i3 vs Core 2 Duo. Which one is really better??

[Firefighter]

Hello everybody,

I just changed my laptop. My old laptop (HP2230s) has Core 2 Duo T5870 that runs at 2.00Ghz and has 2 MB L2 Cache. It has a WEI index of 5.0 (windows 7)

My NEW Laptop, (Lenovo Thinkpad T420i) which has i3 2310m, that runs at 2.10Ghz and has 3M Cache. The WEI index is only 3.4!

My older laptop (Thinkpad x61) which has Core 2 Duo, T8100 has a better WEI Score.

I wanna ask, why are my previous laptops are better than my new laptop? Everything else in my new laptop are better than my old ones. (graphics, hdd, RAM) etc...

Also I really notice the speed of the i3. For example:

When I have powerpoint open and watching a HD video on youtube, the video lags. When I try to move things around, scroll in powerpoint, it lags and sometimes freezes. I don't know why because I'm pretty sure that my laptop is fast enough for basic office applications. Why is this happening?

It's not my HDD speed because it runs at 7200 RPM. I also have enough RAM. I have 4GB DDR3 1600MHz.

Please help please!

 

[DavidE]

Here's a few tutorials that can help with performance issues.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219576-clean-up-factory-bloatware.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[bobkn]

If you believe this:

PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs

the I3-2310M ought to be much better that either of the older CPUs.

I don't know what your problem might be. Performance settings (in the Power control panel)? Do you have a lot of crapware running?

 

[Firefighter]

I put it in High Performance/Maximum performance mode whenever possible. I just installed the programs I need for school. CS6, Office. And other programs like chrome and skype. No games. I really don't know why. My previous laptops, the component that has the lowest WEI score was the graphics. But now, it's my CPU!

I really don't know what happened. Is it a hardware issure or a software issue?

 

[Firefighter]

Even on the passmark website, my i3 is nearly one time better than my core 2 duos. What else could affect my performance. Because a simple HD video will lag my computer. Outrageous!

 

[DavidE]

Have you tried re-running WEI?
Sometimes scores can change with a re-run.
WEI scores aren't all that meaningful imho.
But if you have performance issues, that is a problem...
Have you looked at the tutorials?

 

[ELiTEFX]

Even on the passmark website, my i3 is nearly one time better than my core 2 duos. What else could affect my performance.

The biggest bottleneck on any PC is the hard drive read/write speed. switch to a name brand 550/510 or higher SSD main system drive......

 

[bobkn]

Even on the passmark website, my i3 is nearly one time better than my core 2 duos. What else could affect my performance.

The biggest bottleneck on any PC is the hard drive read/write speed. switch to a name brand 550/510 or higher SSD main system drive......

Do you think that'll give a major change in the WEI for the CPU?

Pfui.

 

[ELiTEFX]

Do you think that'll give a major change in the WEI for the CPU?

I had to figure out what WEI was. I didn't know anybody actually used it. Just ran mine for the first time. I always refer to the Passmark scores. Passmark is in the benchmark business.
Anyhoo, No, an SSD will not help the CPU score. The OP should remember that an i3 processor is not intended for high performance. It's just a dual core value processor low wattage good bang for the buck.
I wouldn't spend another minute thinking about benchmarks. As long as he's happy with his laptop and it gets the job done, that's all that really matters.....

 

[theveterans]

Check your Thinkpad power manager. Make sure that your thinkpad power manager is set to High Performance. Power manager softwares always override Windows 7 power plan so make sure your power is set to high performance in the thinkvantage power manager and the run the WEI.

 

[boogieboy]

i guess i3 2nd Gens beats even Core2Quads at some points

 

[vaidas3]

Do you think that'll give a major change in the WEI for the CPU?

I had to figure out what WEI was. I didn't know anybody actually used it. Just ran mine for the first time. I always refer to the Passmark scores. Passmark is in the benchmark business.
Anyhoo, No, an SSD will not help the CPU score. The OP should remember that an i3 processor is not intended for high performance. It's just a dual core value processor low wattage good bang for the buck.
I wouldn't spend another minute thinking about benchmarks. As long as he's happy with his laptop and it gets the job done, that's all that really matters.....

that is not true at all..i5 is high end and i7 is overpriced CPUs for enthusiast that want to brag about or do some serious cpu intensive work and want to do it faster.
i3 is good mid range processor it should run HD videos and other software and even some games with HD3000 with no problem its faster than older generation quad cores.. value CPUs are pentium and celeron and even sandy bridge pentiums and celerons sometimes beats old generation core mid range or so cpus.

