Will an i5 hold me back when gaming?

[Legolas8181]

I have been looking at laptops (convenience) for gaming and after looking up requirements the GTX 770 is the GPU for me but to be abe to get it in the price range for me I have to cut back from an i7-4700MQ to an i5-4200M. That GPU will run anything I want on either High or Ultra, even stuff like Crysis and Metro, but will that CPU hold me back in the future?

 

[apcs13]

yes an i5 will definately hold you back, get an i7

This guy is a troll. No, while the i5 lacks the power that i7 will have, it shouldn't provide too much of a holding back, besides for gaming, you always want a stronger GPU than CPU. This is because games mainly utilize your GPU for rendering graphics and the tough stuff, so in a budget scenario, your PC's most expensive component should be the GPU.

 

[apcs13]

yes an i5 will definately hold you back, get an i7

This guy is a troll. No, while the i5 lacks the power that i7 will have, it shouldn't provide too much of a holding back, besides for gaming, you always want a stronger GPU than CPU. This is because games mainly utilize your GPU for rendering graphics and the tough stuff, so in a budget scenario, your PC's most expensive component should be the GPU.

Nope, sorry, you are the troll. A dual core 2.5ghz processor won't be enough for the games a 770m can handle

Actually I'm not. While it is a dual core CPU it is a good one, and while the OP will be playing games the clock speed will turbo up to 3.1 GHz.

Review and Stats on the i5 - 4200M and comparisons against the i7-4700MQ here: http://cpuboss.com/cpu/Intel-Core-i5-4200M

As you can see, while the All-Core performance is noticeably different from the i7, in single core performance the i5 is almost equal to the i7, and most games today aren't optimized for a ton of cores anyways, although they will be in the future. While the i5 gets a lower benchmark score in tests, that is due to the lack of extra cores, and actually is stronger in single-threaded tasks. Since the GPU is exponentially more important for a gaming PC, and since you are getting a laptop with the inability to upgrade neither the GPU nor the CPU, you will want to have the extra power of the 770, because your lower power GPU will be maxed while the i7 is barely being used, and most games need the extra GPU power, not CPU power. While you will have difficulty running games with a ton of players such as Battlefield 4 on higher settings at 1080P, most games will run fine on the i5.

 

[Legolas8181]

yes an i5 will definately hold you back, get an i7

This guy is a troll. No, while the i5 lacks the power that i7 will have, it shouldn't provide too much of a holding back, besides for gaming, you always want a stronger GPU than CPU. This is because games mainly utilize your GPU for rendering graphics and the tough stuff, so in a budget scenario, your PC's most expensive component should be the GPU.

Nope, sorry, you are the troll. A dual core 2.5ghz processor won't be enough for the games a 770m can handle

Actually I'm not. While it is a dual core CPU it is a good one, and while the OP will be playing games the clock speed will turbo up to 3.1 GHz.

Review and Stats on the i5 - 4200M and comparisons against the i7-4700MQ here: http://cpuboss.com/cpu/Intel-Core-i5-4200M

As you can see, while the All-Core performance is noticeably different from the i7, in single core performance the i5 is almost equal to the i7, and most games today aren't optimized for a ton of cores anyways, although they will be in the future. While the i5 gets a lower benchmark score in tests, that is due to the lack of extra cores, and actually is stronger in single-threaded tasks. Since the GPU is exponentially more important for a gaming PC, and since you are getting a laptop with the inability to upgrade neither the GPU nor the CPU, you will want to have the extra power of the 770, because your lower power GPU will be maxed while the i7 is barely being used, and most games need the extra GPU power, not CPU power. While you will have difficulty running games with a ton of players such as Battlefield 4 on higher settings at 1080P, most games will run fine on the i5.

The OP said he wanted to run crysis, and you think that i5 dual core will run that? If it does it sure as hell won't run at ultra. It's better to get a slightly worse GPU (eg. 760M) and an i7, because newer games DO in fact use more than one core (it has been that way for a while now) and the i7 gets double the benchmark scores the i5 gets.

i5: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4200M+%40+2.50GHz&id=2016

i7: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4700HQ+%40+2.40GHz

OP, I am sorry about this guy, he clearly doesn't know what he is talking about. Dispite the fact that YES, you DO prioritize GPU over CPU with gaming, that doesnt mean you can go get an intel pentium D and a GTX 780ti and everything will run just great

I am not that fussed over Crysis, i am mainly interested in BF 4, AC IV and GTA IV

 

[Legolas8181]

Actually since those are the 3 games I really care about I looked it up on Game Debate and while the CPU score was about as low as I expected, it can still play all 3 of them on High settings. I would like to try Crysis one day but if i can't get any higher than medium I don't care.

