i7 2630 or i7 2720

hey, guys, i'm new here. Now i really wanna purchase the m14x. However, i got a problem for the cpu. Coz the 2630 doesn't support the ram for 1600mhz, do i need to upgrade the cpu to 2720 to match the ram?

 

1600MHz RAM won't show any boosts in anything other than useless synthetic benchmarks.

The M14x is entirely GPU-limited, so a faster processor is useless.

The 2630 will be more than enough for anything you throw at it.

 

i was going to get the i7 Processor 2820QM so now i know it wont help when playing games but what will i benifit from having a better processor ? General speed of the computer ?

 

Slightly, yeah, but I personally don't feel it's worth $350. You'd be better off spending that money on an SSD or something if you really wanted a speed boost. That'd be the bottleneck in general "day-to-day snappieness" if you like.

 

if general speed of computer is what you after, spend the $350 on a decent SSD

 

i was going to get a ssd as well

So you guys cant see any point in having the top processor at all ? :O

 

anyway,thanks,dude

 

The difference in performance isnt really worth that $350.

You can probably get an ipad on sale, or save the money, sell this m14x in a year + $350 for a R2. There are thousands ways you can spend the money

 

yeah but the UK doesnt have the 2720 :C so its either base system or best system

Will it effect my battery life much ?

 

If you're doing lots of processor-intensive stuff on battery, yes, if you're doing very light web surfing, then no.

 

From what has appeared across multiple threads on various systems - the 2630 seems the "bread and butter" processor. Other units may have higher numbers, without actually functioning better.

With stats alone, the 2720/2820 don't appear to be able to do anything substantially better than the 2630 - then again, I'm not a scientist. I'm a chef, and the only thing I'm serving up is pain. Like Mr. T in Rocky III.

 

They have the same tdp, so I can't imagine it requiringmuch more

 

Some of you seem very unaware of the fact that the 2630QM is faster than the 920xm of the previous generation.

SB is a huge leap in performance, you don't need anything more than the 2630QM, especially when you'll be limited by the 555m.

 

I need it when I rip Blu-Rays and convert them

 

Seems like non of you guys have gone for that processor at all..

I thought it would help out in really CPU intensive games though

 

From what I understand, the 2630QM is more than enough since it is paired with the 555M..Anything above the 2630QM will just be bottlenecked by the 555M anyway therefore leading to no performance increase whatsoever and is pretty much a waste of money aside from bragging rights and maybe vid rendering and such..

Is this correct?

 

In games, yes.

Obviously in pure CPU tasks, the 2820 would be more powerful, but IMO, $350 doesn't justify a 10-20% bump in CPU-only tasks (depending on how well the application is threaded).

 

May I know some examples of CPU only tasks which would gain this 10-20% gain? Games are definitely gonna be bottlenecked by the 555M and as for general machine performance, the CPU is already very powerful right?

So I'd say 99% of people will be good with the 2630QM since most Alienware users are regular gamers..

 

The 2630QM beats the 920XM in most cases, so yeah, it's ridiculously powerful for a 14" notebook. Odds are you won't need anything more than that.

If however you really do, things like video transcoding with Handbrake, would benefit, also anything that would utilise Intel's QuickSync technology would benifit (more video transcoding).

Having said that, you could also use Badda-Boom and use your GPU, though that would still be beaten by QS.

Bottom line:
If there is anything that benefits from a more powerful CPU, it's the kind of thing you should be using a more powerful laptop, or a desktop, for.

 

Thanks! rep added

I was pretty bothered about not having enough money for the 2820QM, I mean $350 is no joke..That's the price of a decent SSD..So I was considering waiting a couple of months before I get the M14x cause I wanted the 2820 and 3GB 555M..But since both of these upgrades are but a marketing ploy for DELL to earn more money, I'm 100% decided to get the base unit with a 900p screen..Thanks!

 

As ridiculous as this will sound, the most CPU intensive games I've played lately are Hearts of Iron 3 (CPU, not GPU restricted due to the amount of data flowing back and forth) and Sins of a Solar Empire because (even though it is old), it's engine/coding were not the greatest.

Thanks everyone for the feedback on the 2630, once I get a hold of a good rep I will be ordering - and sending you pie. Because, after all, the cake is a lie.

