intel core 2duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53 GHz or Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)
Why? Please explain in complete moron terms. Layman terms are too advanced.
Thank you.
For a laptop? Desktop? Workstation? Server?
You can compare them yourself here —> http://www.intel.com/products/processor/index.htm
But you wanted “complete moron terms.” My WAG is the duo core has two processors (think two lane highway) while the quad core has four (think four lane highway). However, unless the operating system and applications are optimized to take advantage of the specific hardware, the greater speed and efficiency of either will be wasted.
The i7 is Intel’s latest chip, and they’re pretty fast. I just upgraded my Core 2 Quad to an i7, and the speed difference is quite noticeable. So I’m will definitely be faster than the Core 2 Duo you’re asking about.
passmark scores:
core 2 duo: 1799
i7: 3574
higher is better
just a side note the i5-750 2.67Ghz clocks in at 4210 on the same scale and a serious sweet spot on the “bang for the buck” hierarchy.
I have one of those and it’s pretty swell, but Intel recently released a 2.8 GHz i5-760 at a slightly higher price point, so that would be my recommendation for a current system build.
Oh, I wasn’t asking to help me decide what to get. I already decided what I want. My sister asked me if her massively expensive Alien’s processor was better than the one I might be getting in a totally boring computer and I didn’t know what to tell her.
If I get some money I’m hoping for, I’ll be getting a new school/gaming laptop. I want smaller than what I have now (17" down to 14", 2 pounds off the weight) but I want the lag and shitty graphics to stop. I had already decided on the i7 processor. I had a feeling it was better than my sister’s but I wasn’t sure.
What is Intel trying to accomplish with their naming scheme? I’m fairly computer literate and I have no idea of what it all means. I guess that iN+1 is ‘better’ than iN, but the rest of it is just gibberish. I’d like something that conveyed how fast (i.e., MIPS/single thread), powerful (simultaneous threads), and energy efficiency. The fact that a Core 2 might not have 2 cores is confusing right off the bat.
Having more cores then two gets into diminishing returns pretty quickly for a lot of applications, especially gaming. So I’d go for the faster chip, all other things being equal.
That said, “Turbo mode” is a little weird, it apparently increases the clock rate when its not using all of the cores. As a result, its pretty hard to say which chip is faster.
To be fair to Intel, since chips stopped simply going for faster and faster chips and instead moved towards using a host of new innovations to increase performance, its gotten pretty hard to give a quick summary of which chips are faster. The Turbo Mode thing is a good example, is a chip that runs at 2.9GhZ when using one core but 1.7GhZ when using four faster then a dual core that runs at 2.5?
As quad cores become the norm(there are hex cores out now) more applications will be written to take advantage of all four and the faster dual cores will be left behind.
I went with a quad in my new machine with the idea of future proofing to some extent as I can’t afford to upgrade at a whim.