There is some software (or even hardware) problems if i3 can not play HD video.
please you check your device manager is all the hardware recognized correctly.. are the drivers up to date?
did you tried clean reinstall as suggested?

to answer question i3 is better than core 2 duo.. and sometimes a lot better.

 

[Firefighter]

Hello everybody. I finally found the solution. Before, I ran the WEI test without the battery inserted into the laptop. Now, I have ran the test while the battery was inserted into the laptop.

Now, my processor has a WEI score of 6.4. That's 3 (levels?) higher than before. I didn't try the performance test yet. Like playing HD videos and using powerpoint. But at least the score is more reasonable now!

 

[Firefighter]

Seems that if you insert your battery into thinkpads while using the AC adaptor, you will get higher performance. Because I have the 65W adaptor. Unlike some people, who have the 90W ones. The 65W ones come with laptops with i3 or below (i think). The 90W ones come with the laptops with i7.

 

[bobkn]

Hello everybody. I finally found the solution. Before, I ran the WEI test without the battery inserted into the laptop. Now, I have ran the test while the battery was inserted into the laptop.

Now, my processor has a WEI score of 6.4. That's 3 (levels?) higher than before. I didn't try the performance test yet. Like playing HD videos and using powerpoint. But at least the score is more reasonable now!

That seems odd.

I'd expect the CPU to be scaled back when you're running on battery only, but to run flat out when the charger is attached.

It sounds like something is a little funky in your Power (control panel) settings.

 

[theveterans]

at vaidas3 [/QUOTE]that is not true at all..i5 is high end and i7 is overpriced CPUs for enthusiast that want to brag about or do some serious cpu intensive work and want to do it faster.[/QUOTE]

For desktop Intel CPUs, that may true since the difference between desktop i5 and i7 is just HyperThreading. But in the case of laptop CPUs, i7 is a very huge upgrade and well worth the upgrade price over an i3 since you get extra 2 cores with 2 Hyperthreading threads plus the Turbo Boost feature of the i5. laptop i3 is weak since they don't have turbo boost. So when you look at benchmarks of laptop i7 against a laptop i3, don't be surprised that the i7 is more than 2.5 times faster than the i3. I am only comparing normal voltage CPUs not low voltage or ULV.

 

[vaidas3]

For desktop Intel CPUs, that may true since the difference between desktop i5 and i7 is just HyperThreading. But in the case of laptop CPUs, i7 is a very huge upgrade and well worth the upgrade price over an i3 since you get extra 2 cores with 2 Hyperthreading threads plus the Turbo Boost feature of the i5. laptop i3 is weak since they don't have turbo boost. So when you look at benchmarks of laptop i7 against a laptop i3, don't be surprised that the i7 is more than 2.5 times faster than the i3. I am only comparing normal voltage CPUs not low voltage or ULV.

I do work with my laptop and do other multimedia tasks like video, music, etc. even some light gaming is ok.. I dont buy laptop to run synthetic benchamarks.. can tell that from experience, i3 is quite good it should not lag with HD videos and even some rendering.
even sandy bridge celeron was good for thoose tasks no seriously.. It was enough for some HD video conferencing, HD movies, net surfing, mail, word processing.
and it felt quite snappy (after I buy laptop always do clean reinstall, because there is lot of bloatware preinstaled)

 

[theveterans]

I agree with you. But my point earlier is that the pricing for Intel laptop i7 CPUs is reasonable, not overpriced (except the Extreme and the fastest non-Extreme editions). I myself have a netbook with Sandy Bridge Celeron 877 CPU ULV @ 1.4 GHz and it is definitely snappy. It can play HD videos while even doing an antivirus scan since the HD video is hardware accelerated by the HD 2000 graphics. I get less than 20% CPU when playing H.264 1080p videos though editing 1080p AVCHD is a PITA. (No GPU Acceleration so everything is CPU processed and it jumps to 100% CPU and scrubbing is jumpy and playback on the editing program is choppy). I heard even Core 2 Quads struggle with AVCHD too. You need an i7 quad core laptop or i5 desktop CPU to edit AVCHD using RAW CPU power. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a program that utilizes GPU acceleration for editing. Note that Intel Quicksync is for converting videos and not for adding effects to videos (basically editing videos). CPU does all the work for those.