 

Well the only drawback I see is that the CPU only supports up to 1333..I mean I know it doesn't make a difference, but it's like we got ripped off RAM wise cause we technically paid for 1600MHz RAM and only got 1333..This makes me wanna get the 2720QM..But $150 is still $150..Decisions decisions..

 

Will there be a performance boost? Yes.
Will this boost be apparent in games? It won't make a significant difference. As people have said before, the GT 555M is the limiting reactant.

In my opinion it definitely is not worth spending the money for 2820QM, but it is debatable whether or not to upgrade to the 2720QM, not only for the processor speed increase but also for the RAM boost.

 

People in the M17x R3 forums said they we're able to get the 2630QM to run RAM at 1600 by doing something in the BIOS. Not sure how stable or how complicated the "tweaking" is though and if the M14x will be as flexible. I'm guessing it will though. I hope someone would test this out so we can verify if this is true. In this case, the 2720QM becomes totally unnecessary since the higher clocks won't be utilized as the GT555M will definitely bottleneck anything faster than the 2630QM. I'm talking about gaming, though I wanna ask in what certain situations would one benefit from upgrading to 2720QM as gaming wise, it wouldn't make any difference right? Will there be a difference in frames at all if one we're to upgrade to 2720QM or 2820QM?

 

Here is what I am hoping.. 1600mhz ram downclocked to 1333 means running at temps that are cool. This also means not adding to HEAT inside the notebook.

If the heat is less then maybe it will allow our CPU's to stay in Turbo 1 and 2 modes longer. Which in turn will help increase performance. I may be only dreaming here but I want my cpu to stay in Turbo when gaming as often as possible.

The only problem with my dream is that I know most of us will OC the GPU. The CPU and GPU share the same heatsync which means it's an EITHER / OR type thing. If you OC the GPU you will increase heat to the CPU which will keep the clocks lower. Im sure their is a happy medium. I will get it all figured out.

Best Wishes,

StevenX

 

Sorry for a noob question, but is there no software out there or something that could control the turbo boost? So we could control the frequency at will, I mean that would be a dream. lol

 

@Beast - The only intel processors now that allow you to fully control them with software are the extreme processors. Noted by the XM. Example I7-2920xm. The older processors like the I7-920xm also had this ability. This gives them a huge advantage in that they can control the thermal limitations that trigger Turbo.

Their is more to this story and Im sure someone will chime in with all the 'Hows and whys' but that's the answer in a nutshell.

 

Ah yeah I know the extreme series processors..So that's what makes them "extreme", I kinda thought it was just some sort of marketing hype that brags about that particular processor being the fastest of that current generation or the top processor in their category. I see now that the extreme series has quite an advantage, though I'm guessing having an ultra fast processor won't have any effect on fps when they're bottlenecked by GPU anyways right? I mean unless we're talking pure CPU related tasks such as rendering of course.

 

I'm hoping we can at least change RAM timings ourselves. I mean we're probably talking 1FPS difference here, but it's a two-second thing in the BIOS, why not? (If anyone says "battery life" they're getting shot. )

 

@Beast - I can only explain what I know. Games, depending on how they are written will utilize both cpu and gpu. You can only feed your GPU info to process as fast as your CPU will pipe them. When your GPU is 100 percent utilized then all the extra cpu in the world won't make a difference as your GPU has reached 100 percent. I have looked at hundreds of benchmarks and in certain games (example Just Cause 2) you can go from 2.6ghz 8 threads to 3.6 8 threads and the frame rate may have a delta of 1 fps. It just depends on the game. Games that are HEAVY cpu intensive are like ARMA 2, SC2, WIC, Sup Com 1 and 2, ETW, Shogun 2, (Mostly RTS stuff).

I am just looking forward to getting this and spending hours testing.

StevenX

 

As I have said before... EVERY FRAME COUNTS! If you get 1 frame from memory, 5 frames from overclocking GPU, 2 frames from system optimization, 2 frames from Driver optimization you now have 10 fps higher than before!

EVERY FRAME COUNTS! TAKE EVERY FRAME PRISONER!

 

Having said what you said, you still went for the 2630QM which means you lean heavily toward the belief that the 2630QM will max out the GPU and is therefore enough..Or is it a budget thing? lol Thanks!

 

The 2630 will be plenty enough for the 555. I have the lowly I7-720qm for my 5850 and it rarely gets above 75 percent on all threads.

 

Sorry if this has been asked before, but...
I'm curious, would you expect the better processor to give a significant boost in RTS gaming?

