Laptop Processor Question

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My brother is looking to get a new laptop.

He has narrowed it down between two different Dell laptops.

Laptop A has the Intel i7-3517U 1.9Ghz dual core

Laptop B has the Intel i7-3612QM 3.1 Ghz quad core.

Now I know that the Quad core will be inherently better. However both laptops are exactly the same price just that the dual core is a bit lighter as an ultrabook. He wont be doing any hardcore gaming like BF3 or Crysis on the laptop but he will be doing some lighter games like TF2 CS: Global Offensive and the new Sim City. Will that dual core be more than enough for those types of games? Or will it still struggle?

Also both processors are current 2012 models.
 
From the official TF2 site
Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor...

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better)...
Click to expand...
In other words it will play but on minimal settings in most cases. That's just TF2 though.

As for CS:GO it will struggle since Intel? Core™2 Duo Processor E6600
(4M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) at least is recommended.
 
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The Intel i7-3612QM has a 2.1 Ghz native core, not 3.1

With Turbo boost, the 3517 comes out to about 2.8-3 Ghz max, the 3612 comes out to 3.1 max.

If your brother is only playing TF2, CS:GO and Sim City, either processor will most likely work fine for what it sounds like he's trying to do. The quad core will net you some future proofing in terms of overall clockspeed (very minimal difference) and more importantly multi-core processing which is becoming more prevalent in modern games.

It also depends a little bit on what sort of graphics setup your brother is looking at. If the laptop has it's own discrete mobile card, it matters less which processor he gets. If he's using the onboard Intel HD 4000 graphics off of the processor, then he would probably see a bigger benefit from the quad core as it has more power to support both the video and processing needs for gaming.

The 3517U is also a low-voltage processor (designated by the "U") intended for Ultrabooks. While this shouldn't really affect performance, I've heard talk that the Ultrabook models using low-voltage processors have a limited battery life during hardcore gaming sessions. Again, this might be moot if he's around an outlet all the time, but it's another piece to consider.
 
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Ratfire said:
The Intel i7-3612QM has a 2.1 Ghz native core, not 3.1

With Turbo boost, the 3517 comes out to about 2.8-3 Ghz max, the 3612 comes out to 3.1 max.

If your brother is only playing TF2, CS:GO and Sim City, either processor will most likely work fine for what it sounds like he's trying to do. The quad core will net you some future proofing in terms of overall clockspeed (very minimal difference) and more importantly multi-core processing which is becoming more prevalent in modern games.

It also depends a little bit on what sort of graphics setup your brother is looking at. If the laptop has it's own discrete mobile card, it matters less which processor he gets. If he's using the onboard Intel HD 4000 graphics off of the processor, then he would probably see a bigger benefit from the quad core as it has more power to support both the video and processing needs for gaming.

The 3517U is also a low-voltage processor (designated by the "U") intended for Ultrabooks. While this shouldn't really affect performance, I've heard talk that the Ultrabook models using low-voltage processors have a limited battery life during hardcore gaming sessions. Again, this might be moot if he's around an outlet all the time, but it's another piece to consider.
Click to expand...


The quad core laptop has a AMD Radeon HD 7730M 2GB

The dual core has a Nvidia? GeForce? GT630M 2G
 
The 7730 is a better video card, which means both a better video card and better processor for that machine. That basically translates to better gaming.

The 630m is basically a rebranded 540m which isn't quite new itself, so the 630m would be a few iterations behind the 7730.

So if they're the same price...is your brother just interested in the Ultrabook model? Or is there a storage or memory difference?
 
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LSSniper said:
From the official TF2 site

In other words it will play but on minimal settings in most cases. That's just TF2 though.

As for CS:GO it will struggle since Intel? Core?2 Duo Processor E6600
(4M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) at least is recommended.
Click to expand...

You cannot say a Sandy bridge will perform exactly as a Core2Duo, much less it's much older predecessor the Pentium 4. A Sandy-bridge CPU will perform faster compared to the P4 by a wide margin, not just narrow increments.

Just a quick example:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/x86-core-performance-comparison/PCMark-7,2760.html
 
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