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I'm specifically interested in the i5-8250U vs its alternative, the i7-8550U. I've seen this review about a Thinkpad that has been tested thoroughly with the i5-8250U processor. But right now where I live I have a flash sale where I can purchase it with the option to get the i7 for just 30€ more.

Its just a 10% faster but being just 30€ more I could pay for the update. Yet, noise and heat are primordial for me. Noise seems to depend on several factors, and too difficult to figurate out unless you have experience with it or can just compare them side by side, so I'm focusing here on the heat: is an i7 (this one in particular at least) hotter (or cooler!) under the same taskload and same hardware?

Both have a thermal design power of 15 W. In the pic below you can see the only two differences between them in red:

i5-8250 vs i7-8550

The same web compares its Power Consumption: i5-8250 vs i7-8550 Power Consumption comparison

Which makes me think the i7 would be hotter but really don't know what those tests really test..

Can you give some insight/clarification/answer/idea/s?

Martin
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1 Answers1

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I don't think there will be a large difference. Theoretically, if the TDPs are the same, under 100% utilization, both should generate same amount of heat.

However, like confetti said, for same task, the average utilization of i7 would be lower since it has better performance. At my best guess, if the heat rate is fully proportional to utilization, i7 will be cooler in this case.

Zhongjie Shen
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