Anyone happier after switching to i5 from i7?

[GreyFox7]

So is that saint the I5 starts at 2.6 Ghz, throttles to 1.9 Ghz and then rises to 2.2 (with your changes?

What was the out of box baseline that would be comparable to the numbers I posted for the I7?

Thanks.

Len

There were no changes in place for that test, it was showing the effects of the new 8/19 firmware. In fact the whole thread is rendered immaterial by the 8/19 FW because the setting no longer has any effect.

Re the frequencies those are the graph line frequencies which does not include turbo boost. If you click the processor frequency in the tool it will report a max and min as well which went up to the turbo max of 2.9 GHz

 

[Len J]

There were no changes in place for that test, it was showing the effects of the new 8/19 firmware. In fact the whole thread is rendered immaterial by the 8/19 FW because the setting no longer has any effect.

So is the following comparison valid?

I7 base 2.9 Ghz, throttled 2.3 Ghz
I5 base 2.6 Ghz throttled 1,9 Ghz

Thanks for the patience, I'm not as technical and am just trying to get a baseline.

Thanks.

Len

 

[GreyFox7]

So is the following comparison valid?

I7 base 2.9 Ghz, throttled 2.3 Ghz
I5 base 2.6 Ghz throttled 1,9 Ghz

Thanks for the patience, I'm not as technical and am just trying to get a baseline.

Thanks.

Len

I'd say partly right. looking again the graph it runs at 2.6 then tapers down to 1.9 over a few minutes then ramps back up to 2.2 over a few minutes then maintains at 2.2. I don't know for sure if the i7 has a similar short term dip; probably.

On other detail is the idle frequency on an i5 is about 800 MHz and the actual base clock is 1.9 while the base clock on an i7 is 1.7 I don't know what its idling at.

All that to say its a bit more involved than just two numbers for making that comparison.

So how did you arrive at your i7 numbers? what tool did you use?

 

[Len J]

I'd say partly right. looking again the graph it runs at 2.6 then tapers down to 1.9 over a few minutes then ramps back up to 2.2 over a few minutes then maintains at 2.2. I don't know for sure if the i7 has a similar short term dip; probably.

On other detail is the idle frequency on an i5 is about 800 MHz and the actual base clock is 1.9 while the base clock on an i7 is 1.7 I don't know what its idling at.

All that to say its a bit more involved than just two numbers for making that comparison.

So how did you arrive at your i7 numbers? what tool did you use?

My numbers are very unsophisticated.

I stressed the system by importing 150 raw pictures into Lightroom with my peferance for preview renderering set to high quality while I had the CPU performance graph in task manager opened and just watched how it and the fan behaved over the time the import and rendering occurred.

Len

 

[GTiceman]

my i7 comes tomorrow. i still have my i5. I will be running them both through my video encoding in MovieMaker and GoPro Studio and have Resource Monitor and Task Manager open. Need a way to measure temps

 

[raginrogue]

I'm pretty happy with my switch to an i5. I realized for what I was using it for I didn't need the extra power of an i7 so I switched to save some money.

 

[GTiceman]

I am also happy with the i5, the biggest thing to me is the $250 diff for the i7 worth it

 

[GTiceman]

I ran video encoding tests on both machines, as well as other performance benchmarks, and the i7 obviously outperforms the i5. In a 27 min encoding to a single 1080p 60fps mp4 through Windows Movie Maker I saw a gap of 20% which resulted in a 10 min difference in completion time. This is typically the largest length of video I convert. I will be running tests tonight on 2.7k video about 30 min long, multiple files combined in Premiere but might try other software.

I noticed the i7 runs up to 20 degrees warmer than the i5, 88 versus 68, though the i7 will sometimes come down to 78 during the encoding. I am still not sure if I want to keep the i7 or return, cost difference was $250 and I only really encode video about 10x a year or so after my track events. I might exchange the i5 as I have the WiFi disconnect issue and I am almost out of my return period, I know we have determined it is driver based.

I used the i7 this weekend to watch Netflix and the fan didn't activate at all as far as I could tell, so likely it was on low mode. However, it will activate randomly when web browsing or doing some other tasks where I don't see the i5 activate. I have been using the Intel XTU to monitor the system information.

The i7 is lot 1430 and the i5 I believe is 1429, not in front of me at the moment.

 

[baydude]

Believe it or not, I went from the i7 to the i3 and am fine with it. It runs all my Windows software smoothly with no problem. When I bought the i7 at first, I thought it would be equivalent to running a desktop PC w/ an i7 CPU + enhanced graphics so I can play some moderate games at medium/high. Turns out even moderate gaming can cause overheating so I'm just using my desktop for gaming now and the i3 does everything I want from a PRO device. Saved me about $1k w/ discount from Best Buy going from i7 to i3. I will most likely trade it in for the latest Surface Pro 4 if all the issues of the SP3 i7 are fixed.

 

[Aegeas]

I switched from the i5 to the i7 and my performance in Path of Exile and streaming video improved. I haven't had any of the cooling problems that other folks have had and my machine is for gaming as much as it is for school. The main reason I switched was because I remembered buying a Dell XPS a while back that was pretty expensive, but as it aged I found that more and more things would not run well on it as I had skimped on it in some critical components. I don't want to live with that regret again. I bought the stoutest one I could afford and I will have the peace of mind that it wasn't me that screwed future me this time.

 

[InspectHerGadget]

I find the i7 SP3 much, much faster than my SP2. It could be other improvements too though.

I think that the screen is much more responsive on the SP3 and other things may have been improved.

I've had the i7 several days now and there are NO concerns with heat or the fan. I think it runs pretty much like the i5 model.

 

[GTiceman]

I have seen the fan kick on high with my i7 today when doing a windows update and transferring a 13GB file and tried the same on the i5, no fan and almost same speeds. i7 also got the overheat symbol upon restart after update, it was 2 updates.