i5 540m vs. i7 820QM

Sorry if this is a noob question or has been talked about to death on here but I figured I needed some help. I'm looking at the HP Envy 15 line of laptops and in the confiugrations list these are the fastest i5 and i7 processors(both turbo boost to 3.06GHz). What I'm wanting to know is which of these would be better for gaming or if there would even be a noticeable difference at all. I like that the i5 would run cooler which is always nice.(especially for such a thing and powerful notebook like the envy)
Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

The 820QM is definitely faster, but the difference would be negligible in most games. However, it would run hotter (I've heard that the Envys have heat issues with quad-cores), and it's definitely not worth the excessive cost difference.
Personally, based on HP's pricing, I'd go for the i5-430M or 520M.

 

Would the 820qm be important to rts games in their playability or would the i5 be sufficient?

 

no, your graphics card is going to be the factor more than the CPU. The dual core i5 *or* i7 620 (also dual core) if they have the option would be the best CPU for your money.

 

in rts , the CPU also pays quite a good part although the GPU does most of the work... the ATI 5830 GPU in the envy is a little crippled due to 128bit bus and GDDR3 so ur really better off getting something else... look at Sager NP8690... it has a super good GPU which should be great for everything and the price is also allright... personally ur better off with a 820QM as more apps become multi-threaded...

 

Well, I'm looking at the envy because of it's sleek design and the great portability of the machine which the NP8690 doesn't have. Although the pricing for that one is much better. The only problem with the 820QM is heat and battery(more heat than battery due to the 9 cell battery slice that comes with it)

 

i7 Envy also has 2 more memory slot and usb 3.0.

 

Reason to never buy a machine: you already know it has serious issues with heat. To buy it, with the hope that the issue won't effect you, is not a wise decision.

 

Ugh, The thing is I've been bouncing back and forth between this and the m15x more than the ball in a game of pong and it's getting annoying because I can't decide on what I want. The m15x is better in every aspect except weight, size, and maybe discreetness. Either would suit my needs but I would prefer the portability of the envy, So it all comes down to how well they handle heat apparently and I've just heard too many different things about the envy to know.

 

Why not a Sager?

 

well why not asus G73? Weighs less than the M15x and is 17 inch... also has subwoofer ,3 speakers , i7 quad , 8GB RAM(expandable to 16GB ), blue ray and ATI 5870 for only $1600... which is a ripp off and also lighter than that M15x... and will have no heat problems.

 

The G73 is having a lot of its own issues. I don't recommend it right now.

 

What issues? I don't plan on getting one, but it does look like the best price/performance gaming laptop.

 

I've got an Envy with a 540M (see the sig) and it doesn't get unbearably hot. An i7 class CPU would likely get warmer, and I'm not sure I'd like it like then, but any of the i5's should be quite manageable for heat. Heck, I played Civ4 on it for 3 hours on a plane a couple weeks back, no issues whatsoever. The 5830 is also definitely not slow. It's not the fastest card you can get, but it can push L4D2 at full resolution, medium details and 2xAF (at least) at standard clocks, and almost everyone I've seen can get a 25%+ memory bandwidth overclock on it with no issues.

The M15x will be a faster gaming machine. That said, if you want a more usably mobile powerhouse and don't mind it not having an internal optical drive (woohoo Steam!), then Envy is a wonderful machine.

 

The M15x is not a good option.. weighs a ton and even more than Asus G73... a better option would be the sager... weighs less..