i5 4200u performance -- cs major

[Ryan D]

planning on majoring in computer science and have my eyes on an aspire v7 w/ i5 4200u and 750m graphics. will this be sufficient?

 

[aloof11]

The i5 isnt really a bad CPU, its quite good actually for being a low wattage CPU, but its not really designed for performance more so battery life (due to the low wattage).

Depending on what you are doing it probably will be sufficient but having a M letter i5 CPU (like a i5 4200M etc) would offer you better performance, the U version might struggle a bit in more intensive tasks unlike M version though it wont have much problem in light tasks and should be decent to good in "medium" level tasks as well. So its not really bad but having a M version or a i7 would be better (unless you are more interested in battery life)

And the GPU should allow for medium settings in most games (depending on what resolution the laptop is, guessing its 1333x768)

 

[jaguarskx]

It should be decent. the i5-4200u is clocked at 1.6GHz standard speed, but Turbo Boost can increase the clockspeed to 2.6GHz if only one core is used or 2.3GHz if both cores are used (most cases). 2.3GHz is pretty respectable for a ULV (ultra low voltage) CPU. The great thing about it is it helps prolong battery life.

I recently fixed up a 15.6" Dell Latitude 3540 laptop which uses the i5-4200u CPU. It is comparable to the i5-2410m (2.3GHz / 2.9GHz Turbo Boost) in my 14" Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 when Turbo Boost is activated. Looking at a watt meter (Kill-A-Watt) the Dell 3540 uses about 12w - 13w when idling compared to about 23w for the Lenovo Y470; both screens set to 60% brightness. Probably could have lowered the Dell to 50% brightness since the screen is brighter than the Lenovo.

When the battery is fully charged Power Manager basically report about 10 hours left for the Dell vs. 4 hours for the Lenovo. I have not actually tested how long the battery last on the Dell, however, I did test the actual battery life for the Lenovo back in 2011 when I wrote an extensive review. Average "normal usage" was about 3 hours and 45 minutes based on 8 test runs doing different things (no gaming).

If battery life is what you are after then the i5-4200u seems to be pretty good. If you want better performance, then go for a "m" model CPU instead of the "u" model CPU.

 

[jaguarskx]

The GT 750m is generally good enough for medium quality graphics at 1600x900 resolution for many, but not all, modern games with decent performance (roughly 30 - 35 FPS).