M11x R3 & Core-i3 2357M

Hey guys,

I've found myself laptop less, and with the holidays coming up, I want to get something super portable, but still able to game at relatively decent settings. Seeing as it's the holidays, I'm on a very strict budget and can only afford the base model, which comes with an i3 2357M @ 1.3Ghz, GT 540, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB Hard Drive. I can easily upgrade the RAM and Hard Drive at a later date so I'm not really worried about that.

Do you think it's worth it? There's nothing else on the market as portable (<12") with similar power. I've seen videos on YouTube and it seems to run Skyrim & RAGE fine.

Thanks!

 

As for a <12" laptop I have yet to see something come close, you may want to wait for a Christmas deal from Dell if they have one, I'd say if you could though try and configure a model from the base and just upgrade the CPU to the i5 and then argue with a tech support person and try to lower the price. What I have found works is arguing with them saying its not worth the price in terms of performance in comparison to like say a Sager NP8150 or such, it may take a couple of tries.

Good luck

 

If you're going to argue the price with them, make sure it's a US sales rep. If you get anyone from Mexico/Malaysia/Philippines then don't even bother because the most they can give you is free next business day delivery.

As for the i3... No turbo, no hyperthreading. you're taking a SIGNIFICANT performance hit there, especially with a component which cannot be replaced later on; the CPU is soldered onto the motherboard.

Try your best to raise an extra $100 to get the i5 model. Turbo boost, hyperthreading, and the integrated GPU has a higher clock rate.

 

The M11x processor, even the R3, is underpowered as it is. Do whatever you have to do... save the money, rob a bank, do whatever... but get the BEST processor that you can. Don't waste time with the lower end processors. I realize a lot of people may disagree with me on this, but I wouldn't even consider an M11x without a Core i7.

With games becoming increasingly processor intensive, you're going to want all the power you can get. Trust me on this one. I know how expensive Alienwares are and I know how tempting it is to go cheap on the processors... but trust me... you want the i7. Go cheap on any other part of the laptop, but do not go cheap on the processor

 

Yet another person who thinks that higher model numbers = better.

From the i5 to i7, it's a $200 upgrade. For that $200 you get:
- 1MB extra cache
- 100MHz SLOWER at stock
- 300MHz faster turbo
- LOWER integrated GPU clock speeds.

Sorry, but exactly where is that $200 going? From a value perspective, you should NEVER get the i7. For that same cash, you can get a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD which will give you a MUCH greater performance boost than getting an i7 will. If you are mentally stable, then it simply doesn't make an sense.

 

The only major diference between i3 and i5 is the missing turboboost and it is major indeed since you cannot oc the sandy-bridge cpus.
But even so, there was another thread regarding the i3 R3 performance and the owner was pretty happy.

My biased advice would be to try to get some discounts/coupons/etc and reach for an i5, but this is personal choice - you may be happy with i3

 

Unless you play a lot of RTS games etc. you don't really need the I7, and it is a tad expensive. Go with the I5 as you're on the budget, don't get the I3 as it is major downgrade. While you will be able to play most of FPS hand to hand with the I3 same as I5, strategy titles or FPS with some more CPU requirements will struggle dearly.

 

All that matters is framerates and if you can document that an i5 can outperform an i7 in any sort of meaningful way then I will retract my statement. Until then, my reccomendation stands: buy an i7. Unless you like slower framerates I guess.

 

Absolutely go for the i5, the i3 has no turbo boost and as far as I know nobody has found a different way to OC the sandy bridge processors, so you will be stuck at 1.3ghz at all times. If you get the i5 you get a whole +1 ghz with the turbo boost which is a HUGE difference. Avoid the i3.

And DarkDomino? if you are going to spend the 1200 bucks on the laptop you might as well get the m14x with the quad core i7, I think it's the same price. Granted though, if the i7 was offered to me as a free upgrade I would take it in a second but I just can't justify 200 bucks more for 300mhz more turboboost.

 

Define "slower framerates" please? Eventually "meaningful slower framerates"

See the config and the scores in my sig then see this post from the benchmarking thread

Now MY i5 score of P1252 is slightly faster than i7 score of P1241 at the same gt540m core clock. Is it meaningful faster? I'd say no. Is it worth to pay 200$ to upgrade to i7-2617m? I'd say no.

But we are drifting here

 

I got a 15% off voucher for Dell Ireland, but it expires this week and I won't have the money until the end of the month. I've took note of the code, so I might be able to persuade a customer service rep to accept it. Or there might be an equivalent voucher at the time of ordering.

If so, I'll go for the i5 I think.

 

I'm talking plain jane framerates. Put two identical m11x's next to eachother, one i5 and one i7, and the i7 is gonna come out on top. You didn't wanna spend the money on the i7? Fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't sit there and tell me on a level playing field the i5 chipset outperforms the i7 because that simply isn't true.

