i7 620M vs 740 QM

I realize there is another thread dealing with a similar issue here, but I felt like this was different enough to warrant a new thread and because the other one is already 26 pages long.

I'm thinking about buying an alienware m15x however I have one major hardware decision left. Alienware no longer offers the 720QM, now they offer the 740QM.

Intel® Core™ i7-620M 2.66GHz (3.33Ghz Turbo Mode, 4M cache)
Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)

The main use of the system will be for class work and playing EVE Online and other games. Both of these processors are exactly the same price which is why I'm hesitating. The 620m appears better to the naked eye but the poll on the other thread says the 720qm is better, and the 740qm is a better version of that. Looking for opinions.

 

i7 740QM is more powerful because it's a quad core (4 cores, 8 threads)
it also has 21 GB/s max memory bandwidth and 45 nm lithography and
6 MB cache. It supports DDR3 1066/1333 memory speed, and has 774 million die transistors.

i7 620M is a dual core (2 cores with 4 threads). It has new AES instructions,
32 nm lithography, integrated graphics and has 382 million die transistors.

In my opinion the 620M might be enough. If you want the most powerful processor of those two, the 740QM is the strongest.

The other specifications of the two processors is here: Compare Intel® Products

 

The i7-620M is a dual-core processor and has integrated graphics built-in. If the M15x is capable of switching to integrated graphics then that would give you a lot better battery life (Intel's current mobile quad-core processors do not have built-in graphics).

If that's not the case I would go with the 740QM; it is a quad-core processor as noted and should you run anything that is multi-threaded (games, music encoding, etc), it will have a performance advantage.

The bottom line is that both processors are going to serve your needs well; you will not regret your decision in either case.

Oh and please don't cross-post on these forums, I deleted your other post in the 720QM thread.

 

Sadly, the chipset doesn't support it or something. I was looking into the M15x and people told me that switchable graphics weren't supported.

The quad-core is the way to go if battery life is going to be killed anyway. On laptops that have support for switchable graphics, the dual core chips are the way to go.

 

this guy has no idea hes talking about. he just copied and pasted . But i would go for the quad as well.

 

Thanks, I was trying to figure out how to delete it but I could only find edit.

 

That's a shame the M15x does not support switchable graphics. In that case I would go for the 740QM without a doubt.
The 620M was on par with the 720QM in benchmarks but now that the 740QM has bumped up the clock speeds (1.6GHz -> 1.73GHz), it should be a better all-around performer.

For everyday usage you are not going to notice a difference between the processors.

What is your M15x configuration and budget?

Not a problem, I took care of it. You can use the report post icon under posts to alert a moderator or just message one of us.

 

I would say go for the quad core. Why? Well the dual may be slightly faster in single threaded tasks, but not noticeably enough to warrant losing 2 cores. Honestly unless youre doing heavy single threaded work with nothing else going on the dual core may work, but for everyone else quad core will give you a larger benefit. Although I went from a penryn (800FSB and 1066FSB) setup to an i7 quad the difference was huge. The extra cores crush background process and any multitasking I can throw at it and honestly you wont notice any difference in gaming feel with a dual core i7 vs quad core.

 

Specs:
Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)
1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5850
15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED
8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)
500GB SATAII 7,200RPM
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Primary - 9-cell (85Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery
Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card

Around $2700 with the warranty and the other junk they through in.

Could maybe up the 740 to an 840 but going to the 940 would be a $900 jump from the 740/620 and that's pushing my budget. Not entirely sure about the blu-ray reader or the 8gbs of ram either.

 

Honestly, the performance difference btw the 620M and 740QM is negligible overall in real life situations. If you care at all about battery life, I'd get the 620M, though I'd opt for even an i5 5xxM CPU. How much is the upgrade to 840QM? Depending on what you're doing and the cost, that might be a reasonably suited upgrade, but for most games probably overkill.

 

$300, that's why I said maybe. I'm going to be using this laptop for at least the next 4 years though so it needs to be as future proof as it can get.

 

Looks good to me. You will pay a premium for 8GB of RAM right now unless there is some special sale; best off going with 4GB and then upgrading later when prices fall. Upgrading RAM is easy and will not void the warranty.

Also, I would go with Windows 7 Home Premium unless you require a feature that is only in Professional/Ultimate.

I would get the 3-yr standard warranty as well.

 

If I drop down to 4gb, upgrade the ram later, and get the 840 it's exactly the same price, do you think that would be a good plan?

I've always gone with the professional/ultimate versions mostly because when I upgraded to vista I had to use the same version of the upgrade disk. I've read that 7 ultimate has better security and I'm kind of a security freak lol.

I plan on getting the 3 year advanced warranty that way it covers accidents because I know at some point I'll probably drop this thing and it will be a sad moment. Better safe than sorry.

