i7-4790K vs i7-4710HQ

Looks like there is an upcoming laptop which includes desktop CPU within a reasonably portable form factor ( Clevo P751zm). It's still rather heavy at 7.5lbs, but chassis is only 385mm x 262mm x 35.7mm (1.3 inches thick), much more portable than traditional DTR size.

Trying to decide between this laptop configured with i7-4790K + 980M, 32GB RAM, 3xM.2 SSD Raid0 and P35x which uses i7-4710HQ and 980M, 16GB RAM, 2x mSATA SSD Raid0.

The kind of tasks I will be using this laptop for are primarily working with pretty large files in 64-bit Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, In-Design, Illustrator, 1080p video editing (perhaps 4k as well), encoding, motion graphics as well as occasionally some demanding games.

I travel frequently, so the portability factor is important; however, I'd like to get a sense of how much of a timesaver the desktop CPU and increased RAM might be compared to 4710HQ. I'm guessing Cinebench scores, etc., are through the roof for 4790K, but it would also be helpful to see some sort of practical comparison for actual tasks in Adobe applications and video encoding, effects rendering etc.

 

See:
ARK | Compare Intel® Products

See:
PassMark - Intel Core i7-4710HQ @ 2.50GHz - Price performance comparison

See:
PassMark - Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.00GHz - Price performance comparison



I don't know how well a 1.3" thick chassis is going to cool an 88W processor and an GTX 980M (can't find any numbers on that). I would bet that the system as a whole will be throttled (greatly).

 

Probably around 30% faster give or take.

 

Thanks, this is helpful advice!

Also found some benchmarks for creative apps, looks like the 4790K performs just slightly better than 4770K for most tasks: Results: Adobe CC - Core i7-4790K Review: Devil's Canyon Tantalizes Enthusiasts

 

If you're going to encode video using x264, you might want to grab some 2133MHz or faster RAM. It apparently helps a bit with the encoding speed. I don't know if the small percentage increase is worth it to you, but if you can afford it, it can't hurt.

Combining a solid 16GB (or 32GB, as I know After Effects gobbles up RAM like a dog being fed a steak) 2133/2400MHz RAM with an i7-4790K should spank the 4710HQ so badly you'll be doing backflips.

Of course, you initially avoided the 4910MQ P157SM-A which could have done something similar, so I'm not sure how you really feel about it all XD.

Anyway, you know your options now.

 

Thanks, never quite understood exactly how faster RAM affects performance.

Certainly considered the P157SM-A with 4940MX, but it's gonna be a bit too large for using comfortably while traveling (1.7"), and it would seem the desktop 4790K could make a larger difference for creative tasks, no?

 

Not necessarily. You can set the voltage and multipliers of those processors as you wish, so the laptop with the better cooling system is going to be the one that performs better in that case.

 

Agreed. Whichever system can handle the Haswell heat better is the one that will run faster. By that token, an i7-4910MQ is probably the best choice.

 

If P157SM-A's CPU cooling is anything like my P370SM, 4GHz is about the most you can reasonably expect. I don't render but if CineBench is anything to go by, I can just barely keep my 4900MQ under 95C during the winter months if I max out the OC bins to match a 4790K, and this with max fans and Liquid Ultra paste no less.

4790K might be a better option if the new Clevo's cooling is up to par.

 

So among 4710HQ, 4910MQ and 4790K, stock clocks are not as important - the better performing CPU would be whichever one I can overclock higher, based on the temps of the laptop?

 

Correct, but we can safely toss 4710HQ out of the equation because who wants soldered garbage.

Between the 4910MQ and 4790K, if the Clevo can keep 4790K from throttling at stock speeds then that's a very huge advantage compared to the 4910MQ. The 4910MQ when maxed out will be 100 MHz faster than 4790K at stock, but thermals will likely be a huge problem at that point.

 

So it doesn't seem likely we would be able to OC the 4790K above stock clock?

Is there going to be any OC potential for 4710HQ in the P35x? Gigabyte BIOS has TDP locked down?

 

Remember, the P370SM models we have have gimped CPU cooling compared to the single GPU models. Look at the monster of a fan on this P157SM-A, even though the heatsink is still two heatpipes. It might work better on max fans.

4710HQ will hit 3.4GHz constant. 3.5GHz might work, but according to HTWingNut's testing, it didn't work in the machine he reviewed that had it; it kept throttling down. 3.3GHz is your stock 4-core turbo.

4790K's clocks are stock at 4GHz (or 4.2 with correctly working turbo), which is the benefit. A 4910MQ will need a 300MHz OC to hit 4GHz, and a 500MHz OC to hit 4.2GHz. It's not that doing that exactly is hard, but the temps that are the problem.

That being said, the 4790K uses more power and I believe higher voltage (could be wrong about voltage) to achieve those kinds of clocks, which means more heat output, which means the P751ZM needs some serious cooling attached to the CPU to keep THAT thing cooler... and in a thinner form factor I'm not sure how they did it. I can't find pics of the internals anywhere.

Basically I suggest keeping the P157SM-A & P750ZM models in your head, then waiting for the P750ZM to come out. Check the reports of energy usage on the latter and OC-ability, and see how it works. If CPU usage is your primary concern, then the i7-4710HQ is out of the question right now.

Next, about the RAM. The faster RAM only helps with x264 encoding, but for video editing that's most popular right now. But it should help a little. For real-world tests, you're not going to see much benefit, unless you get the 2133/2400MHz RAM at 11-11-11-28 timings, which is what most laptop RAM comes at (I know mine did, both times they replaced it; it was 11-11-11-28 on all sticks). If timings are the same (how often it refreshes) and memory speed is different, it will make a more notice-able difference, though again it should be mostly negligible.

 

Wow, if this is truly coming out, this is my next machine.. Screw Alienware... This looks absurdly awesome.. I was planning on getting the P650 when I get some cash but screw that.. This will be better.. Hopefully there is a 17" model...

 

The CPU fan on the P157SM-A is nearly identical to the P370SM's fan apart from being 2.5mm thicker, so it won't much of an improvement. Also keep in mind P370SM has the advantage of the fan being directly on top of the heatsink, in addition to the heatsink having extremely short heatpipes. Those aluminum fins on the P157SM-A certainly won't help things either.

4790K likely has a stronger IMC as well so you could push your ram further if you end getting some good sticks.

 

Guess I won't know till I see one up close. As far as I could see the fan is quite a bit bigger and looks like my primary GPU fan (which is bigger than my CPU fan by quite a bit). Wonder if you could fit a P177SM-A CPU heatsink onto that? For the full copper heatsink benefits? That'd be a kicker.