Downgrading from AW15 to AW13?

I love the idea of portability and gaming. I already have the Graphics Amplifier with an EVGA GTX 970.

My only concern is the processor in the Alienware 13 in that it's a dual core vs. a quad core.

I don't do any 3D rendering, programming, or heavy video editing.

Will this still be considered a bottleneck both now and in the next 2-3 years?

 

The dual-core will be, yes. But will it impact performance so much you can't play? No. People have been using it, I guess.

 

It should be, since you don't do any 3D rendering, programming, or heavy video editing.

 

Hhmmm...

I'm just wondering how noticeable the difference really is between the two CPUs.

I just completed a chat with an Alienware rep. who said the i7 5500U was 10-15% more of a performance increase over the i7 4710HQ even though it's a dual core processor.

 

Make sure to go with the i7 then! That hyper-threading will actually help since it's just a dual-core. [I actually think the i5 has HT as well but the i7 has more cache and a higher clock speed]

Also go with the 1080p display or higher. Higher resolution will make the games more gpu dependent.

Also if you can, wait just a little bit for the skylake refreshed cpus.


4710HQ mops the floor with a i7 5500U lol

 

I wonder if that's the same rep who told me the Earth was flat.

 

Hahaha

 

Does anyone with possible more insider knowledge than me know what version of Skylake will most likely be in the revised Alienware 13?

 

i5-6200u and i7-6500u.
It's not really insider information.

 

I see. They're pretty similar then is almost all ways according to CPU Boss.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/i7-4710hq-or-i7-5500u-processor.774332/

 

Alight. I've got some thinking to do then.

I'm steal tempted to go with the 13 since I have the Amplifier already.

It's tough because I'm sure not many people have real-world experience with both the 13 and 15 to tell me if they've actually noticed a difference between the 2 CPUs.

 

While clock speeds are pretty similar (you only get a 4% bump in performance compared to Broadwell-U from what I have read), Skylake-U supports PCI-E 3.0 as opposed to 2.0, so graphics performances should be better (like 5 to 10%).
I've gone down from a mobile quad-core to a dual core, and in real-life uses, I haven't noticed much of a difference. As for gaming, just click on the link I have in my signature.

 

I have alienware m11x r2 dual core it still run like charm as long you have ssd for regular use

 

Do you do any sort of heavy processing or just gaming/miscellaneous?

 

I do gaming with m11x but with all low setting, I do use AutoCAD with external monitor, it runs well,but most of the time I carry it out for meeting use, at least no such thing as window not responding.

 

I'm beginning to conclude, after reading reviews etc., that both the i7 5500U and new i7 6500U in the AW 13 will act as a major bottleneck to gaming performance - even with the Graphics Amplifier.

Disappointing as I was really looking for the AW 13 to work.

 

Get the New 15 lol, it isn't that heavy, 1kg more and a fancy FX touch pad.

Alienware 13 - Average weight: 2.058Kg
Alienware 15 - Average weight: 3.207Kg

 

I actually went for the 15 over the 17 for portability.

The funny thing is that I don't think this thing is ever going to leave the house!!

If I was buying now, I think I would go with the 17 for the extra screen real estate! Hindsight is 20/20

 

It's always hindsight is 20/20 for me lol

I guess you're right. I don't even leave the house with the 15 but even moving it from room to room is not ideal - especially with the kids running around

 

The base Alienware 15 outperforms the best Alienware 13 by approximately 20%. The Alienware 13 is not as weak as I originally thought it would be. If you need something highly portable, I recommend the Alienware 13. It's built very well and handles games better than other 13" laptops within the price range.

The R2 has a better battery. I'd wait for that. Performance-wise, the R2 is not going to be much better.

 

Do you know if the Aw 13 R2 with the Graphics Amplifier (GTX 970) will suffer a decrease in performance due to the 6500U?

 

The 6500U and 5500U are identical in regards to performance.

 

I wonder how big of a bottleneck the 6500U and 5500U will impose on the Amplifier. I've heard even with a GTX 970 paired with an AW 13 there's a 15-20% decreased in the 970's full performance.

 

He doesn't show FPS, but it's definitely playable. Take his report of FPS with a grain of salt.

 

My brother now owns an Alienware 13. Its really light and nice but I still love my Alienware 14.

 

That's a lot of work you put in, thank you

 

It was the same reasons why I got my 15 with a dual core. You definitely don't need an i7 for the next 2-3 years if only gaming is concerned.

 

i5, i7... usually misnomers. An i7 5500u feels more like a mobile i3/i5, just like how a mobile i7 feels more like a desktop i5: better to check for features, rather than relying on the name. Dual core is an acceptable compromise, but can't perform miracles. Quad core matters when you want to punt bad console ports with raw CPU power, run games at 60fps, multitask while gaming, or have a high-end GPU in the GA and don't want it going to waste. Assuming the dual core isn't significantly faster / overclocked that is...

 

Well I do have the GA with the GTX 970. So you're saying the quad core vs dual core argument lends itself heavily to the quad core just because I have the GA?

 

Even without the GA, a quad core is still better (assuming same speeds) and more future proof: as you can see here the main problem with DX11 was that overhead (DX11's multi-threading was a tack-on solution), although Nvidia did workarounds for it. Just expect heavier utilization of multi-core CPUs going forward, especially since both XB1 and PS4 are essentially on octa-core systems.

A dual core system will still deliver a significant punch of the GA's power, but you won't get the full juice out of it. So while you would still win from a faster GPU, the benefits of upgrading won't scale linearly.

For a dual core, you'd need it overclocked to 4GHz+ at least to be reasonably powerful. Disregarding synchronization and thread locality:

i5 4210h: 3ghz * 2 = 6GHz
i7 4710hq: 3ghz * 4 = 12GHz

Just an approximation, but you get the idea - it's still a compromise. Even if a game is bound to 2 cores, the OS and background tasks are still running. Less CPU time shared with them = more time on your game.