 

Yeah dude, more performance for the same amount of money! I don't see the problem with that.

 

I don't think the 840QM is worth extra money. If the 740QM is not capable of doing something, then the 840QM is not going to be able to either. I think the 740QM represents a very good price/performance ratio.

Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate do not have additional security measures - AFAIK. I still suggest Home Premium, just get a good antivirus to go with it. I recommend ESET NOD32 Smart Security. I review security software for this site and have always found ESET's software to be top-notch in terms of proactiveness and security.

The 3-yr advanced warranty sounds good.

 

if you plan to keep the laptop for 3 years or so i suggest getting the quad.
just as charles suggested, get the 740qm. and if your laptop will allow it , you could move to the 920 or 940 xm in a year or so when prices get more reasonable , and that would give you a great performance boost. thats also my plan with my unit.

 

The 740 default is 1.7GHz on all 4 cores.
At 2 cores via turbo boost it goes to 2.5GHz.
At 1 core via turbo boost it goes to 2.9GHz.

The 620 default is 2.6 GhHz on 2 cores.
At 1 core it goes to 3.3GHz.

Therefore on two and single core applications the 620 WILL BE FASTER than the 740 thanks to turbo boost.

Only when the 740 is in 4 core mode could it possibly be faster than the 620. However, you are going to have to have an application that is specifically designed for that. Once the 740 starts to turbo boost ... the 620 will out perform it ...

My take ...

Edit:

$300 should get you a 128GB SSD ... or half way to a 256GB SSD ... you will probably see larger performace gains sinking your money here ...

 

Actually, the 740QM still Turbo Boosts to 1.867GHz on 4/3 cores, and the 620M boosts to 3.067GHz on two cores.

 

Yes ... there are little steps along the way that these CPUs can do ... the above fact ... for me at least ... tips the scale in favor of the 620M even more.

In addition, the 620 will be easier on your battery. I believe this has been mentioned prior.

 

Seems like he won't be using his NB on battery a lot. I'd go with the quad. More and more software are capable of using multicores.

 

haha here we go again with the 2 vs 4 core discussion.
the op did mention that he wants to keep the laptop for 4 years. in a year or so this discussion of 2 vs 4 cores would be moot.

 

looks like 740QM is winning

 

I ordered my laptop a couple days ago. I ended up dropping the ram down to 8gb and the hard drive down to 320gb. 320 is more than enough for now and I plan on upgrading the hard drive to an ssd and the ram to 8gb later. Using some of the cash I saved from all that I grabbed the 840 instead of the 740. I figured with so many people making the case for the 740, I might as well get the 840 if I could.

I wasn't entirely sold on the quad over the dual, but I did want to future proof it as much as possible and I believe quads are the way things are going to go.

 

i think you made the right choice considering you want your laptop to last a while and the 840 is the best choice bang for buck-wise. its almost as powerful as the 920xm and generates less heat.

 

Guys. i see that the clock spped of i7-740 is 1.73 Which is less so, my question is that will it be bad in performance for normal applications compared to an i5 which has 2.4ghz Clock speed?

Also, i'm looking forward to get an xps with i7-740 My COnfigratiopn si Given below Hope it's a good one. Share your thoughts on this

Intel® Core™ i7-740QM
15.6" Edge to Edge Full High Def inition(1080p)
4GB (2GBx2) 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB SATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
1GB DDR3 ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5730
Integrated CREATIVE Sound Blaster® X-Fi MB
9-cell (85WHr) Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell 1520 Wireless-N card
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth
Dell™ Backlit Keyboard with Touchpad
Slot Load 8X DVD+/-RW Drive w ith DVD+R

 

TurboBoost means that the i7-740QM can run at up to 2.93GHz (if only one core is loaded) and at intermediate speeds when more than one but less than four cores are loaded. However, that's a bit slower than the i7-620M's maximum speed of 3.33Ghz.

John

 

If I have a Lenovo Y560 with switchable graphics, what would be a better CPU than my current i3? I would like a Quad, but I read something about them not having integrated graphics. In what way would that affect my laptop?

 

It would mean that there would be no integrated graphics to switch to; you'd be permanently using your discrete graphics. This assumes, of course, that you can mount a quad-core in the Y560 without a motherboard change; this isn't always the case.

 

ntel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)

Hands down.
Better benchmarks

 

Yeah... slightly lower clock speed buy 50% more cache and double the thread count. It seems quite clear which is better.

 

You sure the m15x cant use the integrated graphics of the 620m? I contacted dell and they said it is supported, also seen on another forum it is possible, infact just seen another thread on this forum to confirm it.
Nice feature if a long powercut or if the main GPU breaks, unknown how easy it is to swap over, seems to require a reboot. Interesting to find out how long the 9cell battery would last with integrated mode, not that you buy a gaming laptop for battery life.
I'd like to see a temperature comparision beween the two.