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    The Fastest? W520/I7-2620QM or X220/i7-2620M

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by pkincy, Jul 22, 2011.

  1. pkincy

    pkincy Notebook Evangelist

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    Which is fastest: the I7 equipped dual core X220 or the I7 equipped quad core W520 with the 2720QM chip?
     
    pkincy, Jul 22, 2011
    #1
  2. kirayamato26

    kirayamato26 Notebook Deity

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    There is no 2620QM, it is a 2620M. And it really depends on what you are doing.
     
    kirayamato26, Jul 22, 2011
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  3. pkincy

    pkincy Notebook Evangelist

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    Edited to correct to 2720QM
     
    pkincy, Jul 22, 2011
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  4. frozenlandscapes

    frozenlandscapes Notebook Guru

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    I'm pretty sure Quad cores only really help in CPU intensive tasks like video or photo editing, I don't think a difference is made anywhere else. (Other then email loading in .8 seconds instead of .9 :p)
     
    frozenlandscapes, Jul 22, 2011
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  5. ferganer80

    ferganer80 Notebook Consultant

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    did you actually mean 2630qm vs 2620m? in any case, quad core will work better only if your applications support multi-core (more than two) processing.
     
    ferganer80, Jul 22, 2011
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  6. ice2642

    ice2642 Notebook Consultant

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    I have a i7 2630QM in my ideapad y570.

    it is a very good CPU.

    get more than 6000 passmark points, more tham much i7 desktop first generation CPU.

    BR
     
    ice2642, Jul 22, 2011
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  7. pkincy

    pkincy Notebook Evangelist

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    Interesting as I get nearly identical scores on PCMarkVantage 64.

    Yes the processing scores on each subtest are better with the quad core over the dual core but the HDD intensive scores are 2-4 times slower on the W520 than on the X220.

    I did get a bit faster HDD intensive scores when I went from a C300 to an M4 SSD because of the faster sequentials on the video/audio encoding tests, but all that did was bring the W520 up to the overall 10,300 that was where my X220 was already.

    And my X220 has a G2 Intel drive and the Crucial's both scream with the M4 way ahead in long file reads and writes. Clearly my HDD intensive subtests did improve with the M4 but you would expect that, however what is hard to understand is why the W520 with more processing power, better graphics and faster SSDs would be only as fast or slightly slower.
     
    pkincy, Jul 22, 2011
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  8. Bill Nye

    Bill Nye Know Nothing

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    Multiple cores help with multitasking. You DO multitask, right?
     
    Bill Nye, Jul 22, 2011
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  9. edit1754

    edit1754 Notebook Prophet

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    But they don't help much. Unless you're pushing 100% CPU usage (per core) with all your programs, it's not going to make a difference.

    For multitasking, you're going to want a good screen resolution, that's where your difference is going to be. Higher resolutions let you fit more onscreen.

    For multitasking, Screen Resolution >>> RAM > CPU
     
    edit1754, Jul 23, 2011
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  10. kirayamato26

    kirayamato26 Notebook Deity

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    From personal experience, multitasking on a single core computer can be painful sometimes when a program freezes and eats up all the CPU. Having a dual core CPU alleviates this problem almost entirely. Having used some computers with quad core CPUs, I can honestly say that there isn't much a difference between dual cores and quad cores when it comes down to everyday tasks like word processing, web browsing, and multimedia entertainment (i.e. watching videos and stuff).
     
    kirayamato26, Jul 23, 2011
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  11. c17chief

    c17chief Notebook Consultant

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    M=dual core
    QM=quad core

    Both being 2nd gen i7's, the QM is going to overall be faster.


    That said, with what most people use notebooks for, they would probably be hard pressed to tell any difference between the 2, or even an i3, with most of their usual tasks......so the real answer is it depends how much each costs, what you will be doing with the machine, and if the price difference is worth it to you personally.
     
    c17chief, Jul 23, 2011
    #11