PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

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tk421
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Joined: Sat 18 Jun, 2016 6:57 am

PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

Post by tk421 »

Good day,

I am shopping for a new PC. I know the desktop i7 8086k would be a great fit for my computing tasks, including PCem, but I recently found a laptop with the i7 8550u CPU. I know this laptop CPU is a bit weak, but the RAM, HDD space and DVD drive fit my needs. Even the video card is adequate for my needs.

May I ask what kind of PCem performance I could reasonably expect from the Core i7 8550U CPU?

Also, is it even possible for a laptop to run PCem on full specs?

Should I only be considering a desktop PC for running PCem on full specs?

Thank you for your time,

tk421
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SarahWalker
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Re: PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

Post by SarahWalker »

Performance won't be brilliant, the 8550u only runs at 1.8 GHz. I'd guess around Pentium 90 or so would be about as fast as you could get.
tk421
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Re: PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

Post by tk421 »

Thank you for your reply.

The only reason I considered this cpu at all was because of its turbo speed of 4 Ghz.

My previous PCem tests on an old AMD 6 core 2.7 Ghz CPU suggested that PCem would make full use of a CPU's turbo speed. In the case of that old desktop cpu, the boost speed was 3.11 Ghz. PCem ran a Pentium 90 without any problems at all. Performance, both for sound and video, was very reliable. While the sound stuttered badly at 166 Mhz MMX, the visuals were very smooth and responsive.

I do not have any experience with the 8550u, nor do I know if it can even reach its turbo speed of 4 Ghz. Its base speed is clearly not up to the task of running a high quality program like PCem. My old AMD A8-6410 laptop can barely run a 386.

I admit I was curious to see if the 8550u could reach and hold its turbo speed. If so, may I ask what performance I could expect from PCem with a CPU like this one?

Thank you for your time,

tk421
EluanCM
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Re: PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

Post by EluanCM »

You would probably see thermal throttling after a short time.
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SarahWalker
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Re: PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

Post by SarahWalker »

Turbo on the 8550u is 2.2 GHz, not 4 GHz.
tk421
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Re: PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

Post by tk421 »

Thank you for your help. I admit buying a suitable laptop is proving difficult, not just for PCem, but for a number of tasks I have to do with a pc. The advantages of a laptop, namely mobility, are the real reason I am still considering a laptop over a desktop.
ecksemmess
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Re: PCem and laptop i7 8550u CPU

Post by ecksemmess »

FYI, I've been using PCem on an Ivy Bridge-era laptop for years, with pretty good results. I can maintain near-100% emulation for anything up to a Pentium-133 or so, though it does of course depend heavily on what the emulated system is doing. My laptop's CPU is an i7-3632QM, base speed 2.2GHz and turbo of 3.2GHz, and it's served me very well for all kinds of CPU-intensive jobs. And yes, PCem makes full use of the turbo speed without issue. If the 8550u really did have a turbo speed of 4GHz, you'd do very well with it indeed, but as Sarah pointed out above, it's actually 2.2GHz, which is going to be disappointing. I'd look for a laptop with a CPU that has a turbo speed well above 3GHz. Also, don't forget that the CPU's "single thread performance" metric is of utmost importance for PCem, as the major bottleneck is the CPU emulation, which can't be parallelized to any significant degree.
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