Which intel processor should i get

These chipsets are better than the integrated GPUs of their respective desktop cousins, and let you play games once thought of as ultra-demanding on a thin and light laptop. An Intel Core i5 is a sensible place to start whether you plan to buy a laptop or desktop. They have enough power for high-end gaming, intensive image editing work and video editing. And they use less power than a Core i7 or i9, which is nice. The Core i7 is more powerful than the Core i5 series. And the Core i9 chipsets are, you guessed it, more powerful than the i7s.

So how do you quantify the differences between an Intel Core i3 and an i9? I can use a human analogy here. If you have more cores, you have more workers to do a job.

And a higher clock speed means each of these workers can get stuff done at a quicker pace. Some tasks, like gaming, benefit more from a few fast cores than an increased number of them. But others like video editing love a processor with lots of cores, because the applications are designed to exploit all the available CPU power. Games are, for the most part, miners of graphics card power. In previous years we would have had to explain another term to get to the root of performance differences, hyperthreading.

But all the main 11th Gen have hyperthreading. This is where you to torture the metaphor a little more get to give each of the workers two jobs at at time instead of one. Those folks should unionise. Higher-end Intel processors also have more cache memory than mid-range and low-end ones. The browser version you are using is not recommended for this site. Please consider upgrading to the latest version of your browser by clicking one of the following links. Content Type Identify My Product. Article ID See the example below.

The generation of the processor is the first number after i9, i7, i5, or i3. Older generations of Intel Core i5 processors had a mixture of dual- and quad-core processors, but the later generations typically feature a quad- or even hexa-core six configuration, along with faster overclock speeds than the Core i3.

The latest Intel Core i7 CPU generations include quad-core, hexa-core, and octa-core eight configurations. Quad-cores are usually better than dual-cores and hexa-cores better than quad-cores, and so on, but it isn't always accurate depending on the CPU generation—more on these differences in a moment. Intel releases "families" of chipsets, called generations. At the time of writing, Intel has launched its 11th-generation series, named Rocket Lake.

Each family, in turn, has its own line of Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 series of processors. The Intel Core i9 series is Intel's extreme performance line. Most Core i9 CPUs are octa-core and come with a very high clock speed, enabling them to perform to a very high standard for prolonged periods. They may also come with a larger CPU memory cache than their counterparts, enabling faster overall performance.

You can spot which generation a processor belongs to by the first digits in its four or five-digit model name. For example, the Intel Core i7- 11 K belongs to the 11th generation. For a long time, a useful rule of thumb for Intel CPU model names was that the other three digits were Intel's assessment of how the processor compares to others in its own line. That rule is still in place, but it isn't always as easy to follow as it once was as there are several other product line modifiers you can find in the model number.

However, "A higher SKU within otherwise-identical processor brands and generations will generally have more features," as per Intel's naming convention guide. Furthermore, this change is another reason why comparing CPUs across generations using their model number alone is advisable, as Intel tweaks things. Here's what they mean:. Understanding these letters and the numbering system above will help you know what a processor offers just by looking at the model number without needing to read the actual specifications.

The physical cores largely determine the speed of a processor. This is even true between Core families, which means that it may be better, if your software relies heavily on multithreading, to choose a four-core chip with Hyper-Threading over an equivalent six-core without. When shopping for PCs, alas, it's not always easy to find information on the number of cores, or the presence or absence of Hyper-Threading support, on a PC vendor's spec list.

If you can find the chip's exact model number, though, plug it into Intel's specs database , which will show you clock speed, core count, Hyper-Threading support, and much more. Most thin and light laptops with Core i5 or Core i7 processors that aren't gaming machines rely on integrated graphics-acceleration silicon that's part of the CPU die. Gaming machines and certain high-end systems, on the other hand, have dedicated graphics chips that are separate from the CPU. Core i5 and Core i7 chips come with different kinds of integrated graphics capabilities.

Iris Plus is a step up, available on many 10th-generation chips. The latest and greatest integrated graphics is Iris Xe, available on only a few 11th-generation Core i5 and Core i7 models. Integrated graphics save power, since there's no extra graphics chip on your laptop's or desktop's motherboard drawing juice. Intel's integrated graphics solutions work well for mainstream productivity and display including multidisplay tasks. Integrated graphics are not so great at handling demanding PC games, though.

While these integrated Intel graphics processors will let you play some recent games at low quality and resolution settings how well varies significantly by the game , you will definitely need a discrete graphics card from AMD or Nvidia to play 3D games at p, p, or 4K resolutions with the quality settings turned up. Nor are integrated solutions the best choice for tasks that demand GPU acceleration in addition to CPU muscle, such as certain specialized, heavy rendering and scientific applications.

Intel's Core X-Series desktop processor family , introduced in , is aimed at high-performance users like extreme gamers and video editors. The Core iX processor, for example, has eight cores and, thanks to its Hyper-Threading support, can process 16 threads simultaneously. These CPUs are positioned as high-performance hardware for 3D rendering, mathematical calculations on large data sets, 4K video processing, game development, and to an extent high-end gaming with multiple video cards.

There is no equivalent to the Core X-Series for laptops.