Macbook pro 13" i5 or i7?

[Stevholm]

Hello.
I was wondering if someone can help me make up my mind if i should buy the macbook 13" i5 core or the i7 one.
I'm using my laptop for gaming and school.
The game im mostly playing is Heroes of Newerth, so i hoped that someone could help me pick which one i should choose - and if it's worth the extra money buying the i7 Core.

Greetings

 

[kalsta]

As you probably know, neither 13" model has a dedicated GPU, so serious gamers tell us they're not terribly well suited to gaming. Aside from that, I should think either would be a fantastic computer for school. If you had the money and didn't mind the larger screen, you could certainly look at the 15" models, but otherwise I'd probably save my money and go for the cheapest 13".

 

[Stevholm]

well i've got a couple of friends playing the exact game on the i5 one.
They are telling me it runs alright, but sometimes they expirenced a little lag.

So do you think, buying the i7 would make it lag less or even better not lag at all?

 

[mape2k]

So do you think, buying the i7 would make it lag less or even better not lag at all?

Depends if the bottleneck is the CPU or GPU. I am assuming it is the GPU, so you would feel no difference between i7 and i5, as they both have the same GPU chip.

IF the CPU is limiting performance, then you would very well have better performance with the i7.

EDIT: It seems the i7 has a slightly higher GPU base clock rate of 1300 Mhz compared to 1100 Mhz on the i5. How that translates into practical performance is not know to me though.

Reference

 

[kalsta]

Like mape2k said, if the problem is with Intel's integrated graphics, you could easily spend the extra $300 and see no improvement, and then I imagine you'd be quite disappointed.

You could always ask at an Apple Store about return policies if you're not happy with performance.

The 15" models should have no problem, but I take it they're out of your price range?

 

[gpat]

Just get the i5. i7 overheats way too much and is not worth the extra cash. That game will get handled by the HD3000 just fine, requirements-wise. If you have extra cash, get a 7200rpm hard drive.

 

[ThaDoggg]

The i7 won't be better at running that game. As a result, either get a 15" MBP if you want to do serious gaming or just go with the i5.

 

[FOX160]

Just buy the 13 inch base model and with the cash saved buy
a gaming console for hard core games.