Depends on the laptop, really. You can check your i7 single thread performance and compare to the i3
https://www.cpubenchmark.net
the i3:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php...00+%40+3.90GHz
if you want to compare, I have i7-4771
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php...71+%40+3.50GHz which is slightly worse than the i3 for single threads, but almost double the score overall. I stopped playing wow earlier this year, but I was getting steady high fps in raids, single thread performance was all I looked for in a CPU.
There is a slight issue that you
might have to update bios on motherboard for the i3. If you don't want that, you should get i3-6100 for the same mobo, but personally I would go with 8th gen intel i3 which is 4core with no HT (which is slightly better for multi threading than 2cores+HT)
But that 8th gen mobos are twice the price of the older ones, build would look like this, just CPU and mobo change:
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($127.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($111.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($156.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: DIYPC - Zondda-O ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.88 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec - 450W ATX Power Supply ($33.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $647.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-14 06:39 EST-0500
No need to update bios with this, if you are worried about that. If you want a build with Ryzen, it would look like this
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($128.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME A320M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($156.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: DIYPC - Zondda-O ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.88 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec - 450W ATX Power Supply ($33.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $596.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-14 06:41 EST-0500
As you can see the price difference is not that big, but if you compare the i3-8100 vs Ryzen 1300x (at stock) you will see how i3 has higher rating in both, single and overall score
i3-8100:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php....60GHz&id=3103
Ryzen 3 1300x:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php...+1300X&id=3057
then we come into 'overclock' territory, if you want to dable into it, you could perhaps push more out of Ryzen, though if it would ever beat that i3 in WoW is questionable (or hardly noticeable), but then you need a better than stock cooler, at the very least something like Cooler Master Hyper T4 which is another 20$ but then you have to deal with things like stability, potential overheating, bad chip (for OC) etc.
You could write a whole library on the subject, but at the end of the day, what matters is your own opinion.
Myself, I would always go Intel.