Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

cpu clock

Sep 8, 2018 12:24AM PDT

hello
is it better to buy a laptop with 1.8 - 4 gHz cpu or a laptop with 2.8 - 3.8 gHz cpu?
thanks for answering...

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: CPU clock
Sep 8, 2018 12:45AM PDT

- What CPU's are you comparing?
- Did you look at benchmarks?

- Collapse -
cpu type
Sep 8, 2018 1:04AM PDT

intel 8550u 1.8-4 gHz
intel 7700hq 2.8-3.8 gHz
i checked the cpu.userbenchmark.com and found that these 2 cpu s are almost equal in benchmark.

- Collapse -
Re: almost equal
Sep 8, 2018 1:52AM PDT

Then the question might be: apart from speed, what other criteria do you have for "better", such as
- value for money (choose the cheapest then)
- power consumption (choose the one that uses less electricity then)
- embedded graphics (if they have, I didn't check, choose the one with the best graphics then)
- best protection against meltdown and other threads (if they differ in this respect)
- compatibility with your motherboard (choose the one that is compatible then)

- Collapse -
cooling down and normal performance issue
Sep 8, 2018 2:08AM PDT

actually these 2 cpu s are for 2 different laptops and i want to buy one of them.
there is no money problem and the graphic cards are the same.
so i want to know that the first cpu ( i mean intel 8550u 1.8-4 gHz ) would get too hot while multiprocessing or no?
and while multiprocessing (such as watching video and internet surfing ) does this cpu need to boost for almost every time or it can handle that with 1.8 gHz clock?
thanks for answering.

- Collapse -
Too hot?
Sep 8, 2018 7:51AM PDT

All current designs throttle to avoid issues of too hot and it gets more complicated to explain as there are CPU cores that can run at lower speeds so in this case I think we are overanalyzing. My wife has a very new i7 8th gen CPU in her laptop, plays The Sims with no heat issues. So it appears you are fretting here.

- Collapse -
Answer
Perf wise they are close
Sep 8, 2018 5:17PM PDT

You might find the 8550u gives you better battery life if your planning on running off the battery.