 

[apcs13]

Actually since those are the 3 games I really care about I looked it up on Game Debate and while the CPU score was about as low as I expected, it can still play all 3 of them on High settings. I would like to try Crysis one day but if i can't get any higher than medium I don't care.

Please ignore yoyomah20, he is just making himself look awful at this point and his poor trolling is really shining right now. First, he compared a 770M to a 780 Ti and the i5-4200M to a Pentium Processor, which shows that he really has no idea what he is talking about. I get his point but you are not pairing the world's fastest GPU with one of the slowest CPU's, you are pairing a mid-high range mobile GPU with a mid range CPU- which is exactly what you should be doing.

Furthermore, he said that with a low power CPU you cannot run Crysis. I had to facepalm at this stupidity, Crysis is the best game to showcase that you need more GPU power than CPU power. When I play Crysis my GPU usage is maxed out, but my CPU usage is barely even above normal net surfing usage, and I get framerates even higher than 60FPS on complete maxed settings.

Ignoring yoyomah20, if you are most interested in BF4 you will want to go with the i7, as the 4 cores in that CPU will be of particular benefit in that game. While in most other games you will want to go with a better GPU.

Proof of my points: even though I myself have a decent quad core CPU in my laptop, the graphics side is weak enough that I only get 30 FPS on low settings in Battlefield 4. If it were switched, I would be getting 30 FPS on high settings.

TL;DR - For 70% of games, the i5 and more powerful graphics will be of benefit to you. The i7 will absolutely crush the i5 in well-multithreaded applications, but for a lot of games the i5 will do okay. However, it depends on the GPU you will be getting with the i7, you need to tell me what GPU comes with the i7.

 

[apcs13]

BF4 Reccoemnded requirements:

http://bf4central.com/battlefield-4-system-requirements/

Crysis 3 reccomended requirements:

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=3953&game=Crysis%203

that i5 dual core doesnt match up to an i7-2600k (i7 gets almost double the benchmark socres).

Bottom line: yes you can play games but NO not at ultra with that cpu

Crysis is a GPU intense series and barely even taxes a CPU, stop misleading people.

 

[apcs13]

yes an i5 will definately hold you back, get an i7

This guy is a troll. No, while the i5 lacks the power that i7 will have, it shouldn't provide too much of a holding back, besides for gaming, you always want a stronger GPU than CPU. This is because games mainly utilize your GPU for rendering graphics and the tough stuff, so in a budget scenario, your PC's most expensive component should be the GPU.

Nope, sorry, you are the troll. A dual core 2.5ghz processor won't be enough for the games a 770m can handle

Actually I'm not. While it is a dual core CPU it is a good one, and while the OP will be playing games the clock speed will turbo up to 3.1 GHz.

Review and Stats on the i5 - 4200M and comparisons against the i7-4700MQ here: http://cpuboss.com/cpu/Intel-Core-i5-4200M

As you can see, while the All-Core performance is noticeably different from the i7, in single core performance the i5 is almost equal to the i7, and most games today aren't optimized for a ton of cores anyways, although they will be in the future. While the i5 gets a lower benchmark score in tests, that is due to the lack of extra cores, and actually is stronger in single-threaded tasks. Since the GPU is exponentially more important for a gaming PC, and since you are getting a laptop with the inability to upgrade neither the GPU nor the CPU, you will want to have the extra power of the 770, because your lower power GPU will be maxed while the i7 is barely being used, and most games need the extra GPU power, not CPU power. While you will have difficulty running games with a ton of players such as Battlefield 4 on higher settings at 1080P, most games will run fine on the i5.

The OP said he wanted to run crysis, and you think that i5 dual core will run that? If it does it sure as hell won't run at ultra. It's better to get a slightly worse GPU (eg. 760M) and an i7, because newer games DO in fact use more than one core (it has been that way for a while now) and the i7 gets double the benchmark scores the i5 gets.

i5: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4200M+%40+2.50GHz&id=2016

i7: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4700HQ+%40+2.40GHz

OP, I am sorry about this guy, he clearly doesn't know what he is talking about. Dispite the fact that YES, you DO prioritize GPU over CPU with gaming, that doesnt mean you can go get an intel pentium D and a GTX 780ti and everything will run just great

You're comparing a 770M and a 780 Ti, they are so far apart that you can't even say that they are in the same league. AND you are comparing a i5-4200M with a Pentium processor, and those two differ so much in power that you really must have no clue what you are talking about. The 770M is a powerful mid-high range card, and the i5 mentioned is a solid mid-range cpu. The 780 Ti is a world-class GPU that nothing is faster than, and the Pentium is an old, outdated, almost obsolete processing unit that was great in its time. You are making the worst comparisons, but thanks, your comments made me chuckle.

