i7-740QM vs. i7-720QM? What's the difference?

I'm currently debating if I should buy a i7 740 or i7 720. Which one do you recommend? And just to make sure, i7's are always better than i5's right( I'm talking about the i5-580M)? Thank you! Also, I'm buying the laptop from HP.com

The price difference between the 740QM and 720QM is $100

 

What is the price difference?

If it is $1, go with the 740. If it is $400, go with the 720...


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The 740 is just slightly higher clocked version of the 720. Without considering Turbo Boost, it should be about 8% faster (with Turbo Boost, the difference is a bit less). Intel is selling them for nearly the same price (the 740 is $14 more expensive). If this is the difference in price you see from HP, go with the 740. If it is substantially more than that, the 720 will do.

 

The difference between the two is only 133mhz. Not really much of an extra boost in performance but if the price difference between the two is minimal then go for the 740 otherwise the 720 will be fine.

 

i7's are not always better than i5's. It depends what you're doing and which one you have. The only difference between i5's and i7's has to do with sockets, everything else is 99% coincidence/ correlation.

The 720 and 740 are not noticeably different, there's a slight clockspeed change and that's all.

 

It all depends on what you are doing with the notebook.

The i5 will provide longer battery life and run cooler. However, the i7 quad-core will be the better choice for running multi-CPU applications that involve rendering and encoding.

So . . . what are you planning to do with this notebook?

 

The i7's will always be better than the i5-580M when running heavily multi-threaded workloads. They will be hotter, use more power and are physically larger than (2.6 times in area) than the i5 in question.

In lightly threaded or single threaded workloads, the i5-580M will run cooler (at maximum output), possibly require less power and give up to 14% better performance than the i7-740.

As to whether which one you should buy? I say neither.

If you really require the high performance all of these chips offer, then a mere 45 day wait for SB is something to consider. Especially if a cooler running, higher performance and longer battery run time system is something you require/demand in the next two years or more of your (new) system.

Good luck.

 

maybe 45 days for SB release but also then when will we see them available for sale?

 

I am finding more notebooks are coming with the 740QM and are being sold for slightly more. Again go with the 740QM if it's only like a few dollars more.

 

TANWare,

If the performance (in all areas) is really as much as has been hinted at, it will still be worth to wait another 2 or 3 weeks. At the official launch, the media will be able to give the results and opinions of all the testing they've done but with the NDA finally lifted.

If not worth the wait, simply buy what is now currently available at predictably reduced prices.

Either way, still a win, right?

With a purchase considered to last 2 years or more; a few additional weeks to make a decision with all the most current and pertinent facts is the best path to follow, I think.

This does not apply to anyone needing to produce work 'now' though, of course.

 

The 740QM is more expensive by $100

 

Definitely not worth that price premium over the 720QM - the difference is just a small bump in clock speed.

 

Yeah, especially for what HP will be getting these chips for($378 vs. $364).

See:
Intel® Core? i7-740QM Processor (6M cache, 1.73 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBQG

See:
Intel® Core? i7-720QM Processor (6M Cache, 1.60 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBLY


What apps do you use that require this kind of hardware?

 

Actually, I'm a high school senior and I plan on getting a laptop for college. Also, do you have the link for this SB processor? I could not google it.

 

It's not out yet -- it's release date is January 5th. Unless you are starting college in the spring semester or would like to have the laptop right now, you are much better off waiting until the back-to-school sales of 2011, but at the very least, definitely wait for Sandy Bridge if you can. The replacement of the 720M will be 38% faster based on clock speed alone and probably another 15-20% due to architecture. It'll also consume less power when idle so your battery will last longer.

 

How much would the price range be?

 

We don't know for sure right now, but it's almost always the same as the current processors (otherwise most people would just buy the old stuff).

 

Aren't the quad core cpu's going to drop in price when they will release 8 and 16 core cpu's? Or won't we see such a price drop untill IB?

 

The Sandy Bridge CPUs are at most quad core. More cores than that won't be available until at least Sandy Bridge EX and quite likely until Ivy Bridge.

 

And I doubt we'll see even hexa-core mobile CPUs until at least Haswell.