Gaming Laptop CPU?

[buddha shoes]

Hello,

Looking at getting an Origin Eon17-X or Eon17-S to replace my current laptop. I need some advice on the CPU aspect of the purchase.

Eon17-S
Size: (W) 16.3" x (H) 1.8" x (D) 11.25"
Intel Core i7 4810MQ Quad-Core 2.80GHz (47w TDP)
Internal DVD-RW
nVidia GTX 970M

Eon17-X
Size: (W) 16.46" x (H) 1.52" x (D) 11.10"
Intel Core i5-4460S Quad-Core 2.9GHz (65w TDP)
External DVD-RW
nVidia GTX 970M

I like that that 17-X is a little more compact, and a little cheaper in the same config. I also think that I probably wouldn't use the optical drive much, and i it breaks, an external is easier to replace.

I expect I will play games like Dragon Age: Inquisition (which I hear is CPU-intensive), Dying Light, Civ V, Total War: Shogun 2, Total War: Rome II, Skyrim, Fallout 4 (if/when released).

I'm a bit worried about the increased heat of the 17-X's CPU. I can't seem to find anything online about heat issues with either.

Is the increased heat going to be a problem in a laptop?

 

[ninaholic37]

I've never seen a laptop with an "Intel Core i5-4460S Quad-Core 2.9GHz (65w TDP)" Desktop CPU (?) before. That's interesting. Apparently it's 8.6 pounds.

What laptop do you have now? I'm guessing it's not enough to play those games?

 

[buddha shoes]

I have a 4-year-old MacBook Pro. It can play some of those games, but it's getting near time to replace it.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Personally, I would go with the 17-S, with the true laptop cpu, for better thermals.

 

[Rakehellion]

I've never seen a laptop with an "Intel Core i5-4460S Quad-Core 2.9GHz (65w TDP)" Desktop CPU (?) before. That's interesting. Apparently it's 8.6 pounds.

What laptop do you have now? I'm guessing it's not enough to play those games?

I saw a laptop a while ago with a 6-core Xeon.

 

[myocardia]

I saw a laptop a while ago with a 6-core Xeon.

Some company, about 7 years ago, made a laptop using a desktop Q6600, and SLI 8800 GTXs. If I could remember the name of the company, I'd link it for you, but the name is now long gone into the void that at one time was my memory.

edit: It had less than a/roughly a 30 minute battery runtime, IIRC.

 

[Maximilian]

Buy a gaming desktop and a cheap laptop.

What? Someone has to be the voice of reason!

 

[Techhog]

Buy a gaming desktop and a cheap laptop.

What? Someone has to be the voice of reason!

Going from a MacBook to a cheap laptop is how you convince someone to never buy a non-Apple laptop again.

 

[Maximilian]

Going from a MacBook to a cheap laptop is how you convince someone to never buy a non-Apple laptop again.

Well yeah but cheap dosent have to be bad though. Buisness class stuff is decent and cheap sometimes, Dell latitude from the outlet store for example. HP probably have an equivalent but they would have to pay me to navigate their godawful website.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Well yeah but cheap dosent have to be bad though. Buisness class stuff is decent and cheap sometimes, Dell latitude from the outlet store for example. HP probably have an equivalent but they would have to pay me to navigate their godawful website.

If mobility is needed, it's really hard to beat a machine that can do it all.

 

[Techhog]

If mobility is needed, it's really hard to beat a machine that can do it all.

It would really be ideal if Thunderbolt could become common and fast enough to support a high-end enthusiast GPU. Best of both worlds.

 

[Techhog]

Oh, and to answer OP, I'd get the i7 for the hyperthreading, since the clock difference isn't really that big and more games are starting to benefit from more threads.

 

[buddha shoes]

Thanks, Techhog and frozentundra!

 

[Dufus]

The i7-4810MQ should support an extra unlocked 4 bins to give 4 cores @4GHz, 1 core at 4.2GHz if thermals and power draw can be handled.

Some company, about 7 years ago, made a laptop using a desktop Q6600, and SLI 8800 GTXs. If I could remember the name of the company, I'd link it for you, but the name is now long gone into the void that at one time was my memory.

edit: It had less than a/roughly a 30 minute battery runtime, IIRC.

If you have deep pockets and the need the Eurocom Panther 5 can be configured with a 12C/24T Xeon plus of course SLI GTX980m's which come with 8GB VRAM unlike the current desktop cards with 4GB should you have a need for that much VRAM or even an option for dual Quadro K5100M's. Really need the dual 330W PSU's (660W) to run heavy loads, the battery is really IMO only good for light loads.

 

[Valantar]

If mobility is needed, it's really hard to beat a machine that can do it all.

If mobility is needed, a 8-pound 17" laptop is an odd choice.


OP: Any Haswell quad core i7 would serve you fine - there are some performance differences between models, but you're talking perhaps 5-10% at best - not something that makes a difference in today's games. Focus on getting something with a decent cooling solution, that is the key element in any high performance laptop.