SP3 i5 or i7 for Graphic Design Student/Artist?

[Moonsurface]

clearly in i7's favor? you gotta look at those numbers again. they fluctuate a lot, in one test i7 went higher, in next test i7 went lower. run it in the morning and noon, you got different result. whatever the favor you got, it's not accountable.

That's why I'm confused. ;-) What is the average are the testing conditions reproducible - were the i5 and i7 versions tested under the same conditions at the same time with the exact same software/configuration installed. I'm not so bothered about fluctuations from time to time by the same machine.

 

[Englando]

I'm getting an i7 S3 in the UK primarily for Lightroom and Photoshop. I originally pre-ordered the i5 128, then quickly realised 4gb wouldn't be enough. So I then pre-ordered the i5 256.

Once reviews of the i7 came out and I realised I could get student discount because I have a kid in school I pre-ordered the i7 256 and cancelled the other two orders.

Don't pay much attention to the benchmarks as there are so many variables involved, especially with some people not disabling the encryption.

I still believe the i7 is 20% faster than the i5 depending on your use case. I won't be playing Windows games as I have a Vita and PS4. So the i7 is going to be perfect for me. Can't wait to use the pen in Lightroom and Photoshop.

 

[bkydcmpr]

Yes I convert to h.264. So it doesn't do that as well as you would like. That's one of the few case scenarios that is CPU based. An idea? Transfer the file to your class 10 micro SD which will be fast and run Handbrake on your desktop. Or deal with the fact that the SP3 i7 might not be the best for converting to h.264 and incorporate the additional time for that into your workflow.

sd card is not always an option if your client is not local. do you do 3d rendering? that may take hours even days to produce with decent details. you are buying a new computer for the coming years not for last year, think about the future applications, like walk your client through the 3d interior design in oculus rift, nope, your sp3 will hiccup after 40 seconds .

 

[ipaq_101]

Ok then go buy another machine, you tried it and it didn't work for you, big deal. Go buy something that will, it happens. You bought a Lexus expecting it to be a Ferrari.

 

[GreyFox7]

sd card is not always an option if your client is not local. do you do 3d rendering? that may take hours even days to produce with decent details. you are buying a new computer for the coming years not for last year, think about the future applications, like walk your client through the 3d interior design in oculus rift, nope, your sp3 will hiccup after 40 seconds .

id like to understand more about your use case. your buying an SP3 to run rendering that can take hours or days??? how is this a mobile use case? what do you do while this rendering is running? I don't understand what you are doing... please elaborate.

 

[bkydcmpr]

id like to understand more about your use case. your buying an SP3 to run rendering that can take hours or days??? how is this a mobile use case? what do you do while this rendering is running? I don't understand what you are doing... please elaborate.

that is not my use case, but absolutely a valid scenario for many people. they may traveling during a business trip and made some last minutes editing to the maya project and need to render a 15 minutes walk through before a conference. yeah, you should have your "real" laptop at that moment.

 

[Zog1971]

Again, thanks everyone for their input. For myself, I'm not going to be doing much, if any, hardcore 3d rendering--I don't think. Will the throttling issues affect me in the Adobe CC programs, is my big question. From what I'm starting to gather, I don't think it will. Possibly in Premiere if I am rendering large video files or something. I'm also starting to see from posts that they feel the i7 model will be an easier sell and hold it's value better when I go to sell it in a couple of years. In posts so far, I'm not seeing a significant difference in battery between the i5/i7, but havent seen enough info on that topic yet. It looks like the i7 does heat up more, but many are posting this isn't an issue for them. Ugh.....still confused.

What I would love to know are some real world tests between the 8gb RAM i5 and i7 in Adobe. How long would each take to process 100 RAW images? Do you feel the pen feature reacts any differently between the 2 when drawing in Illustrator?---Stuttering? Lag? Rendering 10 mins of video in Premiere takes how long for each? Does throttling hinder these programs? I think if someone can show me that there are really no differences between the 2 doing these types of tasks, then I think I would be content with the i5. However, if there is truly a 20% performance gain doing these tasks, I would lean to the i7.

 

[bkydcmpr]

Ok then go buy another machine, you tried it and it didn't work for you, big deal. Go buy something that will, it happens. You bought a Lexus expecting it to be a Ferrari.

I like the car analog, and I used it many times.
I'm not beating up a lexus to run like ferrari, I'm asking a lexus ls accelerate faster than a lexus es, and don't fall behind the es in a long run. but many people keep saying they never had a problem to drive their lexus es to walmart for grocery shopping to prove I asked too much.

 

[ipaq_101]

I like the car analog, and I used it many times.
I'm not beating up a lexus to run like ferrari, I'm asking a lexus ls accelerate faster than a lexus es, and don't fall behind the es in a long run. but many people keep saying they never had a problem to drive their lexus es to walmart for grocery shopping to prove I asked too much.

So the SP3 doesn't meet your expectations, now what? What will?

 

[bkydcmpr]

So the SP3 doesn't meet your expectations, now what? What will?

I'll return it and check it out when sp4 come out, live with my thinkpad and sp1 combo for another 8 months.

 

[ipaq_101]

I'll return it and check it out when sp4 come out, live with my thinkpad and sp1 combo for another 8 months.

Have you tried the thinkpad yoga? I was considering that before the SP3 came out. I don't think it has the same thermal constraints as the SP3.

 

[Moonsurface]

I also considered the thinkpad yoga, but it's not enough of a tablet for me, and the aspect ratio of the screen is "wrong" too despite the massive resolution it offers. The very same reason I wouldn't consider a surface pro 2.

I can understand the frustration with many coming from surface pro 2 to 3. In a way it's like Microsoft should have called the pro 3 a different name, a different model as it's a different form factor from the previous two and many, like me will be first time adopters for that very reason as the appeal is different. For what I do having the extra screen height greatly helped in my decision over what to buy - plus as mentioned before the huge bonus of being able to lie the SP3 nearly right down and use it like a graphics tablet. I think I will make great use of the note-taking aspect too.

I'm still mega excited about getting my SP3 and still have to wait ages! If the performance ultimately doesn't meet my expectations I will of course be disappointed then I'll be forced to think about changing it for a laptop, but that's really not what I want, the SP3 is the nearest I can see to being my ideal device with the tablet advantage and note taking. The pro 2 while I think it's great, just isn't quite what I'd be interested in if the SP3 had to go back and I'd be back in a dilemma about what to get instead.