Does these processors all look same to you?or ever wandered which processor to opt for??
3<5<7. So Core i3<Core i5<Core i7 – Curious me. Was quizzing a computer vendor on my last visit to buy a laptop. In series of processor analysis, I bring to you the technical yet readable differences between the Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Absolutely right, Core i7 is more powerful than Core i5 and Core i5 is more powerful than Core i3. But what exactly makes them different? To explain that, I first need
to describe two technologies:
1. The Intel Turbo Boost Technology: Intel Turbo Boost Technology helps deliver more performance
when and where you need it. If the processor detects that it is below its power, temperature, and current
limits, its clock frequency increases to boost performance for active processor cores. Optimization of available resources. So if you are running a multi threaded application, that requires more power the technology intelligently increases the clock frequency. And if you are running a legacy application that is not multi-threaded the clock speed is increased further. Now for an analogy to this.
Relate this to the problem of allocation of resources. Suppose you work for a construction
company, and the company is working on construction of multiple buildings.
With the available resources you have two options: Either divide the entire work force
for different constructions or deploy some and keep a buffer. What Intel Turbo Boost Technology does is analogous to keeping a buffer.
2.The Intel Hyper Threading Technology: This is the ‘HT’, you’ve seen over the Pentium 4 logo some years back. What his does is that, it allows multiple threads to be processed by a single core. But what’s a
thread? I quote from theWiki: In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest unit of processing that can be scheduled by an operating system. More simply relate multi threaded applications
to be multiple applications. I safely make that statement as many of the Intel Technologies videos use the same terminology.
Single Core Processors: Processors that processed just single threads.
Single Core Processors with Hyper Threading Technology: Process Multiple
Threads at single Time. The Pentium 4 stuff. Dual Core Processors: Two threads are processed in two separate cores on a single processor. The important point here is that this isn’t Hyper Threading, since one core is processing only a single thread.
Quad Core Processors: The same technology as the Dual Core Processors, except that the Dual Cores as the name suggests have 2 cores and the Quad Core have 4 Cores. More Cores, more power!
Multiple Cores with Hyper Threading Technology: This is something really fast than any of the previous processors, I have discussed through out the post. In such processors, every core on a multiple core processors processes 2 threads. So a Quad Core Processor with Hyper Threading Technology, can process 8 Threads at a time! Now that you know about the different kind of processor technologies, the comparision between the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 becomes more easy to understand.
A Core i3 processor has 2 Cores, and it
manages 4 Threads. Yes, it supports Hyper Threading but no Turbo Boost.
A Core i5 processor has 4 Cores and it manages
4 Threads. It doesn’t support Hyper Threading but
it does support the Intel Turbo Boost Technology.
A Core i7 processor has 4Cores and it manages 8
Threads. Yes, it supports Hyper Threading and Intel Turbo Boost Technology. What’s also different is that the Core i7 and Core i5 processors have different cache sizes. If you have little knowledge about cache, just take it for now that more the cache, more the speed.
The comparison is for desktop processors with certain clock speeds. Cores on Core i7
can go up to 6, and hence number of threads up to a whooping 12. . Now being familiar
with these technologies, you are readyto read between the lines of the technical
specifications sheets.
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