, single core turbo is not that important so I'd say save yourself some money and go for the cheaper one. The i5-520M should soon be replaced by the 560M which would be more worthy of the $50 premium.

 

yep, lenovo actually has the i5-560M at the same price than the i5-520M

@tilleroftheearth, i think i would be ok with the power of them, i plan to program basically in java, but also to experiment with other languaes (haskell, scala.....), then i think the "cool" factor would be more important for me. but reading to Botsu, it seems that the 560M would be the best option (i would like to run virtual machines and maybe that VT-d could help me someway)

BTW, thanks all for your responses

 

I do believe that the 560M version also gets you a blu-ray player as well...

 

hey, it seems it does..... well, 560M seems to be the winner, thanks for the good observation

 

I currently have the sony vaio z12, which has an i5 520m. I have a full ADH plan and since they don't make the Z12 anymore, and the Z13 costs what the Z12 cost when I bought it, I'm pretty sure newegg would replace my Z12 with the new Z13, which has the i5 460m Newegg.com - SONY VAIO Z Series VPCZ134GX/B NoteBook Intel Core i5 460M(2.53GHz) 13.1" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 128GB SSD HDD DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M + Intel HD Graphics.

The 460 is faster than the 520, and someone here said above that it is also more heat efficient? I play SC2 on this machine a decent amount, and am curious as to what kind of performance boost I'd see if I switched. Would it be worth it? Would it even be better?

Thanks a ton in advance.

 

I would recommend you to read the thread again...! i5 460M is slower as it has lower turbo boost frequency! And I'm pretty sure there is no (noticeable) difference in heat efficiency.

So straight to your question - you will for sure not see any performance boost, but I doubt you would notice any negative difference either, although i5 460 is a bit slower.

 

I don't quite understand. The 520 = 2.4Ghz and the 460 = 2.53Ghz. How is that slower?

 

i5 520 can turboboost up to 2.93 GHz. i5 460 can turboboost up to 2.8 GHz.

520 is slightly faster

 

The answer is in post #2:

 

Gotcha. Sorry, I should have looked more closely before asking. Question: will my processor automatically turbo boost? Do I need to set it to do so?

 

It does everything automatic. You can go in to advanced settings in the power profile within windows or power4gear whatever you are using to set the CPU at full speed all the time if you want. Or 50%. But you don`t have to because the CPU does everything automaticly

 

Don't need to set anything - it turbo boosts automatically if it needs to.

You can download and install "Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor" to observe how and when it does that:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/566652-what-intel-cpu-gadget.html

 

That in some cases (on some machines) have been proven to even throttle down the CPU productivity. Wouldn't touch it.

 

OK i am gone. No need for me. Gracy have it covered

Huh. what do you mean? That is the whole purpose of it`s function. To downclock the CPU if you want

 

) always trying to help

 

Get the i5-520m.. Its features make it worth the $50 especially if you use VT like i do.

 

Why do you think the newer Z13 downgraded to the 460 if its a worse chip?

 

So did the newer S13.

Answer: Because 460m is newer as model - was released the second half of the year and was probably considered the new "mid-class" CPU at the time.
Whoever needs better - i7 was/is always available.

I also wouldn't voluntarily go for 460m instead of 520m, even if it was slightly faster, as I take good advantage of the Virtualization and Hardware supported AES technologies of the 520m.
But if you have no clue what those are for, you obviously wouldn't miss them
But again - i5 460m is theoretically slightly slower. Practically - I doubt you would feel any difference during the normal daily activities.