4th gen i5 vs i7
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It's laptop upgrade time!!! Is the the 4th gen i7 really worth the extra money over a 4th gen i5? Is it something I'm going to notice or are we talking a 1-2% difference? My google fu is failing me this morning.
My Blog[^] @finercode^] Chess Tactics for Windows Phone[^] and Windows 8[^]
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It's laptop upgrade time!!! Is the the 4th gen i7 really worth the extra money over a 4th gen i5? Is it something I'm going to notice or are we talking a 1-2% difference? My google fu is failing me this morning.
My Blog[^] @finercode^] Chess Tactics for Windows Phone[^] and Windows 8[^]
I have both and it feels like I really do notice the difference when I go onto the I5. Of course, I might just have been suckered in by good marketing.
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It's laptop upgrade time!!! Is the the 4th gen i7 really worth the extra money over a 4th gen i5? Is it something I'm going to notice or are we talking a 1-2% difference? My google fu is failing me this morning.
My Blog[^] @finercode^] Chess Tactics for Windows Phone[^] and Windows 8[^]
If you're comparing a 2 core (HT) i7 to an i5 at standard power levels, all you're getting is slightly higher clocks. For lower power chips the i7's have a significantly higher sustained clock rate; although the i5 will turbo almost as high before thermal throttling. The real performance winner for an i7 is that you can get 4 core HT models. Those will be significantly faster for anything sufficiently threaded.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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It's laptop upgrade time!!! Is the the 4th gen i7 really worth the extra money over a 4th gen i5? Is it something I'm going to notice or are we talking a 1-2% difference? My google fu is failing me this morning.
My Blog[^] @finercode^] Chess Tactics for Windows Phone[^] and Windows 8[^]
I'd say make sure you get an SSD for the boot drive and Visual Studio to run off of, as well as all of your builds. That makes all the difference in the world.
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If you're comparing a 2 core (HT) i7 to an i5 at standard power levels, all you're getting is slightly higher clocks. For lower power chips the i7's have a significantly higher sustained clock rate; although the i5 will turbo almost as high before thermal throttling. The real performance winner for an i7 is that you can get 4 core HT models. Those will be significantly faster for anything sufficiently threaded.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
Yet the i7 has a higher power consumption. If it's for a notebook this might be something that matters. Working with an i5 might provide a little bit longer battery life ;)
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Yet the i7 has a higher power consumption. If it's for a notebook this might be something that matters. Working with an i5 might provide a little bit longer battery life ;)
IIRC idle power levels are very close; you'll only see a large difference if regularly pushing the CPU hard on battery. OTOH if you're doing that, you're doing it wrong anyway.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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I'd say make sure you get an SSD for the boot drive and Visual Studio to run off of, as well as all of your builds. That makes all the difference in the world.
What David said. A year ago I was in your boat - time for a new laptop. I stayed at the I5 level and went with the SSD. For most development, you get far more bang with an SSD.
Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I have both and it feels like I really do notice the difference when I go onto the I5. Of course, I might just have been suckered in by good marketing.
I did eventually find a benchmark comparing the two processors and there is a >10% difference in performance. It wasn't enough to get me to but it though. The price difference was 25%, part of that was for a larger SSD which I do not need.
My Blog[^] @finercode^] Chess Tactics for Windows Phone[^] and Windows 8[^]
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I'd say make sure you get an SSD for the boot drive and Visual Studio to run off of, as well as all of your builds. That makes all the difference in the world.
Once you have an SSD you never want to work without one. I've had one, I don't at my current job, but wouldn't think of buying a laptop without one.
My Blog[^] @finercode^] Chess Tactics for Windows Phone[^] and Windows 8[^]
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Once you have an SSD you never want to work without one. I've had one, I don't at my current job, but wouldn't think of buying a laptop without one.
My Blog[^] @finercode^] Chess Tactics for Windows Phone[^] and Windows 8[^]
Yup. Were there any justice in this world I'd be allowed to add a line to my timesheet: "Time wasted with computer unusable due to corporate IT boot/post boot diskthrashware". At my salary (never mind what overhead adds to my billable rate) and current prices a 50% reduction in that value would pay for a 512GB SSD in just over a year. And that assumes I wouldn't save any time during the remainder of my working day. :((
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt