difference between i5 dual and i7 quad

[AlexLab]

Hello chaps,

Got a quick question here and would like honest opinions on which is better.

I'm torn between two laptops that each have different processors and nvidia cards.

Laptop 1 has a dual core i5 3210M CPU with an nvidia gtx660 card

Laptop 2 has a quad core i7 3230QM CPU with an nvidia g635m card.

Obviously the gtx660 card is more appealing than the 635m but question is, is there much difference between the two CPUs? Would it be just as good to stick to the i5 instead of the i7. I'm not a massive gamer but I do enjoy the odd game now and again.

Cheers.

[fenyal]

for the odd game, the g635m is plenty of power. i play games on my quad core laptop that has a gt 330m graphics "card" and it plays every game i've tried it on and i play some pretty hefty games. the g635m is about double the power of mine. i would probably see first off if that dual core could be upgraded to a quad core. if it can i would see what it would cost to do that and THEN debate on which would be the better deal for you.

i personally go for stronger cpu's because i render and encode video from time to time and i need the extra horsepower there. however when in games it's more about the graphics card. with out a graphics card that can throw out some mean punches, you'll be lucky to make it out of a wet paper bag.. (figuratively speaking of course) the odd game or 2 implies you play browser games on face book kind of stuff which the 635m will handle with out a sweat. however if you do happen to pick up a more intense game such as tomb raider for example. the gtx660 will do better even with only a dual core backing it up.

remember this. in games the processor is no longer the back bone. it is the supporting component. there is a rule to this though. your game will only play as fast as your weakest piece, "bottlenecking". (fsb, ram, cpu, graphics)

there is always a BIG difference between dual cores and quad cores. a quad core will ALWAYS be faster than it's dual core counter part. the exception is when you get in the mix of really old quad cores and new/newer dual cores. but in general a quad core is always faster.

what i would do is see if i could turn that dual core into a quad core and go for the gtx660. even if not a massive gamer, it's better to have the power and not need it than to need it and not have it. besides when you play a game, you just want it to work!

i hope i have helped you out.

[Guest]

That is really helpful thank u. I was leaning more to the i7 just for the sake of having more power at the end of the day. Do you think the 635m would be able to handle games like Rome II total war or Empire total war?

[fenyal]

neither one of them should have an issue playing on the 635m.