Intel Core i5 vs Core i7 : Which one is best for you | It will change your mind

Should i buy Intel Core i5 or Should i buy Core i7?
We are studying from our childhood that a Processor is the Brain of the Computer, But while assembling a new PC or Purchasing a New Laptop/Notebook we go through a choice, whether we should buy a Core i5 CPU or Should it be Core i7?. Unless you are buying a Budget laptop, I am 100% sure that you are deciding on an i7 or i5 and that’s a real stress on our Brain.

In Oct 2017 intel launched there new 8th generation CPU with an increase in the core counts. It’s been 6 years from now that the Intel’s Core i5 family has offered four cores without Hyper-Threading, and the Core i7 family offered four cores with Hyper-Threading. Hyperthreading technology allows a single physical processor core to behave like two logical processors. As a performance feature, it also increases processor throughput, improving overall performance on threaded software.

 

Core i5 series comes in both dual-core and quad-core processors as well as Core i7 which also comes in both dual-core and quad-core processors. And keep in mind that Quad Core is powerful than Dual Core.

Everyone knows that Core i7 is better than Core i5, the problem is “which one should I choose according to my day to day tasks”.

Understanding the codename

Some people might find it difficult to understand which is the latest generation of CPU’s because Intel uses codenames for that.

Intel Releases Chipset Families. example,

  • 8th generation Coffee lake family
  • 7th generation Kaby lake family
  • 6th generation Skylake family
  • 5th generation Broadwell family
  • 4th generation Haswell family

Each family has its own line of Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 series of processors.

It is very easy to understand which generation belong to which codename. example,

The first digit in its four-digit code number or model number indicates the CPU’s generation. For example, the Intel Core i5 7400 belongs to the 7th generation and the Intel Core i5 8400 belongs to the 8th generation.

 

Must Read: The first digit in its four-digit code number or model number indicates the CPU’s generation. The other three digits are intel’s way to compare other processor in its own line up. For example, an Intel Core i5-8600 is superior to the Core i5-8400 because 600 is much higher value than 400.

You can also manually identify a Processor By two ways

if you are at a physical store or bought a new notebook/laptop from an online store, There is a technique that will help you crosscheck the CPU specs.

Option one: Manually identify your processor.

  • Press the Windows key and the letter at the same time. or Directly press start or windows key on your keyboard.
  • Type system. Choose System or System Information.
  • System Information window will show Processor option that will have the name, number, and speed of the processors.

Option two: Automatic Identification using intel official software.

U vs. Q. vs. H vs. K

You might be thinking what are these alphabets. The model number “Core i7 7700K” will typically be followed by one or a combination of the following letters: U, Y, T, Q, H, and K. Here’s what they mean:

  • U means Ultra Low Power. This is found in Notebooks or laptop only.
  • Y means Low Power. Typically found on older generation laptop and mobile processors.
  • T means Power Optimized for desktop processors.
  • Q means Quad-Core. The Q rating is only for processors with four physical cores.
  • H means High-Performance Graphics. The best graphics unit from Intel
  • K means Unlocked. It can be overclocked.

Now you can easily identify any generation of Intel CPU.

Turbo Boost, Cache size, Internal Graphics

Turbo Boost

Core i5 and Core i7 Both Supports Turbo Boost. Turbo Boost is Intel’s proprietary technology and it is used to speed up your tasks or we can say increase a processor’s clock speed if the application demands it.

For example, if you are playing a game or rendering a edited video and your system requires some extra horsepower, Turbo Boost will be helpful. But if you’re just doing simple day to day tasks like browsing the internet and using Microsoft Office it doesn’t work.

Cache size

Cache size plays a major role in creating a difference between core i7 and core i5. Remember that Just like with RAM, more cache size is better. Core i5 series has 3MB to 6MB cache while Core i7 Series has 4MB to 8MB cache and 8 gen goes up to 12MB.

Internal Graphics

Internal Graphics is tasked with displaying text, images, and video in various resolutions and via multifarious outputs, including choices between D-Sub (analog), DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Core i5 and i7 integrated Graphics difference?

