Which to prefer: more speed or more core

[Maheshan]

Hi I am about to buy a laptop. Which to prefer: i7-2630QM or i5-2410M

i5-2410M: 2.30 GHz; Turbo Boost Upto 2.9 GHz; Cache 3 MB; 2 Cores

i7-2630QM: 2.00 GHz; Turbo Boost Upto 2.9 GHz; Cache 6 MB; 4 Cores


Will i5-2410M give better performance over i7-2630QM, when single threaded app is running, since i7 is having less marked speed than i5
OR
Will i7 get Turbo Boost to at least 2.3GHz for all the time, in such cases (running single threaded app), for all the time, so that I will get minimum i5 like performance?

Which to prefer? Which will have better performance?

---->Is there any computation instance in which i5-2410M will work better than i7-2630QM?

***---->Is there any better processor at the same cost or below i7-2630QM?

 

[bearclaw99]

The 2630QM performs much better overall. Keep in mind that the 2630 will also always perform above its base clock of 2 ghz given that thermal conditions allow it, since it has some pretty aggressive turbo boost, even on all 4 cores, so essentially the 2630 QM is nearly twice as powerful overall

On one or 2 threaded apps, they will be dead even

 

[jaguarskx]

Depends on what you want to do.

If I bought a laptop I would want a quad core that's only 300MHz slower than the dual core because I would be encoding videos with it and the extra two core far surpasses the loss of 300MHz.

If you are only concerned with single thread apps, then the extra 300MHz on the i5 would be a benefit.

For games, I would go with the i7 since the average blockbuster game uses 3 cores instead of two cores and games that can use 4 cores efficiently (that excludes GTA IV) are here or on the horizon.

 

[$hawn]

Oh don't you worry bout the i7, hes a lil bad boy, saw him turbo all the way to 2.8GHz on CPU-Z on my friends laptop (stock speed 1.6ghz). Yes, hes a monster!!!

 

[iam2thecrowe]

You should tell us what you want the machine to do. All this CPU power is going to waste if you want to play games if the gfx card is slow, for example. Also, for everyday tasks you wont notice much difference between them both. Most people only use their laptops for light tasks.

 

[Maheshan]

You should tell us what you want the machine to do. All this CPU power is going to waste if you want to play games if the gfx card is slow, for example. Also, for everyday tasks you wont notice much difference between them both. Most people only use their laptops for light tasks.

I will use it for software development (Visual Studio), adobe photoshop & Premier, Yes also for game
What parameters I should consider if I have to look for dedicated graphics card. I am totally unaware.

So please specify all important parameters that are used to compare the graphics card & their values that I should consider minimum.

I am not hardcore gamer. But I want the laptop futureproof in terms of its procesing speed. So I will think of spending little more money on processing components instead those that I can upgrade later (RAM, HDD etc)

 

[janella448]

i believe, total balance is key to a very good performing system. if you have that very strong processor but other components are holding it back, you won't really utilize 100% of it's capabilities. imho, get the i5 and add more RAM since i believe the softwares you use goes better with higher ram than stronger processor. just my 2 cents.