Question i5-8265u vs i7-8565u in Dell XPS 13 (2019). How much difference?

[omega3]

Intend to buy a new Dell XPS 13 2019 and have the choice between i5-8265u vs i7-8565u.

Can anybody tell me if you can see a difference in Chrome with 20 tabs open or not? And what about video editing? Some say the only difference is boost speed which you won't notice.

Also, when is it worth getting a version with 16 gigs of RAM vs 8 gigs? Does again having 20 tabs of Chrome open benefit from 16 gigs? So far never had a problem with 8 gigs on my older XPS 13.

Thanks for all good advice on the above questions.

 

[LTC8K6]

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=149091,149088

The chips are going to be pretty much identical in a laptop.

The ram is a matter of cost vs benefit, probably not worth the cost.

Make sure it has an SSD and not a mechanical drive.

 

[omega3]

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=149091,149088

The chips are going to be pretty much identical in a laptop.

The ram is a matter of cost vs benefit, probably not worth the cost.

Make sure it has an SSD and not a mechanical drive.

It's gonna have an SSD. Did you mean 16GB won't be a benifit even when editing videos cause with SSD swap file access is fast enough?

With my 3 year old XPS 13 (i7, 8GB) editing 1080p clips does seem to have quite some lag when the files are loading etc.

Another problem I have is when using Google Docs, multi page docs seem to load slow. Can 16GB speed this up?

 

[LTC8K6]

I mean you will need to decide about the ram, depending on the cost. It certainly won't hurt to have more.

What CPU did your previous XPS 13 have, and did it have an ssd?

 

[omega3]

I mean you will need to decide about the ram, depending on the cost. It certainly won't hurt to have more.

What CPU did your previous XPS 13 have, and did it have an ssd?

My 3 year old XPS 13 has a i7-6600U with 8GB RAM and SSD drive.
When using Videopad for vid editing I feel it's kinda slow.
However, when buying a new XPS 13, will i5 vs i7 and 8GB vs 16GB even matter when the graphics card is just an Intel 620? My old model had Intel 520.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

My 3 year old XPS 13 has a i7-6600U with 8GB RAM and SSD drive.
When using Videopad for vid editing I feel it's kinda slow.
However, when buying a new XPS 13, will i5 vs i7 and 8GB vs 16GB even matter when the graphics card is just an Intel 620? My old model had Intel 520.

The GPU doesn't do as much as you think it does. Don't sweat it.

 

[LTC8K6]

My 3 year old XPS 13 has a i7-6600U with 8GB RAM and SSD drive.
When using Videopad for vid editing I feel it's kinda slow.
However, when buying a new XPS 13, will i5 vs i7 and 8GB vs 16GB even matter when the graphics card is just an Intel 620? My old model had Intel 520.

6600u is only 2 cores, so the new 4 core i5 or i7 should have a decent advantage over it.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=88192,149091,149088

 

[omega3]

The GPU doesn't do as much as you think it does. Don't sweat it.

6600u is only 2 cores, so the new 4 core i5 or i7 should have a decent advantage over it.

So to which extend will 16GB v 8GB make a difference with video editing 1080p clips? When is 16GB useful?

Isn't it so that the graphics card also plays an important role in the performance of video editing software?

 

[LTC8K6]

The software company should have suggestions on ram and CPU and GPU for running the software, I'd think.

In general, more ram would be useful in video editing, but you are only at 1080P, so it may not be that big of a deal.

In general, more CPU cores are much better for video editing.

For the built in GPU speed, you want the fastest ram you can get and you want it running in dual channel mode.

If 8GB is one stick of ram, and 16GB is two sticks, I'd want 16GB because it gives me dual channel mode and much more memory bandwidth.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Isn't it so that the graphics card also plays an important role in the performance of video editing software?

Depends on the software, and it depends on what you mean when you say "performance" - some editing software uses the GPU to either encode for exports, or to render preview-mode for titles/effects and do playback in the editing preview window. But you'd also have to have a supported GPU. (Neither the 520 nor the 620 provides acceleration for Premiere, for instance.)

IME it works fine (no noticeable lag) without it as long as your scratch disk is an SSD and you have plenty of RAM/CPU to throw at it. But the most complicated video editing I do regularly is posting videos of my fish tank on Youtube and slicing up videos of my friend's kids' school concerts to cut out the boring speeches from the principal.

 

[fire400]

U processor and H processor are different CPU's.

U is pretty weak compared to the H, U is an ultra low voltage CPU variant.

It will barely make a different with 16GB of RAM, as the processor will hold it back anyway, in terms of system performance.

If you're editing video, recommend a laptop with H-level i7 and discreet graphics and NVME SSD.
Great way for NVME to really shine, is to make sure that the Windows environment is on a fresh OS install and useless background apps turned off.

Try even light gaming on a U-processor and Intel graphics, it's pretty terrible in my opinion.

Battery life may take a hit as well when upgrading beyond U processors.

Might as well remote access a desktop with an i7 CPU to perform data crunching if you're needing to offload work and must get a low voltage CPU on a laptop.

 

[cfenton]

I'd go with the i5 with 16gb of RAM. The speed difference between the i5 and the i7 would be pretty small. You can never have too much RAM, especially if it's soldered to the board (I don't know if it is on the XPS).

Though, if you plan to do a lot of video editing, it's probably worth looking at an XPS 15 (assuming you want to stick with Dell) with a more powerful CPU and better cooling.

 

[UNCjigga]

If you plan to use your laptop for more than 3 years, don't buy anything less than 16GB RAM/512 SSD. Costco is a good place to get the XPS 13 in that configuration (thought I've only seen that with the i7 and not the i5.)

 

[omega3]

Thanks to everybody for all the good feedback.

Something I forget to mention, but is SmartCache important for Chrome or video editing?

The i5 has 6MB SmartCache, where the i7 has 8MB SmartCache. Does that make a real life difference or not?

Also, the i5 is only availabe with 8GB of RAM in Belgium where I live. Only the more expensive i7 has 16GB of RAM. All come with an SDD.

Still don't know when 16GB of RAM is going to be benificial over 8GB in an XPS 13? Hope somebody can maybe explain that a bit more. Thanks again!

 

[omega3]

If you plan to use your laptop for more than 3 years, don't buy anything less than 16GB RAM/512 SSD. Costco is a good place to get the XPS 13 in that configuration (thought I've only seen that with the i7 and not the i5.)

Interesting point as I intend to keep the new laptop multiple years, but why exactly is it than important to get 16GB RAM?

 

[fire400]

The U-Processors are so weak compared to same generation H-level or Desktop processors, they'll be at the mercy of the SSD and amount of RAM when performing heavy multitasking.

If it can be afforded, and you'll be using it a lot, opt for the powerhouse. We're in 2019 as of this post, not 2009, where 4GB/8GB of RAM was considered the norm back then.
1999, it was 128mb if you got a good deal on SDRAM..
1989, 4mb!