 

From what I've seen the differences seem negligible, and don't warrant the €200 cost.

 

M11x R3 i7-2617m and M11x R3 i5-2537m

You asked for documented framerates and i gave you exactly that - you can click the scores and you will be taken to 3dmark site and see the detailed fps for each test.
I'm not even goin to discuss which one is plain jane faster (i5 in this case), but - as you said - meaningful faster - 1 fps doesn't really matter, right?
Also remember that intel charges 250$ for i5-2537m/2457m and 289$ for i7-2617m SO a 39$ difference. They ARE NOT charging 200 as DELL does


Now you may say whatever you want, but in this particular case which is M11x R3, the only practical thing that i7 has above i5 is the bling factor. And the price ofc
Notice the emphasis on practical.

 

Someone needs to re-read this thread. Not once did i say that the i5 out-performs the i7. I said that the specs are almost identical and the integrated GPU in the i5 has a higher clock rate, which gives no justification for the $200 price difference.

But in specific circumstances, yes the i5 absolutely will out-perform the i7. If you're only running it off the integrated GPU, the i5 will run small indie games smoother because it's GPU is clocked significantly higher. In other instances, the difference in frame-rates is almost negligible - I can't think of any reason why the i7 would give anything more than an extra 2% of performance, if that.

Not to mention the actual cost of the CPU's themselves are almost identical. But Dell overcharges for upgrades anyway; To put 16GB of DDR3, they charge $1,000. That's $1,000 for something i can get from Newegg/Amazon for under $100.

 

Defining frame-rate:
I7 will come over I5 mostly on games like tiberium wars, rome total war etc. which need A LOT of CPU juice for AI processing. For instance my I5 cant really handle that many troops in a map, and after i go beyond that point when it needs more CPU juice than my i5 can give i get massive frame drops and a DC from the game due to sync error.

With FPS and racing games like NFS and COD you wont feel any difference at all, or at most few FPS which wont really be noticeable and mostly can be ruled irrelevant. Thats cause the GPU is pretty much same - which is used for the graphics processing and can handle the fairly minimal physx etc.

Thing is gap between I5 and I3 is fairly large, and i am sure it will struggle with most modern games now or in the near future as it doesn't have nearly as much calculating grunt as I5 or I7.

Intel Core i3-2357M @ 1.30GHz 1644
Intel Core i5-2467M @ 1.60GHz 2326
Intel Core i7-2617M @ 1.50GHz 2907

thats passmark results for rough idea. go find your CPU for comparison at PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs

this gives rough estimate for the CPU, you can compare PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmark Charts - Video Card Model List

just find some GPUs you are similar with and compare for a rough estimate... You wont really get a better idea before you get the m11x... But it really performs.

 

Flame War!!!!

 

What relelvance do stock GPU clocks have when they can be manually set via eVGA Precision Tools? Stock clock speeds are irrelevant. You know what's also irrelevant? Getting 5 FPS extra on an indy game using the intel graphics accelerator.

You know what is relevant? Playing a high-end game at 30 FPS instead of 25 FPS.

 

there is no flamewar so no point to bring popcorn.

Lenghty explanation following:

@un4tural my posts were aimed at darkdomino who claimed that i7 is faster (from a gaming points of view) and asked for documented framerates.

@darkdomino (and others i'm sure) live under the impression that an M11X R3 with i7-2617m is meaningful faster than the same M11x R3 equipped with i5-2467m/2537m and asked for framerate comparison which i delivered under the form of 3DMark11 P-scores.

Those scores show that M11x R3 with i5/i7 performs roughly the same in games and that is BECAUSE the limiting/deciding factor is the GPU gt540m and not the slight differences between the cpu's

Edit, so NOT to be completly offtopic
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/619268-anyone-get-i3-m11x-r3.html
fluffyboy seems quite happy with his i3 M11x R3

 

If you can overclock the i7's GPU then you can of course overclock the i5's GPU, and higher stock clocks = higher overclock with less heat.

No, 5FPS extra on indie games doesn't mean anything. But being able to play a game on the integrated GPU instead of the 540M can save you about 2 hours of battery life.

You keep repeating that an i7 will give you a higher FPS in gaming over the i5, based on nothing more than your own personal "feelings". This is 2011 and these are 2nd gen i-series processors - the CPU is NOT the bottleneck! If you are placing a CPU intensive game then maybe you'll get a slight increase, but MOST rely mainly on the GPU.

You've conveniently ignored the post by manu72 which shows the i5 benchmarking higher than the i7.

 

In other words... The difference between and i5 and a i7 is so small that its not worth it... You will NEVER EVER EVER EVER bottleneck on your cpu unless you are doing something like CAD... Most games will always bottleneck on your GPU... So why spend 200 dollars on a processor upgrade that will give, I would say not even 5 fps... when you could easily just spend that on something like a SSD which would give a overall system boost, it may not increase your fps, but it will give your computer a much snappier feel