Can anyone tell me the Quad-core(gaming) speeds of the i5-7300HQ and the i7-7700HQ? Couldn't find on Internet

[Souvik Chatterjee]

I am slightly confused between the ULV series of processors and the HQ processors.
So which one is better i5-7300HQ or I7-8550u
i5 7300HQ goes from 2.5GHz to 3.5ghz.
Whereas the i7-8550u goes upto 4.0 Ghz.
The quad core speed of the 8550u is 3.7ghz. But I think the ULV series of processors is not ideal for gaming.
Kindly place your views on this.
Thanks in advance.

 

[dudeman509]

U series processors are 15W TDP (usually) with much lower clockspeeds and performance. Generally, they were not advisable for a gaming system.

However, 8th generation brought 4-core U series CPUs with high turbo boost speeds. So, in most benchmarks, and if the laptop can maintain turbo boost, that i7-8550u will beat the older 7300HQ in most scenarios.

For a true gaming laptop, you'd probably want to look at the i7-7700HQ or i7-8750H. You can find laptops with those and a 1050/1050ti GPU in the 8-900 range.

 

[shmoochie]

The i7 is a way more efficient chip (15W tdp) vs the i5 (45W tdp). They will probably perform super similarly in gaming, but the i7 will be better for multitasking because of the extra threads. The i7 has a bigger cache, but a slower bus speed. The i7 actually wins out on single core processing and multi core processing, and it has built in settings to change the base frequency to 2.0 instead of 1.8 and the tdp to 25 instead of 15. Oh and it has a higher turbo clock.

I say go for the i7.

 

[TJ Hooker]

It's not so much the chip itself as the type of laptop that chip is likely to be in. ULV parts are more likely to be in thin/light laptops with limited cooling so they often won't be able to sustain their boost clocks.

So with perfect cooling, the i7 8550u is handily better than the 7300HQ. In practice, it's possible the 7300HQ would operate at a higher frequency in sustained loads if the laptop it's in has good cooling.

The 8550u has 4 more threads than the 7300HQ due to hyperthreading.

 

[Souvik Chatterjee]

But can you tell me the Quad Core Frequency of the i5-7300HQ and the i7-7700HQ.
i5 is clocked at max turbo of 3.5ghz and the i7 at 3.8ghz. But how many cores is what I'm unaware of.
I have shortlisted 2 laptops, one with the i5 has the 2gb GTX 1050 Which comes at around 51,000 Indian rupees.
And the one with the i7 has GTX 1050 Ti, with 4GB VRAM priced at 70,000 Rupees.
And my question is, should I go for the latter, just because I need more frames in some modern titles or the i5 will do the trick, being more cost efficient. Some games that I usually prefer are like Far cry 4, AC Syndicate, Unity,GTA 5,Witcher 3, Ryse son of Rome, and many more.
Thanks for your reply. Appreciate your patience.

 

[dudeman509]

I would get the i7u w/ 1050ti. It's just the better laptop.

Here are multi-core turbo boost speeds for the i7-8550u:
https://www.techspot.com/review/1500-intel-8th-gen-core-quad-core-ultrabooks/

 

[shmoochie]

the i5 has 4 cores, the i7 has 4 cores and 8 threads. Pretty much all of the games you play will benefit from the extra threads and extra vram on the gpu (from the i7).

Tj Hooker is right though. Temps could make a big difference. If you do get the i7, you might consider undervolting it so that it can hold a higher frequency for longer. A cooling pad might help when you are gaming too.

 

[TJ Hooker]

All core turbo for the 8550u is 3.7 GHz as per the article @dudeman509 linked. All core turbos for 7300HQ and 7700HQ are 3.1 and 3.4 GHz, respectively.
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core%20i5%20i5-7300HQ.html
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core%20i7%20i7-7700HQ.html

As I said above, you are not guaranteed to actually reach the max turbo clocks for sustained loads (i.e. gaming).

Why are you asking about the 8550u though, it seems like it isn't one of the options you're considering?

 

[gaborbarla]

Hi,

Lets take a 7700k desktop CPU as our gaming benchmarks. You can see here:

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-7300HQ/3647vsm223877
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-7700HQ/3647vsm211019
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-8550U/3647vsm320742

that these CPUs perform similarly to each other in games, and significantly worse than a 7700k desktop version.
If this is a big concern then I would suggest that you get a laptop with a 7700k (yes quite a few does exists) but they will are quite expensive and one has to keep all these gaming laptops plugged in because gaming runs down battery very fast.

For me even a bigger concern is a good GPU in a gaming laptop. GPUs can generate even more heat than a high end CPU in a proper gaming laptop. A GTX 1080 laptop will pretty much always outperform a GTX 1050 laptop, even if the 1050 laptop has a faster CPU. The difference would be staggering in the favour of the gtx1080 as the bottleneck is 90% of the time the GPU and not the CPU.
Hope this helps.
Gabor

 

[Souvik Chatterjee]

But my budget is restricted to the i7-7700hq and Gtx 1050 Ti.
I can either choose the i5 or i7 both with gtx 1050 gpus.
All the laptops with i7-8550u and gtx 1050 gpus is not affordable for me. They are priced at 80k+
Thanks for your response, I will stick to the 7700hq and Gtx 1050 Ti
Regards Souvik

 

[gaborbarla]

But my budget is restricted to the i7-7700hq and Gtx 1050 Ti.
I can either choose the i5 or i7 both with gtx 1050 gpus.
All the laptops with i7-8550u and gtx 1050 gpus is not affordable for me. They are priced at 80k+
Thanks for your response, I will stick to the 7700hq and Gtx 1050 Ti
Regards Souvik

If you can stretch your budget to a 1060 laptop I would do so, they are significantly faster and will have much better longevity for games, if that is a main concern for you.

 

[ajjaatar.tech]

The U product line of processors are usually 15w tdp (thermal design power - meaning, these processors are allowed to output 15w at max unless the manufacturer of the laptop has allowed it to perform at 25w, given the CPU can operate at 25w)

However, the HQ product line of processors are usually 45w parts, so theoretically these processors are supposed to output 45w vs u processors (8550u in your case) which outputs 15w.

Regardless 8550u cpus are fine but are not suitable for heavy gaming or cpu heavy tasks as these cpus cant hold their higher clock speeds for extended periods. But since this cpu can hit 4.0 ghz (single core only, also can hit around 3.7 ghz all 4 core turbo from what I have heard) for short bursts, these are great for normal desktop/application/office/webBrowser use. Also, these are fine for gaming if paired with a geforce mx150 gpu. And since this cpu has 8 threads, its great for content creators and multitasking.

And in the case of 7300hq cpus, these are fine for heavy gaming, given the laptop has a good design to dissipate the heat produced by the cpu. From what i have read from reddit posts by users of laptops with 7300hq cpus, the average 4 core turbo speeds are around 3.1 ghz (3.5 ghz single core). The cpu can usually hold this speed but will drop the clocks after a while if the cooling in the laptop isn't adequate and very importantly if there is power limit throttling (this is very important, many laptops suffer from this). So if you find laptops that u want to buy, first check from reviews or articles if the cpu (7300hq or whatever) suffers from power limit throttling in that specific model of laptop. there are many websites that will give you this information.

7700hq - single core turbo would be at 3.80 ghz and all core turbo would be around 3.40. And this has 8 threads. This would be better than both 7300hq and 8550u.

All in all, if you want a laptop to play games, and u are choosing between a 8550u and 7300hq, 7300hq will be a better choice as its quad core performance will be better than that of a 8550u. But, a 8550u will give you great single core performance for daily use, and its good for content creation and multitasking as I said before.