Quote from Rydian;1245573:
1 - Ghz is not actually a measurement of quantifiable processing speed or power and cannot be used to compare processors of different architectures. It's only useful when comparing processors of the same architecture/design (so like, an i5 versus an i5) The i5 should be able to run Mabi fine, but...
2 - When it comes to games, the video card is very important. You can have a 20ghz i5, but if it's used with Intel integrated graphics it'll be worse for gaming than a 2ghz i5 paired with a decent video card. Chances are the second machine has crappy integrated graphics, since most computers don't come with a good video card since it's mainly useful for gaming and most computer sales aren't for gaming.
Budget?
Can you order online?
GHz means a lot when you are looking at what are very similar chips, as in the OP's case, actually. And Mabi doesn't really depend on a great graphics card for good performance--the CPU is the bottleneck in many cases.
Quote from Transcendence;1245596:
Thanks for the reply! .
Yeah, I realize that graphics card is a big factor, but my bro's computer only has Intel 4000 (or 3000, I forget) and Mabi still runs smoothly.
Budget is 800, and I can order online.
I suspect that your bro's CPU is not an i5 ULV chip. ULV chips are more efficient, but they also have more strict TDP limits and as such, turbo to lower max clocks. One notable thing to keep in mind is that Processor Graphics is included in this TDP limit, meaning if you have a a ULV chip with a strict TDP limit, the GPU will steal a bulk of it, forcing the CPU to run slower (or vice versa).
As for recommendations, there's the Lenovo Y40:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40/
The cheapest configuration goes for just $739 right now, thanks to a sale (says weekly sale.. I hope today is not the last day.)
i7-4510U
8GB RAM
Radeon R9 M275
dual band AC wifi
Note that this is also an ULV chip, but it should have no problems as it clocks higher and doesn't share the TDP with the Processor Graphics cores thanks to the dedicated GPU having its own TDP limit. :P
I think it's a really good deal as far as bang for the buck, plus Lenovo's build quality is probably better than average for consumer laptops. (I'd only get their business models myself, but that's quite a bit out of your budget.)