From PC World: Dell is cranking up laptop performance with an overclocked 4.4GHz Intel Core i7 chip in its new Alienware 18 laptop, which is targeted at gamers.
The company on Thursday also announced an Alienware 17 laptop with optional Core i7 chips with clock speeds surpassing the 4.0GHz threshold. Processors running at that frequency are rare in laptops, though they can be found in gaming desktops.
Higher clock speeds boost PC performance, and gamers typically overclock CPUs to run faster. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices consistently crank up desktop CPU clock speeds in an ongoing battle to gain the desktop performance crown.
Over the past decade, chip makers reverted to adding more cores instead of cranking up clock speeds to balance system performance and power consumption. Laptop chips mostly operate at frequencies between 1.4GHz and 3GHz, and most users won’t need 4GHz laptops. But gamers love the extra performance to run intense games.
Dell overclocked the fourth-generation Intel Core i7-4940MX processor in the Alienware 18 to run at 4.4GHz, making it the chip maker’s fastest mobile processor. An optional Core i7-4910MQ processor in Alienware 17 has a frequency of 4.1GHz.
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