13 replies to this topic

[anudaw]

ive been reading around post and learned that you dont need an i7 for gaming desktops, does this apply for laptops too? or this is for desktops only? ive been looking for gaming laptops and all of them features an i7.

[tijo]

anudaw, on 14 November 2012 - 10:43 PM, said:

ive been reading around post and learned that you dont need an i7 for gaming desktops, does this apply for laptops too? or this is for desktops only? ive been looking for gaming laptops and all of them features an i7.

The difference is that for laptops, only the i7s are true quad cores, the i3s and i5s are dual cores with hyperthreading, for GW2, this will make a difference.

[Perm Shadow Form]

So, what exactly means 2 cores and 2 virtual cores? I have i5.
Basically dual core + added 2 virtual cores to make it sound better as if it was quad core?

[MrMastodonFarm]

GW2 does not utilize hyperthreading, so you would be better off running with an i7 although I currently am running an i5 in my Asus.

Perm Shadow Form, on 14 November 2012 - 11:26 PM, said:

So, what exactly means 2 cores and 2 virtual cores? I have i5.
Basically dual core + added 2 virtual cores to make it sound better as if it was quad core?

Check out this, it will tell you about hyperthreading and virtual cores --

http://en.wikipedia....Hyper-threading

http://www.3dgameman...l-logical-cores

[anudaw]

so its a must for i7s on gaming laptops?

[Zerk2012]

anudaw, on 14 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

so its a must for i7s on gaming laptops?

No it's not a must but better performance and maby a little better future proofing.

[tijo]

anudaw, on 14 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

so its a must for i7s on gaming laptops?

For GW2, it is, see: http://www.notebookc...rs.81855.0.html For most other games, not really.

Edited by tijo, 15 November 2012 - 01:33 AM.

[Lord Sojar]

GW2 does, in fact, utilize Hyperthreading for sound processing offload.  It will improve performance, especially in WvW/large battles where there are tons of sounds going off at once.  

In fact, GW2 can scale up to 43 cores as I found out when I ran it on a blade with 5x 2U racks... which I was naughty for trying, but I wanted to see how it did.  Out of those 43 cores, 7 of them were HT "cores".

Thus, I highly recommend an i7 over an i5 if budget permits it at all.

[typographie]

MrMastodonFarm, on 14 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

GW2 does not utilize hyperthreading, so you would be better off running with an i7 although I currently am running an i5 in my Asus.

Notwithstanding what Sojar just said, as far as I'm aware games will utilize the cores they are written to use, virtual or otherwise. The problem with an i7's hyperthreading is that its already got four physical cores and so hyperthreading will usually go unused.

By that same token, if you're using a Core i3 in GW2, does it limit itself artificially to only two cores because it just refuses to use hyperthreading? I'm not sure, but I suspect not.

Though of course as this thread is on the topic of laptops, an i7 is still preferable because mobile i5's only have two physical cores.

Edited by typographie, 15 November 2012 - 03:13 PM.

[tijo]

typographie, on 15 November 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:

Though of course as this thread is on the topic of laptops, an i7 is still preferable because mobile i5's only have two physical cores.

Exactly, not to mention that the clock speed gap between an i7 and an i5 are not what they were with ivy bridge compared to arrandale/clarksfield.

My i7-3720qm for example, runs at a steady 3.4GHz when 4 cores are in use with or without hyperthreading. As a comparison, my i7-920xm runs at 2.2 GHz at stock clocks under full load. The i7-3720qm is a mid tier Ivy CPU, the 920xm was the top dog back in 2010, in comparison, the arrandale i5s were clocked close to 3GHz and that made a difference in some games. Since that clock speed gap argument between dual and quads doesn't apply with ivy bridge anymore, the only reason no to get a quad core is budget constraints. Just be wary of the ULV i7s and the i7s where there is only a m after the model number, those are dual cores. You want one ending in qm or one ending in xm. If you have the cash to drop on a 3940xm for example, you could OC the thing past the 4GHz mark easily given sufficient cooling like that provided by the sagers and alienwares.

Edited by tijo, 15 November 2012 - 06:20 PM.

[Lord Sojar]

lol, wait until you guys see Haswell in laptops... lawlz

[tijo]

Lord Sojar, on 15 November 2012 - 07:56 PM, said:

lol, wait until you guys see Haswell in laptops... lawlz

Indeed, the improvements on the IGP side are quite something, couple that with the clock for clock performance improvements and Intel has a winner on their hand.

[The Comfy Chair]

Yup, Haswell is going to be an interesting launch. Unless AMD pull a rabbit out of their ass, they're going to be in for another rough year.

I hope their graphics division separates from the main company soon, i'd hate the GPU division to go down if the rest of AMD did. AMD did good things with ATi, but it wont be much good if they unnecessarily disappear because the rest of the company cant pull their weight!

Nvidia are already seemingly lazy when it comes to releasing cards quickly (gtx660 Ti versus hd7870 launch dates ftw) and always try their luck with pricing, i'd hate to see it when they're not being either beaten or heavily contested at most price points!

Edited by The Comfy Chair, 15 November 2012 - 11:24 PM.

[tijo]

AMD was getting it's rear handed to it in the laptop market already. They regained some ground with Llano and Trinity, but we can see where that is headed with Haswell. I could see AMD finding a spot with laptops using asynchronous CFX. The Asus K53Ta was a pretty sweet offering when it came out, if manufacturers roll out other systems like that, AMD could still cling to something.