The letter at the end of the processor's model number serves to place it in conversation with similar processors looking to service the same audience. All these processors are designed to strike a balance between performance and mobility, achieving longer battery life in lieu of higher core counts. How do I decide between a Core i3, i5, i7 or i9? Intel's current lineup of Core i3 processors are almost entirely quad-core.
Meanwhile, modern Core i7 processors range from quad-core all the way up to octa-core. The 7 th Generation Y-series and U-series we mentioned before? They feature dual-core processors designed for maximum battery life and fanless designs. The more cores a processor has, the more tasks known as threads can be served at the same time. Hypothetically, a dual-core processor can serve two threads at once while a quad-core processor can serve four and an octa-core processor can serve eight.
In theory, this means that a PC powered by quad-core processor is able to operate and complete tasks with greater efficiency than one with a dual-core processor. In addition to the number of Cores, the other metric that matters here is the clock speed of a given CPU. Measured in Gigahertz, clock speed measures the default or factory-set speed with which the processor normally operates.
Many processors can be modified to go faster than that speed through overclocking but the normal clock speed is a good tool for measuring their relative performance power. More like core count, higher is better here.
A processor with a faster speed can operate more more efficiently compared to one with a slower speed. However, due to thermal restrictions, processors with more cores tend to operate at a lower clock speeds.
This is why having a PC with the most cores might not always be the thing you want. At this point, it's important to take the opportunity to start talking about how a number of factors can affect the overall processing power of a CPU. Essentially, the idea that Intel are looking to convey with this CPU classification system is that PC builders should expect:.
Some are intended for us inside laptops, others are intended for use with desktop PCs. Wattage is the big differentiator here, since CPUs inside mobile devices generally have to make do with less power draw,.
However, to avoid confusion, let's start by exclusively talking about the desktop variants. This means that a PC with a higher core-count is going to be better for tasks where multithreading is important, such as web servers, web browsers and some video games.
The reason for this is that i3 processors are designed to hit a lower price-point more than they are push boundaries for performance. They tend to be found inside PCs that target a more budget-conscious market-segment where the need for a device to be affordable eclipses the demand for higher performance.
Part of this comes down to faster average clock speeds. Part of this comes down to additional cores. More cores means these CPUs can handle more threads at once and faster clock speeds mean they can complete tasks more efficiently.
At this point, you may be wondering just how important clock speeds are. The answer: pretty important. The first is that, in general, a higher clock speed is better. However, due to the thermal issues involved, processors with more cores tend to operate at a lower clock speed. Often-times, choosing a CPU involves choosing between a CPU capable of delivering faster clock-speeds or choosing one with more cores.
Although a faster core might be more efficient than a slower one, it might not necessarily be better for the tasks you want to use your computer to be better at.
More cores are useful for multi-tasking; for example, you can run two applications at the same time, each one having access to its own dedicated processor. More cores are also useful for multi-threaded applications, such as video editing. With these types of applications they can use multiple cores to improve performance.
Single-threaded applications can only use a single core leaving any others idle. Some Core i7 Extreme processors have six or eight cores. Generally speaking, we find that most applications can't take full advantage of six or eight cores, so the performance boost from extra cores isn't as great.
Hyper-Threading is Intel's technology for creating two logical cores in each physical core. In other words, to your operating system it appears as though your CPU has double the number of cores than it really does.
In terms of performance, Hyper-Threading speeds up multi-tasking and multi-threaded applications. It's not as fast or as efficient as extra 'real' cores, but it's an improvement over a single Core. Core i3 and i7 processors have this technology, Core i5 processors do not. The faster the clock speed in MHz, the faster each core can run. This can create some variances in performance. For example, a Core i Haswell processor runs at 3. It would be faster running a single-threaded application, which can only use one core, than a Core i, which only has a clock speed of 3.
However, running a multi-threaded application, the Core i5 would most likely be quicker, as its four real cores are better than the Core i3's two cores and Hyper-Threading. Turbo Boost is Intel's technology for automatically overclocking a processor, boosting its clock speed higher than the default setting.
The CPU monitors its temperature and, when it's running cool enough, will apply the overclock. Core i5 and i7 CPUs have this technology, Core i3 models do not.
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