Difference in the daily use between core i5 and i7

[Lucagfc]

Hi

I'm about to buy new 27" iMac. I am undecided between the two quad core models. There are big differences in the daily use between the two? worth spending more for the Core i7.

Thanks and sorry for my bad english

[C64]

Hi,

There are a lot of topics about this already. But to sum it up: for daily use (i.e. mail, browsing, IM, music, photos, videos, etc.) the C2D will do just fine. Having a QC won't change the experience for these things that much, and the difference between the i5 and i7 is basically not noticeable.

You'll only see a difference when you're working with heavier applications, work with HD videos or really high resolution photos/canvasses in Photoshop, do heavy encoding work, etc. In that case you will definitely notice the QC power. But between the two it'll come down to doing something in e.g. 50 minutes with the i7 in stead of 60 minutes with the i5.

Graphs are nice, but in most cases you really won't notice the extra power. If you can afford it, want the best available at this time and —maybe— gain some extra speed in the future when and if Hyper-threading actually starts making a difference: go for the i7.

The i5 is still the best bang for your buck though. Despite what graphs like these might suggest, it will handle everything you throw at just as good as the i7. It'll come down to those few more minutes with heavier tasks. All the other stuff you're doing the rest of the time: no (noticeable) difference. And you can use the $200 or so difference for more RAM or a bigger HD.



Edit: another thing to consider. Let's jump ahead a time a few years and everything is bigger, better and heavier. By the time you start to notice that the i5 just isn't cutting it anymore, the i7 will have the same problems. At that time having the i7 in stead of the i5 really won't make that much of a difference, and you'll be looking at whatever is next anyways.

[MovieCutter]

Originally Posted by Lucagfc

Hi
There are big differences in the daily use between the two?

Unless your daily use includes heavy transcoding....none

[cmvsm]

You probably won't see a big difference in the day to day stuff. However, whenever the iMacs are updated again, you can probably bet that the i7 will still be on the listing, and probably remain in the next update after that. The i5 won't make the next update, so you are already dating your investment over a measly $180 (educational).

[53x12]

Originally Posted by cmvsm

The i5 won't make the next update, so you are already dating your investment over a measly $180 (educational).

What does this mean that the i5 won't make the next update?

[lca355]

That's a really good post C64. I'm kind of sitting on the fence between i5 and i7. nice to know i'm not missing out on that much if I go i5.

[SOLLERBOY]

Judging by the PC World benchmarks the i7 is only one second quicker unzipping a 2gb file and this minor boost is also represented elsewhere. It seems that in real world use it's a difference of seconds for small tasks and maybe 10 minutes for a large video encode.

[Lucagfc]

First of all thank you all for your valuable advice!

I am sure that there is NO great difference in performance between the two

I would like to keep the computer for about 2 years and perhaps i7 will be easier to sell when the times come

I want to order the computer today but I can not decide!!

[Lucagfc]

I've made my decision: I ordered an iMac 27" Core i7. I chose the i7 because this time I keep the computer for longer so I took the most CPU performance and will therefore be most durable and retains his price.

I hope that does not present any of the problems that I read on the forum

Thanks to everyone for the advice

[cmvsm]

Originally Posted by 53x12

What does this mean that the i5 won't make the next update?

Maybe that's an exaggeration. The i5 might simply move to the low end position on the next update, with the i7 moving to the current i5 offering. The Core 2 Duos will most likely not be a choice I'd venture to say.

[Jiten]

I'm pretty sure that the i5 will probably trickle down to the mid to lower end in the next few iMac updates but not totally gone.

[Lucagfc]

I think that i7 will reamin in Apple Lineup for more time the i5. In this casi, probably, when i want to sell it probably i7 is easier to sell. These are all guesses of course.

P.S. sorry for my english

[eelpout]

Originally Posted by MovieCutter

Unless your daily use includes heavy transcoding....none

yep and Apple makes a nice extra $100 off ya just on the pricing on the i7 CPU.

I did a search for hyperthreading advantages and Java recently because I use a photo app that uses a Java engine and was curious. Came up with this benchmark. Like the author says, "meh."

[kjkoster]

Dear eelpout,

Please note that I did that benchmark on an old P4 box. I never claimed that this test carries over to the modern crop of hyperthreading processors. As I stated in the article: "Now all I need is someone to throw me a free Intel Nehalem machine to test the new crop of hyper-threaded processors. :-)"

Sooo.... can I borrow yours? :-)

Kees Jan