 

If it is an extremely demanding RTS or even a game like BC2, good CPU performance has translated into better FPS. Where this laptop already comes standard with an i7 quad core I would bet that you would be safe with the base model option.

 

Noah, I would ask you to search and see if you find benchmarks for the particular RTS you are interested in. Then also search using the term CPU SCALING to see if that helps answer your question. I dont have any figures to help you because I don't normally play RTS style games. I have a few but I dont think their is a way I can get my drive cleared enought to install them.

Sorry,

StevenX

 

Scratch that...

Check this link out.. this will help answer your question. The bottom cpu 2630qm is = or a bit greater than the stock 920.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty GPU & CPU Performance > CPU and Multi-core Performance - TechSpot Reviews

 

Now keep in mind the above benchmark is done with an uber high end 480 nvidia desktop card so... It shows to NOT be the limiting factor in that benchmark. StevenX

 

However the 2720 has .5 Ghz higher turbo speed

 

I think that if you need the cash don't worry about upgrading the CPU the 2630 is really good and still benchmarks better than previous i7's however if you have the doe i wouldn't hesitate to go to the 2720 the performance between 2630 and the 2720 is far more significant per say upgrading to the highest CPU available

 

I think it's a good idea to get the 2630 and stock 4GB RAM then upgrade to (2x4GB) say GSkill 1333 ($83 on newegg free shipping too) since 1600 RAM is useless with 2630. Would then sell 4GB stock RAM.

 

Oh yeah, $200 upgrade from 4GB to 8GB on Alienware website seems like quite a ripoff.

 

M17x forums state they we're able to get RAM running at 1600 with the 2630QM by changing something in the BIOS. Not sure if we can with the M14x, but it's highly likely that we would be able to as well. I'm not sure how complicated it is, but I'm guessing it'll be pretty simple. The 555M will bottleneck anything faster than the 2630QM if it doesn't already bottleneck the 2630QM. I believe no FPS can be gained from upgrading the processor. A faster processor will only be beneficial in CPU-only tasks such as rendering videos and such. If you have the money though, you can opt for the 2720QM just because. I personally don't have the cash for this so I'll be getting the base model. Good news is if one would ever wanna upgrade, the CPU is upgradeable in the M11x, it's not soldered on, so you can upgrade it anytime.

 

I guess BeastRider just answered my question, but I'll post it anyway.
If I plan to do lots of video encoding/re-encoding (for example re-encode a batch of 50, 30-minute mkv files into avi) would I benefit greatly from a 2720 with 8gb 1600 RAM?

Thanks

 

If it's going to be all the time - if you're a regular YouTuber, for example - then yes, if it's just going to be a once-off to convert a few things, I wouldn't bother with it. Either way it's the sort of thing I'd leave running over night.

 

Thanks for the reply.
I am not a youtuber but I will be reconverting video files all the time and doing other video editing.
I wont be gaming that much, but I do want a laptop that can handle some gaming if I need it to.
Mostly I will use the laptop for video stuff, simple audio editing, excel, word, ppt and websurfing. But the most intensive thing will definetely be video editing.
I'm trying to decide between the m14x and the sony SA (once its released). I just want something that packs a punch (for my needs), has a 900p display and is under 15 inches.

 

Seems like the M14x is a great choice for you then..Since it is the most powerful notebook you can get under 15.6". Though I'd say it's pretty overkill if you're not gonna be gaming much. But if you say you need power, then power you will definitely get with this machine.

I hope someone confirms the 1600MHz mem clock on 2630QM with M14x once they get their hands on it. Though someone said there are definitely memory options in BIOS with M14x, so this is highly probable. My question is, is it possible for say the 2720QM or up which is 1600MHz native be able to clock RAM at higher frequencies? Is it possible to clock RAM higher than 1600MHz on this machine since there are RAM options in the BIOS?

 

All I know is what my order shows... Even with the 2630qm.

So If the bios allows it, then we should be able to do it.

317-6669 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz

 

In real time values, can someone answer if you will see a performance increase if you have a 1600mhz ram than a 1333mhz ram?

 

I haven't yet met a single game that maxes out my Q9000 CPU, and this is on what is now practically ancient Core 2 technology, 2GHz quad core, with no form of Turboboost or any of the other advanced features supported by Sandy Bridge.

If you're a gamer, getting an M14x, you have virtually no reason to go for anything above a 2630QM.