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Anyone happier after switching to i5 from i7?

kristalsoldier

Well-Known Member
I think when comparing the two I5 models you are getting into the "splitting hairs" department. $300 to double both RAM and SSD is a good deal and well worth the investment, IMO, and therefore meets my personal "bang for the buck" threshold", plus giving you future proofing for both memory and storage. On this point, it's just a difference of opinion, with neither of us being wrong.

Yes, of course. I was only expressing my understanding of the offering. But I have no special insight...just an opinion...and not a very technically aware one at that.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
You won't notice any discernible difference in everyday use between the i5 and i7.
But the battery life is deceiving, I ran CPU and GPU benchmark testing with i5 and i7 side by side and the i5 used more battery for the same test and ran hotter at the same time than the i7.
I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have both machines sitting in front of me. Yes, I spent hours on it but I wanted to know.
Takes less time to run the same CPU operation on the i7, plus i5 has to work harder, more heat.
GPU is a big heat generator, i5 works harder on same graphic operation, graphic intensive operations generate more heat than CPU calls in my testing. i7 handles graphics more efficiently.
I understand this is counter-intuitive but I ran the two machines side by side -- same tests, monitoring temps and battery discharge, same setup on both.
In my opinion, the average user will not notice any difference so one might want to spend less on the i5.

Also, you need to make sure you have a good i7, my first i7 ran hotter and had shorter battery life.

Glad somebody did this. I always figured the i7 vs i5 would come out this way. Intel designed higher performing CPU & GPU that runs at a lower base clock rate (1.7 vs 1.9) with the same 15w TDP. If it came out any other way Intel would have failed. That's why they can sell the i7 for a higher price too.
 

GTiceman

Active Member
I actually went from an i7 to an i5. I had initial overheating, thermostat of death, issues with the i7. After all the updates and about 2 weeks the system seemed smoother and cooler. However, I returned it because it had overheated a few times to the point of shutdown. I figured I would give the i5 a try. Had some initial issues with getting updates installed. I will say I have gotten the fan to kick on in the i5 about the same as the i7. This seems to happen with video encoding, goPro Studio, on both devices. Generally, the i5 seems to run cooler for me but I need to do more tests and the goPro encoding is the most intensive thing I generally do; 1080p 60fps videos about 30 min long each. I was going to exchange for a new i7, but I thought I would take advantage of the extra student discount on the i5 to see if it met my needs.

The i7 might have moved a hair quicker during the process, but hard to say as I didn't time or do side-by-side, but the i5 seems to still run cooler though only slightly. Not sure what my final decision will be. I will test more if MS happens to send me another i7, I asked for an exchange but they seemed to process as a return.
 

JH99

New Member
My experience with the first i7 was the same as yours, I wasn't sure but it just didn't seem right. My second i7 is like a different machine and works great, you might try another one to compare.
 

GTiceman

Active Member
Thanks, I might go back. I don't know if it is related to the i5 but the surface actually goes into connected standby in the middle of encoding video which I didn't notice my i7 doing and when I wake it, it usually resumes but the video comes out half the file size and some quality issues though the properties all indicate it is okay. Also, I noticed I can set put computer to sleep never but can't tell it to just turn the display off.

Sorry to hijack
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
I'd like to see a real study of the i5 vs i7 ... performance, power, heat, doing the same workload.

Just watching the Temp rise and fall almost instantly its hard to see why some statements are made. if I have 1000 instructions to execute and I get them done faster I might spike a higher peak temp but it will be for a shorter duration. Just because the i7 is the more Powerful processor doesn't mean it uses more Power.

If I'm playing a game at higher frame rates for 60 minutes, yes I use more power but I did more work. how does it look if we run both for 60 minutes at the same frame rate. games do something different in that they play and adapt using max resources over a period of time.

A spreadsheet calculation or another program though would do the same actual work but at different speeds. This might be via brute force or thru better efficiency. Its the Power in watts that translates to heat not the power of the processor.

I'm tempted to buy an i7 just to find out however, it would be largely pointless as you can't educate the Internet where all stupidity lives in equality with all scholarly work. :)
 
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dstrauss

Active Member
I wanted 512gb of storage.

Len

Too me this is the only practical differentiator between the two (spoken as someone who HAS NOT tried the i7). My opinion is based upon reading most everything here and at TabletPCReview - there just is not a significant performance delta to the i7 as configured in the Surface Pro 3. IF you need/want 512GB, then it is the only choice, but otherwise, I just don't see the advantage of the i7 over i5 in the sweet spot - 8GB ram and 256GB SSD.
 

bluegrass

Well-Known Member
I actually went the opposite direction of your title to this thread and went from and i5 to an i7 and couldn't be happier with my decision. Not sure why anyone would want to go the opposite direction.
 

Len J

Active Member
I'd be curious what speed the I5 throttles to when the fan comes on.

For my I7, it throttles to 2.3 Ghz. From 2.9 Ghz.

That same data for the I5 might be informative.

Len
 

Len J

Active Member
So is that saint the I5 starts at 2.6 Ghz, throttles to 1.9 Ghz and then rises to 2.2 (with your changes?

What was the out of box baseline that would be comparable to the numbers I posted for the I7?

Thanks.

Len
 
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