Which would be faster? Laptop i7 or Deskop i3?

[mcdonsco]

I'm about to ditch my laptop and go to a desktop system (that I already have) instead and just use a tablet on the go.

The laptop I'm selling is a Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67Ghz (In a Thinkpad T410).

I recently built a home server that I'm converting to my new desktop instead (not using it really as a "home server", so just going to use it as a desktop instead). Anyway, it's a Core i3 2120 @ 3.3Ghz.

Knowing laptop CPU's generally are slower than similar model desktop CPU's I'm wondering if this Core i3 would be slower than the Core i7 in my laptop or faster?

Sorry, just haven't been "in the field" for a while, so not up to speed on things like this, so thought I would ask the folks here.

Thanks!

 

[payturr]

Core i3 will be slower man, I'm telling you. i7 will always be better than i3 unless the i7 is ten years old. xD

 

[azathoth]

Core i3 will be slower man, I'm telling you. i7 will always be better than i3 unless the i7 is ten years old. xD

False, the i7 620m is a generation behind the new i3, and is a dual core at 2.6Ghz.

The i3-2120 is a dual core at 3.3Ghz, so right there it is already faster.

Sandy bridge is also about 20% faster clock for clock than the previous architecture, so the desktop i3-2120 should be quite a bit faster.

 

[mcdonsco]

False, the i7 620m is a generation behind the new i3, and is a dual core at 2.6Ghz.

The i3-2120 is a dual core at 3.3Ghz, so right there it is already faster.

Sandy bridge is also about 20% faster clock for clock than the previous architecture, so the desktop i3-2120 should be quite a bit faster.

Looks like it would be 1mb less cache though, but being 700mhz faster on newer architecture should more than erase that difference in cache right?

Also, is the bus speed different or the same on these?

 

[mcdonsco]

I'm asking because if it were to be slower, I would *consider* moving the core i3 over to my HTPC replacing it's core 2 duo board, cpu & memory and put a core i7 cpu, board and memory in the desktop...thing is, I would MUCH rather not go through that expense, and the core i7 is fast enough for what I do, so any improvement would be great, but I wouldn't want to see degraded performance.


Thanks for your input too!

 

[jaguarskx]

The desktop i3-2120 would be faster than the mobile i7 M 620 (dual core if I am not mistaken).

#1. 2nd generation Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs are on average 12% faster than 1st generation at the same clock speed. The difference between the desktop vs laptop could be slight more because some features in a mobile CPU could be de-tuned to lower power consumption.

#2. The Core i3-2120 is clocked higher than the mobile Core i7-620.

 

[mcdonsco]

Best answer selected by mcdonsco.