Intel Core i7-8700K vs Intel Core i5-8600K integrated Graphics difference

Processor Intel Core i7-8700K Core i5-8600K
Processor Graphics Intel® UHD Graphics 630 Intel® UHD Graphics 630
Graphics Video Max Memory 64GB 64GB
Direct X support 12 12

Pricing

Intel Core i5-8400 is costing around RS 15K in India and Intel Core i7-8700K is costing RS 31K. So looking at the price there is double the difference.

Looking at the Notebook/Laptops The starting Range of Laptops With Core i5 Starts at Rs 38K – 39K and the starting range of Notebooks with Core i7 starts at Rs 50K – 55K

Pricing of Desktop CPU is much Higher than the Laptops because the laptop CPU’s are power efficient and work on low voltage whereas in the desktop the CPUs breaks the benchmarks.

Benchmark

This is the Benchmark Between Intel Core i5-8400 and Intel Core i7-8700K.

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700-vs-Intel-Core-i5-8400/3940vs3939

looking at the benchmark i7 is 23% faster than i5. It has Hugely higher thread counts, Much faster multi-core int speed, Much faster multi-core FP speed. They both are designed as Intel’s 14nm architecture.

Battery Benchmark

Comparing a Surface book equip with Core i5-7200U and Core i7-7660U, Core I 5 lasted for Five hours and one minute and i7 lasted for Five hours and fifteen minutes. Source 

So the difference in power consumption between a Core i5 and a Core i7 is fairly small. It’s a small difference of just 14 minutes.

Gaming Benchmark

The most important question “Should I buy i7 over i5 for gaming”let us see it in benchmarks.

If you look at the benchmark the difference is very slight between i5 and i7, so if we summarize we can have a conclusion that for gaming we should buy a high-end graphic card instead of investing lots of money on a high-end processor.

For in-depth gaming, benchmark go through this link

https://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/2182-fallout-4-cpu-benchmark-huge-performance-difference

Video Editing

The i5 doesn’t support hyperthreading, the i7 does. Hyperthreading is when each core is being given two threads to work with at once. So if you are into video editing spend the extra money go for the i7 it will definitely crush the  i5.

The main ingredient to look for is cores, plain and simple. The more the better.

Core i5 vs Core i7 on laptops “Don’t Skip This

Do not think that comparing Desktop version of processors will be same. Mobile processors are a slightly different story. Where desktop Core i5s never feature hyper-threading, some mobile versions do, allowing mobile dual-core i5 processors to handle four threads at once.

Core i5 in the desktop is Dual-core and Quad-core. Dual core with Hyper-threading, and Quad-core without Hyper-threading.

Now you might be confused. Well in laptops the difference between these two types of mobile Core i5s usually comes down to clock speed Quad-core CPUs are generally quicker. Same is with the i7 one’s they come in two configurations, Dual-core and Quad-core and they both support Hyper-threading.

8th generation Processor from intel features four cores for both Core i5 and i7 chips and they aslo don’t have dual core options.

Question: Now, what is the difference between Core i5 and Core i7 then?

Answer: Core i7s (Mobile or Laptop ver.) features larger cache size, and have faster Clock Speed.

Remember that a Dual clock processor with a high clock speed will outperform or beat a low clock speed Quad core in software which doesn’t use more than dual cores. But if a software is good in multitasking or using more than multiple cores Quad core will definitely be faster.

 

Conclusion

So the biggest question is “which processor should I buy?”.

The answer depends on your need if you are into Video editing and 3D rendering then you should go with the Core i7. But for most people, a Core i5 is going to be the most sensible choice. As I already mentioned that the current generation i5s are comparable to previous generation i7s.

For the average person, who will be doing web browsing, streaming some videos and working on Word documents, it would be wasteful to pay for the extra performance of a Core i7. Even if you’ll occasionally do some light photo or video editing, it will be only a tiny bit slower with a Core i5.

For Gamers Core i5 Quad-core is enough.

Core i7 is for those who can pay a premium amount to save their time in video editing and rendering and running high resources software example- 3D Max, After effect etc.

Do you know: Only application which is specially designed to use multiple threads will see a performance boost in Core i7.

So rather than paying an extra price for Core i7, you would better off spending your money on Good Graphics card, SSD, mouse, cooling system and Ram.

Watch this video 

 

 

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