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    Intel Core i7-2640M 2.8GHz vs Intel Core i7 3610QM(2.30GHz)

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by MichelleMay, Nov 28, 2012.

  1. MichelleMay

    MichelleMay Notebook Enthusiast

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    Normally I thought the higher GHz implied higher power..but then I thought that the 3000 were better than the 2000.. Obviously I'm a bit unaware when it comes to tech stuff. Could I please have some advice as to which is a better cpu?

    Thanks!
     
  2. Deks

    Deks Notebook Prophet

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    The 2640m is a dual core cpu.
    The 3610qm is a quad core cpu.

    The 3xxx series (Ivy Bridge) is about 5% better compared to Sandy bridge clock per clock.

    In multithreaded programs/tasks that can take advantage of all 4 cores, the 3610qm will be by far a lot faster.
    In single threaded performance the 2640m will be faster - but unless we are talking about specialized programs that focus on single-core performance, you won't notice any difference in day to day tasks (browsing, movies, music, document creation/editing), but multithreaded tasks will definitely benefit from the quad core a lot more.

    Taking into consideration that these days software is increasingly focused to taking advantage of multiple cores, the 3610qm will almost always come out faster.
    But otherwise, you wouldn't notice any difference between the two for relatively simple tasks.

    If its a choice between getting the 2640m and 3610qm... I'd pick the 3610qm because its newer, a tad more efficient clock/clock, and of course it is more future proof (in a sense that even if you are NOT presently taking advantage of multithreading a lot, it might be better down the line because it will deal with future programs much better than a dual core).
     
  3. Silvr6

    Silvr6 Notebook Evangelist

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    The 2640m will turbo up to 3.5ghz using a single core, I believe slightly less with both cores, say 3.3ghz.

    3610m does 3.3ghz on 1 core 3.2 and 2 cores and 3.1ghz on 3-4 cores.

    Due to the ivy bridge efficiency increases, I would be very surprised if the 3610 would be slower in any situations
     
  4. Peon

    Peon Notebook Virtuoso

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    That hasn't been the case for over 10 years.

    Nowadays, it's very hard for someone who isn't eyeballs deep in all of the latest CPUs to figure out what's faster than what though, so if you're ever in doubt, the best thing to do is to ask :)