Considering a new processor

[Cetan]

Just put in my order for a G53JW-A3, with the following specs, to be primarily used for gaming on the move:


1 x ASUS G53JW-A3 - Republic of Gamers Gaming Laptop

Processor - Intel® Core™ i7-740QM, 1.73-2.93GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache)
Graphics Video Card nVidia GeForce GTX 460M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
Ram 12,288MB (12GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2x4GB 2x2GB)
Primary Hard Drive - 180GB OCZ Vertex 2 Sandforce Solid State Drive
Wireless Network Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
I've been looking around at several other forums, with several members generally suggesting the quicker dual cores of the 640M will outperform the lesser used quad cores of the 740QM. My question is, would it be worth it (specs wise) to put in the 640M over the 740QM, with me primarily using this machine for gaming? From what I've read, the 640M should fit in the socket (assuming I get the right one), but will it cause issues with the RAM, etc? I have considered potentially a 940XM later down the road, but I would like to take the cheaper option if possible. Thanks! :)

[Soundaholic]

You must use 1066MHz RAM with the 640m, and I"m not even sure it can take 12GB of RAM. But if everything else equal, the processor with higher single core speed should be better than the one with slower clock speed

[powerpack]

I love Intel documents. Says 640m max is 8GB. But says the same about 740qm and we know that is wrong. I thought chipset is what controls max amount of memory. That said I am certain 12GB will be fine. I would think if you put a 640m in the 1333MHz would just downclock to max supported speed. Meaning you would not have to purchase separate RAM. On this site the 640m is being sold in systems with 1333MHz RAM.

All that said I would not bother switching CPU's. Cost to performance increase I doubt worth it. CPU not that critical in most games. Some games maybe. But the games that are going to be CPU whores are going to increasingly make use of more cores and that will put the lower clocked quads and above ahead of the higher clocked duals. Yes we are at a point of transition but that transition is not leaning toward dual cores.