Is Core i3-3217U (3M cache 1.8 ghz with UMA) equivalent or better than Core2Duo

[ujai]

Is Core i3-3217U (3M cache 1.8 ghz with UMA) equivalent or better than Core2Duo P8700 2.54 Ghz? I have the core2duo which has been troubling me off and on for the past 4 years. Now Dell is sending a replacement laptop with the above mentioned Corei3 1.8 ghz processor. Both with 4GB RAM but mine has 6 cell battery and the Corei3 has 4 cell battery. Please advise ASAP.

 

[jaguarskx]

The Core i3-3217U is likely going to be marginally slower than the C2D. The generally accepted average generational performance increase is:

C2D / C2Q -> 1st gen Core i = 10%
1st gen Core i -> 2nd gen = 12%
2nd gen -> 3rd gen = 6%

Therefore, a 3rd gen Core i3 CPU is on average about 30.6% more powerful than the Core 2 Duo CPU at the same clockspeed. This means the Core i3-3217U @ 1.8GHz is about equal to a C2D CPU @ 2.35GHz.

The two benefits are:

1. Lower power consumption which is why the new laptop ships with a 4 cell battery. Will that mean it will last just as long on battery as your old laptop? Maybe. Maybe not.

2. More powerful integrated graphics. The Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics core is a major step up in performance compared to many basic graphic chips back in 2008. I will assume you have a Dell Latitude E6400 with a nVidia Quadro NVS 160M. It will allow you to play some current games with modest settings.


In general, it should be a comparable replacement. The approximate 200MHz difference in performance should not be too much of a concern. The replacement will hopefully come with a new warranty. Overall, the laptop should be slimmer and a bit lighter (the i3-3217U CPU is typically used in Ultrabooks). Lastly, it has a more powerful graphic core; but this only really matters if you have any aspirations of playing games modestly.

 

[ujai]

The Core i3-3217U is likely going to be marginally slower than the C2D. The generally accepted average generational performance increase is:
2. More powerful integrated graphics. The Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics core is a major step up in performance compared to many basic graphic chips back in 2008. I will assume you have a Dell Latitude E6400 with a nVidia Quadro NVS 160M. It will allow you to play some current games with modest settings.

Thank you for your response Jag, and I currently have an inspiron 1545. I do use it for corel draw/photoshop and some video editing. My current extended AMC and warranty is valid until May 2014 and it will also be applicable to the replacement machine.
What if I ask them to match the clock speed, or double the RAM with 6 cell battery?

 

[jaguarskx]

It really depends on which laptop Dell is offering you. You can argue that you are concerned about the difference in clockspeed. Without knowing anything about CPU architecture advances over the years a 700MHz difference would seem to be a huge difference in performance. Perhaps the may offer the i3-3227U instead which is 100MHz faster @ 1.9MHz. That would make it equivalent to a 2.48GHz C2D CPU. But that will only happen if it is one of the optional upgrades.

In terms of video editing, you should actually see an improvement in performance. The Core i3 has Hyper Threading (HT) which can improve performance as long as the video editing program you use can take advantage of HT; most current ones can. The performance increase depends on how well it has been implemented. It could be anywhere from a 10% - 40% improvement compared to a CPU without HT.

Photoshop does benefit from HT as well as shown in the following benchmarks. However, not sure about Corel Draw.

http/www.anandtech.com/show/2832/11

As it stands, it does seem that the Core i3 should provide you equal if not better performance than your old C2D CPU as long as Hyper Threading can be utilized.

If you encode DVD movies or Blu-Ray movies using the x.264 codec, then you should read the following linked article about Quick Sync which can improve encoding performance as long as you use a video encoding program compatible with Quick Sync.

http/www.anandtech.com/show/5771/the-intel-ivy-bridge-core-i7-3770k-review/21


All in all, I think you are getting a more capable laptop with the i3-3217U CPU. Of course if you can manage to get a better CPU (if available), more RAM or larger capacity battery (if available) by playing dumb, then all the better. Of the three a faster CPU is generally preferred because that is the single component you will likely not be able to upgrade yourself. Plus even if you could, it would be the most expensive component to upgrade. RAM is the cheapest to upgrade yourself.

 

[ujai]

Now I asked Dell to provide me a credit note, which they are wit a 15% depreciation on my original purchase price as my system is 4 years old. Now I have finalized a vostro laptop with the below specs, and the dell sales rep says that I would be able to run adobe premier pro/ avid video editor on this:

Processor 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3632QM processor (6M Cache, up to 3.2 GHz) [8K9C6]

Operating System Ubuntu 12.04 [UBUNTU-NEW]

Memory 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM AT 1600MHz-1X4GB [5023749]
Video Card AMD Radeon™ HD 7670M 1GB DDR3 for ICC [VH9P6]

Hard Drive 500GB 7200RPM SATA HDD Drive for ICC [ICCPHR4J]

Optical Drive 12.7" SATA tray load DVD+/-RW [5023813]

Dell Services: Hardware Support 1 Year Next Business Day Onsite Service [I2VN2NBD1]
Wireless Driver Driver for Dell Wireless 1703/1704 [M1V46]
Keyboard Dell(TM) Backlight Chiclet Keyboard with Multi-touch Touchpad (English) [W8-019HT]

Color Kits: Aberdeen Silver LCD Cover for ICC [ICC-SILVER]

I think, I would upgrade RAM to maximum from aftermarket (8/16/32) as it has two slots and they are sending 4gbx1
What do you say?

 

[jaguarskx]

It's a big improvement over your original laptop and the replacement laptop that you were going to get. And yeah, I would upgrade the RAM to 8GB. 16GB if you work with very large Photoshop files.