So some quick i5 or i7 advice? Return the i5 for i7.

[Earthdog]

So I have an i5 with 8gb and I have the store holding me a i7 to pickup in a few hours. I was hoping for some more definitive and understandable comparisons overnight. But maybe I am too think headed to understand. So let me ask for a simple answer:

Is the i7 faster than the i5?
What is the actual percentage of improvement?

It should be a 25%-30% based on the processor but with all this throttling everyone is talking about I am confused as this clear distorts the speed.

TIA as I am getting ready to head to the store soon.

 

[Kif]

That's a person decision. Is an i7 upgrade a good buy? Most likely not because your paying a lot of $$$$ for a small performance gain. However some people take pride for owning the big dog.

 

[Earthdog]

It not about money its about understandable performance gain to make an educated choice for me.

 

[dman27]

I've had the i5 and without officially testing it seems faster overall. things just snap into place much better than the i5 version. this is very subjective, but other than heat, I say go for it. you can always return it if you want to downgrade.

 

[Kif]

It not about money its about understandable performance gain to make an educated choice for me.

If it's not about money you should buy the i7 512gb model.

 

[GreyFox7]

So I have an i5 with 8gb and I have the store holding me a i7 to pickup in a few hours. I was hoping for some more definitive and understandable comparisons overnight. But maybe I am too think headed to understand. So let me ask for a simple answer:

Is the i7 faster than the i5?
What is the actual percentage of improvement?

It should be a 25%-30% based on the processor but with all this throttling everyone is talking about I am confused as this clear distorts the speed.

TIA as I am getting ready to head to the store soon.

And your applications or use cases are??? In other words ... what are you going to do with it.
Generally yes the i7 should be faster even when throttled its relative performance to a throttled i5 should be better. That said... we haven't seen much reported for actual performance testing or analysis and with all use cases your mileage will vary.

So... they are letting you swap your i5 for an i7 model plus cash but id assume you could do the reverse if you find that for your use cases its not worth it. Hit the road and get that bad boy and put this question to rest.

you are required to report back here ASAP!

 

[be77solo]

Good question, and even having both an i5 and an i7 sitting on my desk side by side typing this, I still can't give you a definitive answer. I guess by that simple fact, the i5 gets the vote simply because it's cheaper ha.

The problem is the i7 is still a dual core and in this slim chassis, there's really not much tangible difference because under load they both throttle to the same speed.

Sadly, both are slower than the SP2, but that's a totally different conversation. I think Kif nailed it:

"However some people take pride for owning the big dog."

If money isn't a factor, then the i7 is in theory and short bursts faster.

 

[Earthdog]

be77solo Wow having them both side by side and not seeing the difference is shocking. Doesn't make sense to me why MS would do such a thing.

 

[double07]

NIKE!

 

[BillsCarnage]

IMO, the i7 doesn't justify the cost-to-performance gains over the i5. Hyper threading is a waste on a tablet like this. If you really need hyper threading, you should be using a laptop(better cooling system) or desktop over this form factor.

 

[Earthdog]

Well know I have both for the moment. What is a good test I can run to see which one to keep?

 

[double07]

Well know I have both for the moment. What is a good test I can run to see which one to keep?

I just downloaded Passmark few min ago. I ran the test, overall score on mine is 2170. it would be interesting to see i5 score.

i7/256:
Overall : 2170
CPU Mark : 4282
2D Mark : 687
3D Mark : 602
Mem Mark : 1771
Disk Mark: 2159

Anyone with i7 can post the memory and disc? Mine numbers seems low?

[UPDATE]:
Discovered that my SF3 had disc encryption enabled. My SF3 Disc Mark scored 3098 after I disabled disc encryption.

Disk Mark /w encryption : 2159
Disc Mark w/o encryption : 3098