Is this CPU decent enough for gaming?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
I

Invctus

Honorable
Nov 4, 2013
7
0
10,510
Hello!

I am looking at buying a new laptop because mine crashed...I am leaning towards Dell's new Inspiron 15 7000 because it has features I like such as a well-reviewed (by Laptopmag) touchscreen, a nice display, backlighting, and 16GB RAM in a thin, attractive chassis(I will use this machine primarily for schoolwork).

However I am also a gamer, and my research shows that the NVIDIA GeForce 750m 2GB that I can configure is definitely good enough for my needs...what concerns me, though, is the CPU. The configuration I'm looking at comes with an Intel Core i7 4500U. I don't know anything about CPUs and I would like to know if this i7 processor, along with the 2GB 750m and the 16 GB RAM, will be good for gaming (e.g. Battlefield 3 & 4, Total War: Rome II...not necessarily at max settings).

Here is notebookcheck's analysis of the processor. I don't understand what they are saying and I hope someone here does! http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-4500U-Notebook-Processor.93562.0.html

Thank you!
 
Solution
jaguarskx
The i7-4500U CPU is a decent enough dual core CPU. The "U" signifies an ultra low voltage (ULV) CPU meant for ultrabooks since an ULV CPU is one of the requirements for a laptop to be classified as an "ultrabook". It also has Hyper Threading (HT) which create two virtual / logical CPUs cores to process more instructions than just two cores. Not as good as having 4 actual / physical cores, but for programs that can make use of HT it does improve performance.

The base clock speed of 1.8GHz is pretty weak compared to a normal mobile CPU, but it helps conserve power. With Turbo Boost (an automatic overclock), it can go up to 3.0GHz if only one core is being used, or 2.7GHz if both cores are used. That is assuming the laptop is not in...
Sort by date Sort by votes
skit75

skit75

Splendid
Oct 7, 2008
2,684
1
21,460
Just as you have qualified your question.... the answer also, will be qualified. It will be good for gaming..... for a laptop. Mobile hardware is always under-powered when compared to its PC counterpart. You have the CPU cores and the GPU but what will limit the performance is that darn heat.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jaguarskx

jaguarskx

Titan
Apr 19, 2006
27,979
3
84,965
The i7-4500U CPU is a decent enough dual core CPU. The "U" signifies an ultra low voltage (ULV) CPU meant for ultrabooks since an ULV CPU is one of the requirements for a laptop to be classified as an "ultrabook". It also has Hyper Threading (HT) which create two virtual / logical CPUs cores to process more instructions than just two cores. Not as good as having 4 actual / physical cores, but for programs that can make use of HT it does improve performance.

The base clock speed of 1.8GHz is pretty weak compared to a normal mobile CPU, but it helps conserve power. With Turbo Boost (an automatic overclock), it can go up to 3.0GHz if only one core is being used, or 2.7GHz if both cores are used. That is assuming the laptop is not in danger of overheating.

Most games only use 2 cores. While the number of games capable of using more than 2 cores is increasing every year, they is represent a small minority of games compared to dual core games.

The nVidia GT 750m is a pretty good graphics chip for a laptop, but it is considered a bit weak compared to a desktop graphics card. It is considered a bit slower than a desktop Radeon HD 7750. How much slower is not exactly known since desktop and mobile graphic chips cannot be directly benchmarked against each other due to physical hardware limitations. Meaning there is no way to install a desktop Radeon HD 7750 into a laptop, and there is no way to install a GT 750m chip into a desktop.

The Radeon HD 7750 is not really capable of playing games at 1920x1080 resolution using high graphic settings. To get a general idea of the performance of the Radeon HD 7750 you can click the link below. I must point out that the desktop used to test the graphic cards is an overclocked quad core i7-3770k @ 4.6GHz which can have a small impact on game performance for games that do not care how fast the CPU as long as it does not slow down the graphics card (like Borderland 2) to have a significant impact on game performance which are CPU and graphics intensive (like Skyrim).

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7750_IceQ_X/1.html


If the mobile GT 750m was somehow able to be tested in a desktop PC, then it's average performance would likely be between the GTS 450 and the Radoen HD 7750:

perfrel.gif
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
I

Invctus

Honorable
Nov 4, 2013
7
0
10,510
Thank you all for the replies! I wouldn't game in 1920x1080, more like 1366x768 (that's what I am used to on my last laptop, which had a quad core). I will look closer at the Asus when I'm done with classes for today, but I did notice how it had 8GB RAM to the Dell's 16. In practice, will that translate to a significant difference in performance? And how bad does heat get when a CPU is over clocked? :p
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I

Invctus

Honorable
Nov 4, 2013
7
0
10,510
So on the i7-4500U, is Turbo Boost automatically engaged to go up to 3.0GZ or 2.7GZ? Also is it better to have a quad-core CPU (the ASUS) or 16GB RAM (the Dell)?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom