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    i5 vs i7 in gaming and college level engineering

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Ice H4wk, Jun 7, 2012.

  1. Ice H4wk

    Ice H4wk Notebook Consultant

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    So I was thinking about ordering an HP envy with the new 3rd gen i7 processor. But, after just returning the new Dv6 because of the heat it produce, I started to wonder if the i5 will be better for me.

    So will an i5 be cooler then an i7, and will i see a significant loss in gaming/engineering programs.
     
    Ice H4wk, Jun 7, 2012
    #1
  2. Marecki_clf

    Marecki_clf Homo laptopicus

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    Marecki_clf, Jun 7, 2012
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  3. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    If you are going to do CAD work, go with a business laptop. GPU's in Envy aren't optimized for CAD and will not perform as well vs getting a Quadro/FirePro.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jun 7, 2012
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  4. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    i7 and i5 should be about the same heat wise, but the i7 will leave you room to grow if you need more performance.
     
    ViciousXUSMC, Jun 7, 2012
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  5. Jarhead

    Jarhead 恋の♡アカサタナ

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    i5 and i7 will perform identically, as shown in the NotebookCheck article.

    I second this, though I lean closer to the FirePro since it'll be both good at gaming and not cost you an arm and leg like a decent Quadro will (2000M or higher).

    As a current computer engineering student, I couldn't see myself using anything other than a business laptop, especially my beloved workstation.
     
    Jarhead, Jun 7, 2012
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  6. Star Forge

    Star Forge Quaggan's Creed Redux!

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    QFT. Mobile Workstations are the way to go and unless you are forced to use CUDA applications for your courses, the AMD FirePro solutions are able to do both engineering CAD work as well as gaming. I also suggest going for a i7 Quad Core as most CAD programs or engineering software will be still more dependent on your CPU and threads than your GPU.
     
    Star Forge, Jun 7, 2012
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  7. Jarhead

    Jarhead 恋の♡アカサタナ

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    True, true. Most ECE stuff (MATLAB, more coding, etc.) are CPU-bound, though CAD programs will still run great on a FirePro card (my university is a Dell shop and most engineering students have M4600s with the M5950). Some games will also benefit from more cores, such as Rockstar title and BF3, afaik.

    Even still, you can do CPU-bound stuff like coding on an i5 and it'll work flawlessly as well; upgrading to a quad i7 might shave seconds to minute off of a job, depending on what program(s) you're using. I just bought my laptop with a quad i7 just because I wanted to, truth be told.
     
    Jarhead, Jun 7, 2012
    #7