i5-4300U vs i7-4500U

Hi all,

I am planning on getting a Thinkpad Yoga with a i5-4300U.
But before I place the order I want to check that i7-4500U is not a significant step up, as it has the same core and thread count and is almost similar to i5-4300U. In fact, i7-4500U does not have some of the features present in i5-4300U.
Is i5-4300U missing anything significant that I need to worry about. I will be using it mainly for programming, VMs, and animation/digital art.

Last time I bought a laptop, i5 CPUs did not have hyper threading and i7 had hyper threading, it was quite easy to decide.
I find the new naming quite confusing.
I just dont want to order the laptop and then realize that i5 CPU is missing a significant feature.


Thank you
Yudi

 

See:
ARK | Compare Intel® Products


You gain a lot of corporate features with the i5-4300U (along with extensive VM support) but you lose 1MB of Cache and 0.1GHz each from nominal/turbo clocks.

If you do not do a lot of VM work - then the i7-4500U is the one I would choose at the same cost.

 

And also check: Intel Core i7 4500U vs i5 4300U

 

That's a weird duck there. The i5 has a full feature set that the i7 does not. i5 is probably cheaper, and I'd go that route regardless.

 

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I save around $60 by going with i5-4300U over i7-4500U and not only that the standard clock speed is slightly higher for i5 over the i7 but when maxed i7 is 10mhz faster. Not that it really matters.
I will probably get the i5-4300U for the full feature set, just in case if I need it, like VT-d if I need to pass through devices to the VM. Also anyone know if Intel® TSX-NI (missing in i7) really matters for something like Maya, I heard maya takes advantage of multi-threads.

Cheers
Yudi

 

Small correction: it is 100MHz faster (not 10).

With your programs and workloads and considering the $60 savings I would change my mind and get the i5-4300 too.

I can't really find anything specific about Maya - but with a potential of 4 to 5 times the speed with an Intel® TSX-NI (Haswell based) optimized software and ~40% faster overall program execution - an Intel® TSX-NI enabled Haswell chip is worth much more than a 100MHz bump in clock speed and 1MB more cache for the i7-4500U.

See:
SiSoftware Zone


Hope this helps.

 

There are some consumer grade i7's vs i5's catered to businesses. That and remember 1st generation Clarksfield i7 didn't have iGPU..

 

Can't believe Intel would sell a dual core i7 with stripped down feature set, considering it is their premium processor in this range. I wouldn't buy the i7 even if it has more cache, just for the fact the i7 should really have all features enabled by default in the dual core range.
Personally I see the i5-4300U as the better processor.

 

Anyway, the raw performance difference between the ULV i5 and ULV i7 aren't all that much (certainly not worth spending extra money for the Average Joe, at least), and as previously discussed, that i7 is lacking certain features that could benefit your VM work, while that i5 has those features. So, if your work can take advantage of those features, I'd lean towards that i5.

The ULV i7 is far from Intel's premium processor. I think you mean the quad (and higher) -core, full-voltage i7 CPUs.

 

Intel sells what it can (get away with).

As I've stated above, I would choose the fastest (nominal) option between the two: and that is the slightly higher clocked + 33% more cache i7-4500U.

In this case, the i5-4300U (possibly) is the better processor - but only for the OP's intended workflow.



...

 

No I don't mean quad, I stated dual core. I should of stated dual core ultra low voltage to be clear about the class where both fit into.

 

There, fixed it for ya.

 

No, you didn't.

Na na na na na! (runs away zigging and zagging).

 

MAYA on a ULV CPU ... I hope you also have a desktop and are not going to run heavy applications or complex renders. many digital arts programs lag horribly on dual cores and ULV chips let alone both.

 

KCETech1, yeah both options are not optimum for MAYA - but if Intel® TSX-NI is supported on the software, the speedup is considerable.

Do you know if MAYA takes advantage of TSX?

 

I want a good all-rounder that's portable and I realize that this laptop will not cut it for heavy workload. It will cover my diverse needs and when I need to render stuff I will use the workstation.
Thanks for the input guys, I will be getting i5-4300U.