Best CPU for single core games?

[843]

Which is better? 1.6GHz Corei7 or 2.7GHz C2D?

I'm thinking of applications which are CPU heavy, and largely optimized for a single core but support multi-threading.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Are these laptop CPUs?

 

[843]

Yes. My Phenom II X4 desktop runs them perfectly, but I want the portable equivalent.

Those are not exact models by the way, I just want to see a general comparison of the trade off between clock speed and technological gap.

 

[gamerk316]

The fastest i7 is the fasted CPU for single threaded apps. ICP is just as important as clock speed, and the i7 beats every other CPU in both categories.

 

[843]

But what if the other dual core CPU has almost double the clock speed?

 

[moody89]

It largely depends on the type of applications you are likely to be running and also the price difference between the two and how much you are willing to spend. In general the fastest performer in single core apps/games would be the CPU with the latest architecture and the highest clock speed. However, any degree of multi-tasking will benefit from a multi-core CPU. If you are simply browsing the web or doing office tasks then a dual-core CPU would be ample. I have a machine here which my younger brother uses for web-browsing and his homework and that still has a 3GHz P4 but it performs well enough for his needs. However, if you're doing heavy multi-tasking or run applications that will benefit from multiple threads then you may need more cores.

 

[mosox]

Intel Core 2 Duo T9900?

 

[843]

Nothing specific. Just looking for general comparison. This is because I've heard that i7 has the turbo mode which performs just as well as the core 2 duo.

 

[warmon6]

Nothing specific. Just looking for general comparison. This is because I've heard that i7 has the turbo mode which performs just as well as the core 2 duo.

On a lock for clock bases. Core i7 is a bit faster than the equivalent Ghz core 2.

Now the 1 thing core 2's didn't have was turbo boost which makes them on a league of there own.


The 2 high end mobile cpu i would recommend are:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43560

Core i7 620M:

2.66GHz

dual core with HT

4MB of L3 cache

max TDP 35W

and turbo boost of 3.33Ghz on a single core.


http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43122

Core i7 720QM

1.6GHZ

Quad core with HT

6MB of L3 cache

max TDP 45W

Turbo boost of 2.8GHz on a single core.


The 620M would be the better choice of the 2 but i doubt you would notice a difference between them.

 

[843]

Best answer selected by 843.

 

[Lmeow]

I'd say a 532MHz clock speed would probably be noticeable in some games, but the graphics card would be more important. If you wanted to know, the fastest CPU for single core applications and games would probably be the Core i5 670.