i5 vs i7 is the i7 worth it?

M

mattmertz77

macrumors member
The laptop I'm looking at buying has the following specs

2.8 GHz i7 turbo boost to 3.3 GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM
512GB PCIe storage

is it worth it adding the extra $200 for an i7? I'm gonna be using it for music production and schoolwork. Thanks!
 
According to benchmarks and some quick napkin math, the 2.6GHz i5 is about 7% faster than the 2.4GHz i5, and the 2.8GHz i7 is only about 3% faster than the 2.6GHz i5.

I'd stick with the 2.6GHz i5 and bump your RAM up to 16GB.
 
Not sure it's worth 200$ but the i7 has hyper-threading which can have a significant advantage when it comes to music production.
 
paolo- said:
Not sure it's worth 200$ but the i7 has hyper-threading which can have a significant advantage when it comes to music production.
Click to expand...

The i5 models also have hyperthreading. The i7 is clocked slightly higher and has 1MB more cache.
 
paolo- said:
Not sure it's worth 200$ but the i7 has hyper-threading which can have a significant advantage when it comes to music production.
Click to expand...

All the mobile dual core i5s are hyper-threaded.

I'd go i5 and spend the extra cash on RAM or a bigger SSD.
 
My friend has a 13" Retina 16GB 2.8GHz for music production. It can slow down sometimes. I would strongly recommend the 15" for full quad core aka 8 threads. If you are doing professional music production it would suit you better. I would wait too for the next gen if you're going to be dropping that kind of money 2.5k and up.
 
T5BRICK said:
The i5 models also have hyperthreading. The i7 is clocked slightly higher and has 1MB more cache.
Click to expand...

The cache may have a bigger impact than the clock speed depending on what you're doing. But both are going to be hard to detect unless you are maxing out CPU load. Got for the i5.
 
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