Intel Core i3, i5, i7…. what do these really mean?

Given a choice between a laptop with Intel® Core™ i7-6700 and another with Intel® Core™ i5-14500T, one might end up choosing the former thinking that it is more powerful. This is a subtle mistake that is easy to make if you are not conversant with Intel processors. The latter is actually more powerful. The tier number (i5, i7 etc.) alone is not enough to consider one better than the other. This article aims to help you make a more informed choice when dealing with common Intel Core Processors.

What is a core?

In simple terms, it is a single module within the processor that is capable of executing instructions independently. Most Pentium CPUs (predecessor to Intel Core series) had a single core which meant that execution had to be done sequentially, one task after the other. As you can imagine, this was slow. To improve their performance the clock speeds were bumped up. It ended up creating other issues such as excessive heating and inefficient power consumption.

This led to the shift in architecture with the multi-core processor being adopted. Rather than depending on very high clock speeds to boost performance, it implements other techniques such as multi-processing, more work per clock cycle, and better power efficiency. With years of continuous improvements this evolved into the modern day CPUs that are of various classes.

Tiers

The categorization of processors is done based on features such as number of cores, size of cache, power consumption, graphics card and clock speed. Based on these we have tiers such as:

Core i3

• Can have up to 10 cores.

• Small cache size, usually about 12 to 18MB (depending on the generation).

• Relatively low clock speed.

• Don’t support overclocking except for the Core i3-7350K.

• Good for light work e.g. MS office applications.

Core i5

• Can have up to 14 cores.
• Moderately sized cache of about 18 to 24MB.
• Moderately high clock speed.
• Some support overclocking.
• Good for multitasking, moderate gaming and typical everyday use cases.

Core i7

• Can have up to 20 cores.
• Large sized cache of about 25 to 33MB.
• High clock speed.
• Some support overclocking.
• High end graphics.
• Good for design works, gaming, and professional use cases.

Core i9

• Can have up to 24 cores.
• Cache size up to 36MB.
• Fastest clock speed. Turbo boost up to 6.0GHz.
• Some support overclocking.
• High end graphics.

Core Ultra

These are some of Intel’s Latest high-performance processors, designed to suit AI workloads and advanced multitasking.

• Has 12+ cores.
• High turbo speeds (~5.0 GHz+).
• Has new AI-focused Neural Processing Units.

As shown in the information above, the number used in the naming categories doesn’t directly reference the number of cores. So it’s wrong to assume that an i5 will have only 5 cores. Also, it is worth mentioning that the values change across generations. For instance, the core counts stated above are for the 14th Gen processors hence are different from those of a 5th Gen.

Note: As of 2024 Intel has adopted new naming techniques that excludes the “i” thus you might see a Core i9 being simply referred to as Core 9. This applies for the new high-end processors.

Generations

The tiers are further categorized by generations. The newer generations typically will have improvements that make them better than the older ones in terms of performance among other features. This is the reason why in the example that was given above, the Intel® Core™ i5-14500T is considered better than Intel® Core™ i7-6700 performance-wise.

As per Intel’s naming system, the first one or two digits after the tier typically denotes the generation, the remaining 3 show the model number, and an optional letter represents specific capabilities of the chip or show intended use.

This shows that it is a 14 generation processor and also has optimized power consumption.

Suffixes

As you might have noticed some processors have letter suffixes while others don’t. Here are the meanings of some of these letters:

T -> power optimized. These usually have lower clock speeds but are energy-efficient.
F -> No integrated graphics. These are great for gaming and high-performance uses that will require you to have external dedicated GPU.
K -> Unlocked for overclocking. These are suitable for workloads that require high clock speeds.
H -> High-performance mobile processor. Such laptops have more power and cores.
G -> High-performance Intel graphics. Great for workloads that require advanced graphics performance e.g. some design works
U -> Ultra-low power. Offer low power consumption and long battery life.
S -> Special edition or optimized performance. These are usually limited-release CPUs with better tuning.

Conclusion

There is a wide variety of Intel Core processors. i3, i5, i7, and i9 are part of the numbering system used to denote the performance tier of the specific chip. Each tier has its own key features that will influence the performance. When making a purchase, it is very important to also consider the generation of the processor and the suffix letter where applicable. Intel regularly updates their products and therefore some of these details might change over time. For more information on the topic be sure to visit the official website: www.intel.com

Comments

[Kevin Wasonga]

Amazing explanation.