Old and New Intel i7 Question

I was just about to order my new laptop right when the new sandy bridge chips got recalled. My question is, will the new sandy bridge processors make much of a difference if my primary use of a machine is for gaming. I've heard some opinions that say the GPU has hierarchy, and the processor doesn't matter as much.

Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Processor ( 45nm, 6MB L3 Cache, 1.73GHz)

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.00GHz)

Deciding between these two sager machines.

custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks

custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks

 

It really depends on the specific game. For most games, your CPU won't matter, only the GPU. It's only on certain CPU-intensive games (Starcraft II, for example) that you'd notice any difference.

 

Well, just to be technically correct, the Sandy Bridge motherboard chipsets got recalled, because of an electrical issue with disk controllers. Over 3 years, there is a 5% chance that 2 of the 4 SATA ports would start to generate errors and fail. This is an important distinction if you are looking at Sandy Bridge, because it is important to know that there is nothing wrong with the design of the CPU or motherboard chipset itself.

You are correct - GPU is the more important component when it comes to gaming. 98% of games out there depend so heavily on the GPU, that it becomes almost irrelevant what CPU you are using. The other 2% (Starcraft 2, Civilization 5, Grand Theft Auto 4) do depend on the CPU. But you don't need to go overboard. Any Core i3/i5/i7 CPU will be "good enough" to run those 2% of games that depend on the CPU, even if you are using an "old, slow" 1st generation Core i3/i5/i7 CPU.

So, pay attention to the GPU more than the CPU. The two laptops you linked happen to have nVidia GeForce GTX460M GPU's - very capable GPU's that will be able to run most games quite well.

 

If i may suggest, get the sager 8150 instead as it will allow younto upgrade to the 485m and 6970 gpu's in the future.

 

I thought about that, but I'm not sure how motivated I'll be to upgrade say 2 years from now. I'm not familiar with the process of changing out processors and GPUs. Is this something Sager would assist with? Would I have to flash my bios if I installed new, different equipment?

 

The CPU matters a lot in games. It is just that on laptops, the video cards are usually the weakest link.

 

It's pretty easy to replace the GPU on the 8150; screw the heatsink out, then put the old card out then the new card in, apply thermal paste then heatsink back on.

Pretty straightforward. The CPU has the exact same process.

For now, the BIOS supports the current GPU lineup, but maybe later it might resort to flashing to the latest ones.

 

I just read through the Sticky about upgrading laptop GPUs, and it seems like 99% of the time it doesn't work.. I understand the Sager8150 is compatible to be upgraded, but is it still a complete pain in the butt? or is it a piece of cake? Also is easy/hard to upgrade a CPU?

 

The overclocked i5-750 in the desktop in my sig struggles to run the final mission of ArmA 2 at even 30 fps... and that's at 800x600 with all details on low or turned off, so I know that's a CPU limitation.

 

Sager's are customisable; which is what makes them different than many laptops around. The modules are user-friendly and within reach. Read my post above.

It says 99% it doesn't work on most consumer laptops. Sager is the 1% along with Alienware...and certain laptop models.

 

I find that hard to believe considering its minimum and recommended specs and when the game was released. That would make the game virtually unplayable by 99% of people.

 

Well, I suppose I'm going to wait, and save some money to buy the 8150. Thanks everyone for your responses. I do have one more question though. How do you know which GPUs and CPUs are compatible with a given system?

 

As in to upgrade? Well you just start a new thread.

 

good idea


/close thread