3,6 ghz i5 (dual core) or 2,93 ghz i7 (quad core)

[Ballis]

it comes down to these two for me. whitch one is the faster for plain tasks such as imovie, iphoto, handbrake etc? im guessing the i5 due to the faster clock but im not really sure. if anyone can help, ill be grateful!

 

[TMRaven]

A lot of those things are still single/dual threaded. The turbo boost on the quad core lynnfield is such that it reaches up to 3.6ghz while in turbo. When it comes to handbrake, the lynnfield is hands down the winner.

You really won't see a difference in the two aside from video encoding, in which the lynnfield is the winner.

Get the lynnfield. (quad core 2.93ghz i7)

 

[Ballis]

A lot of those things are still single/dual threaded. The turbo boost on the quad core lynnfield is such that it reaches up to 3.6ghz while in turbo. When it comes to handbrake, the lynnfield is hands down the winner.

You really won't see a difference in the two aside from video encoding, in which the lynnfield is the winner.

Get the lynnfield. (quad core 2.93ghz i7)

so the i7 actually does 3.6 ghz aswell (when needed)? and handbrake supports all 4 cores? just wanna make sure i dont get 2 extra cores i wont need and even sacrifice speed when doing so.

btw thanks for your answer.

 

[TMRaven]

Handbrake will support all 8 threads of the lynnfield. (4 physical cores and 4 pseudo cores)

 

[JayX]

The first thing I did on my i7 was run Handbrake, to compare it to my laptop on the same file.

I used a standard XviD DVDRip file (400mb/44min roughly) to convert it to an iPhone ready MP4 on handbrake's default iPhone template.

Late 2007 MBP, C2D 2.2ghz, 4GB RAM - averages around 35-40fps
Mid 2010 iMac i7 2.93ghz, 4GH RAM - averages around 240fps

I need to find someone with the i5 to compare it to. All 8 hyperthreaded cores were completely maxed out during this process... Handbrake is a fantastic example of why Snow Leopard kicks ass.

 

[aussie_geek]

so the i7 actually does 3.6 ghz aswell (when needed)? and handbrake supports all 4 cores? just wanna make sure i dont get 2 extra cores i wont need and even sacrifice speed when doing so.

btw thanks for your answer.

It depends on how many cores are active. It will only go to 3.6GHz when there is 1 core active.

When all 8 are going flat out the max speed is 3.2GHz.

It is plenty fast enough.

aussie_geek