 

[Legolas8181]

Actually since those are the 3 games I really care about I looked it up on Game Debate and while the CPU score was about as low as I expected, it can still play all 3 of them on High settings. I would like to try Crysis one day but if i can't get any higher than medium I don't care.

Please ignore yoyomah20, he is just making himself look awful at this point and his poor trolling is really shining right now. First, he compared a 770M to a 780 Ti and the i5-4200M to a Pentium Processor, which shows that he really has no idea what he is talking about. I get his point but you are not pairing the world's fastest GPU with one of the slowest CPU's, you are pairing a mid-high range mobile GPU with a mid range CPU- which is exactly what you should be doing.

Furthermore, he said that with a low power CPU you cannot run Crysis. I had to facepalm at this stupidity, Crysis is the best game to showcase that you need more GPU power than CPU power. When I play Crysis my GPU usage is maxed out, but my CPU usage is barely even above normal net surfing usage, and I get framerates even higher than 60FPS on complete maxed settings.

Ignoring yoyomah20, if you are most interested in BF4 you will want to go with the i7, as the 4 cores in that CPU will be of particular benefit in that game. While in most other games you will want to go with a better GPU.

Proof of my points: even though I myself have a decent quad core CPU in my laptop, the graphics side is weak enough that I only get 30 FPS on low settings in Battlefield 4. If it were switched, I would be getting 30 FPS on high settings.

TL;DR - For 70% of games, the i5 and more powerful graphics will be of benefit to you. The i7 will absolutely crush the i5 in well-multithreaded applications, but for a lot of games the i5 will do okay. However, it depends on the GPU you will be getting with the i7, you need to tell me what GPU comes with the i7.

The laptop I have found is on PC Specialist and the model i have picked has the choice of a 770M or a 780M with CPUs going from a Pentium to a i7-4930MX. I have picked out the i5-4300M because if i don't go with any OS since I already have one that will work i had the money to beef up the CPU a little bit.

 

[apcs13]

It's not my new laptop, so do what you want, but the following is for apcs13:

There was NO good reason to jump in here calling me a troll because I suggested he get a better CPU.

Look at my post history, it is not all the time I give a solution and someone doesn't have a contrary opinion. But you know what we do when we have conflicting opinions? we solve them maturely, something you evidently cannot handle. Next time you have an opinion that differs from someone else's, it's usually a good rule of thumb to not jump in the conversation calling them a troll. Now I relalize that you provided specific evidence for your arguement and I repsect you for that but it is never a good idea to start off your arguement calling someone a troll.

Quite honestly at the end of this I think you are the troll, I was just trying to help this guy out because no one has answered his question and it was pretty far down the list, but you made this poor guy have to witness two idiots argueing over the internet. I am hope you happily proved your point (even though I still disagree), but you sure didn't help this guy.

I apologize for calling you a troll, but some of your statements were "trolling" this gentleman. You provided no statistics or proof at first, and stating that Crysis is CPU-bound is either an ignorant or troll statement. There has been no place when I was not mature, I don't know where you have drawn that accusation from, I wasn't even arguing, I was debating, but if you are not mature enough to debate I guess you may call it an argument. I apologize for calling you a troll as you seem to not be one, but again, you really looked like one for a while.

I don't know how it is possible you see me as a troll, I have provided stats and proof to back up everything I have said yet, including internet resources and site links. I was trying to help this fellow out as well, I didn't want him to be mislead and gave him my own two cents from research and facts, countering your argument of "yes an i5 will definately hold you back, get an i7" that had no factual or evident support. I hope I have proved my point as well, and I hope the OP makes the right choice for them.

 

[Legolas8181]

You two both have opposite opinions here and am not too sure who to listen to...

 

[apcs13]

Legolas, you really need to tell me what GPU you will be getting with the i7, and which with the i5. So far you have not, and have only given me what CPU options you will have.

 

[Legolas8181]

Legolas, you really need to tell me what GPU you will be getting with the i7, and which with the i5. So far you have not, and have only given me what CPU options you will have.

"after looking up requirements the GTX 770 is the GPU for me" Didn't you get it from that that I want the 770M?

 

[apcs13]

Legolas, you really need to tell me what GPU you will be getting with the i7, and which with the i5. So far you have not, and have only given me what CPU options you will have.

"after looking up requirements the GTX 770 is the GPU for me" Didn't you get it from that that I want the 770M?

Well, you also said that you would have to cut down on CPU power, so I would assume you would know if someone said "no, get the i7", you would need to have another graphics compute option that would fit your price range. If you are set on getting the i5 and the 770M, why create this thread?

 

[Legolas8181]

Because like I said in the OP, I wanted to know if the i5 would hold me back.

 

[apcs13]

Because like I said in the OP, I wanted to know if the i5 would hold me back.

