How do I know how Core-I7 processors rank?
I'm shopping for a new laptop. I want a Core i7 processor for good performance, but how do I know what I'm getting? I see i7-4700MQ for some and i7-3635QM for others. How do I figure out what I'd be getting? The Intel site specs look almost identical.
http://ark.intel.com/products/75117/Intel-Core-i7-...
http://ark.intel.com/products/71460/Intel-Core-i7-...
I know that this is probably a foolish question, and this probably shouldn't be a factor in making a decision, but I'm still curious about what the difference is. And it feels just as foolish to be completely ignorant about choosing the processor. I bet only one buyer in 50 really knows what he's getting, and I'd rather be the 1 than among the 49.
For the kind of money these things cost, I feel I should know before I buy.
Update:Excellent feedback. I DID do some searching before posting, but didn't find those benchmarking sites. Very helpful.
I won't be using it for gaming, but I run some very large Excel spreadsheets and do some stochastic simulation (e.g, VBA running a bunch of random numbers, processing results, and storing them, then displaying results for a few hundred thousand trials). I don't know how many threads Excel (Office 365 version) can process at once, but that's my primary application I would like to see run faster.
Comments
If you want to compare CPU performance, look to this site
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
The higher the score, the better the CPU performs.
That being said; one CPU may be better than another due to several reasons. Better CPU's have larger cashes, faster speeds (GHz), and more cores. Note for the last one, it is important that you look to see if the CPU has hyper-threading (I believe all Intel 4th Gens do) this doubles the amount of threads a core can run, making a 4 core processor into, effectively, an 8.
the i7-4700MQ is better. its a 4th generation haswell where as the i7-3635QM is a 3rd generation ivy bridge cpu. the haswell cpus are 10-15% better then the ivy bridge cpus.
if you are worrying about gaming, you want to get a better gpu rather then a better cpu.
id suggest getting atleast an nvidia GT740M or better if you plan on gaming.
Simply go to Google, and type in: "Core i7-4700MQ benchmarks"
i7 4700MQ is slightly better , but you would probably not notice.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Ben...