Well, in some cases it will not, in some cases it will. If you have the ability to get the i7, do it, it is always better to have 4 cores, but if you can't afford it and have your heart set on the 770M, the i5 will do okay, you just might have to make some changes with more CPU intensive games.

The point is, if price is a problem, don't worry, it i5 will meet your needs ideally. However, if it is not, there is no reason not to go with the i7.

 

[Legolas8181]

Because like I said in the OP, I wanted to know if the i5 would hold me back.

Well, in some cases it will not, in some cases it will. If you have the ability to get the i7, do it, it is always better to have 4 cores, but if you can't afford it and have your heart set on the 770M, the i5 will do okay, you just might have to make some changes with more CPU intensive games.

The point is, if price is a problem, don't worry, it i5 will meet your needs ideally. However, if it is not, there is no reason not to go with the i7.

As long as it will play 4-core games like BF 4 on Medium+ through to 2016 at the earliest then that's great.

 

[apcs13]

Because like I said in the OP, I wanted to know if the i5 would hold me back.

Well, in some cases it will not, in some cases it will. If you have the ability to get the i7, do it, it is always better to have 4 cores, but if you can't afford it and have your heart set on the 770M, the i5 will do okay, you just might have to make some changes with more CPU intensive games.

The point is, if price is a problem, don't worry, it i5 will meet your needs ideally. However, if it is not, there is no reason not to go with the i7.

As long as it will play 4-core games like BF 4 on Medium+ through to 2016 at the earliest then that's great.

If you are talking about the i7 then yes, it most likely will. One important question, what is the screen resolution of the laptop? I should've asked this a while ago, as it is very important.

 

[Legolas8181]

Because like I said in the OP, I wanted to know if the i5 would hold me back.

Well, in some cases it will not, in some cases it will. If you have the ability to get the i7, do it, it is always better to have 4 cores, but if you can't afford it and have your heart set on the 770M, the i5 will do okay, you just might have to make some changes with more CPU intensive games.

The point is, if price is a problem, don't worry, it i5 will meet your needs ideally. However, if it is not, there is no reason not to go with the i7.

As long as it will play 4-core games like BF 4 on Medium+ through to 2016 at the earliest then that's great.

If you are talking about the i7 then yes, it most likely will. One important question, what is the screen resolution of the laptop? I should've asked this a while ago, as it is very important.

It's 1080p and I just looked and if I were to up the CPU to an i7-4700MQ (cheapest quad-core they have), that would take the price from £990 to £1,020. I can do that but I need to get my parents to agree to it which will be harder to do than the £990.

 

[Legolas8181]

Is quad-core really that important now in gaming?

 

[Legolas8181]

I will be making the purchase with my own money, they just want to know about it before i buy it and why I am spending the amount I am.

 

[dddez]

While games are mostly GPU-heavy, CPUs play a big role there too. If you're planning to play CPU-heavy games like ARMA, i7 is definitely the way to go.

If you are on a strict budget, go with the i5.

 

[apcs13]

Is quad-core really that important now in gaming?

It's a good thing to have at least 4 cores in a modern CPU for gaming, and if you have the ability to get the 770M and the i7, it would be awesome for you. However you don't need 4 cores just yet, although in some cases you will see a major improvement with having the extra 2 cores. Why I asked what GPU you would get with the i7 is because if it is just a small step down, you would want to go with the i7, but if you jump from a 770M to something like a 650M or whatever, then it is not worth it. I would say if there is any way you can get the 770M and i7, it is worth it, but if you can't the i5 will still work fine for a lot of games.

 

[Legolas8181]

While games are mostly GPU-heavy, CPUs play a big role there too. If you're planning to play CPU-heavy games like ARMA, i7 is definitely the way to go.

If you are on a strict budget, go with the i5.

Is quad-core really that important now in gaming?

It's a good thing to have at least 4 cores in a modern CPU for gaming, and if you have the ability to get the 770M and the i7, it would be awesome for you. However you don't need 4 cores just yet, although in some cases you will see a major improvement with having the extra 2 cores. Why I asked what GPU you would get with the i7 is because if it is just a small step down, you would want to go with the i7, but if you jump from a 770M to something like a 650M or whatever, then it is not worth it. I would say if there is any way you can get the 770M and i7, it is worth it, but if you can't the i5 will still work fine for a lot of games.

I can get an i7 with a 770M but it's just more expensive and so it will be more money out my pocket but if it means I can game through to 2017 instead of 2016 then it's worth that extra £30 easily.

 

[dddez]

Your life probably doesn't depend on that extra 30 pounds. It will be a better investment than the i5.

I was sporting a dual-core CPU about a week ago, until I upgraded the whole system. The CPU bottleneck was so bad that BF3 wouldn't even start, let alone ARMA II.