Intel CPU'S Demystified

Intel CPU’S Demystified

It’s no secret that most people are completely clueless on the bewildering topic that is Intel’s processors. At the moment, there’s a plethora of complex Intel CPUs in the market all with varying price, features and performance. To find the best CPU for your needs it vital to have basic understanding of what your looking for, otherwise you might get duped by salesmen to buy a CPU that’s completely overkill and or one that won’t meet your need.

Before we start breaking down the Intel processors, here are some basic terms worth knowing.

Overclocking

This is whereby we run the processor at a higher speed that was intended by the manufacturer. Overclocking increases the performance of the major chip or subsystem, such as the main processor and graphics controller.

Threads And Hyperthreading

A threaed is a virtual suquence of instructions that are fed to the CPU. Hyper-threading is a process by which a CPU divides up its physical cores into virtual cores that are treated as if they are actually physical cores by the operating system.

Turbo Boost

Turbo Boost is a feature that lets the CPU run at higher clock speeds when there’s enough thermal headroom or when fewer cores are being actively used.

INTEL CELERON PROCESSORS

Celeron is a family of budget intel processors based on Pentium designs.Compared to Pentium CPUs, Celeron processors are priced lower and feature fewer core counts and slow clock speed. Moreover, they often have less cache and intentionally disabled advanced features.They are generally designed for the most premitive of tasks. These tasks include;

General Web Surfing.
Online Shopping.
Online Banking.
Viewing Videos.
Streaming Non FHD Content.

INTEL PENTIUM SERIES

Intel Pentium processors are mid-to-entry level CPUs. They perform better than Celeron CPUs but are inferior to Intel Core i3 CPUs. They usually come with 1-4 cores and have small cache memory. Hyperthreading was first introduced in pentium 4 processors hence older versions like the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, and Overdrive don’t have it. Moreover the pentium series CPU’s have low energy consumption and good balance between its price and perfomance.

Current generation of Pentium-branded hardware is divided into two types: Silver and Gold.

PENTIUM SILVER

Pentium Silver-powered devices are typically built for cloud computing, online use, and collaboration. This processor is mainly found in chrombooks and tablets whereby little procesing power is required.

PENTIUM GOLD

Pentium Gold processors offer bigger performance boost than Pentium Silver processors. They are typically built for everyday computing tasks. These include;

Light photo editing.
Light video editing
Multitasking.

CORE SERIES

INTEL CORE I3

Intel’s core i3 chips are intel’s entry point to the core CPU’s series. They are typically dual cores CPU’s that feature hyperthreading. This definitely helps boost performance in multithreaded workloads, though it’s nowhere near the boost you’d get from moving to a quad-core CPU. Core i3 CPUs chips come with 3-4 MB of cache memory and usually have low TDP’s. Additionally, the processor includes an Integrated Display Engine, Processor Graphics, PCI Express ports and an Integrated Memory Controller. Core i3 chips are normally used for general productivity tasks such as;

Web browsing.
Streaming.
Basic 3d gaming.
Using word processors.

INTEL CORE I5

Most Intel cores i5 chips are typically quadcore CPU’s but with the recent 12th-Gen Alder Lake, Intel have upped the ante to between 6-12 cores for many of their i5 CPUs. Intel’s core i5 chips feature overclocking, hyperthreading and Turbo Boost. Additionally, they come with a max 18MB Cache memory and up to 4.80 GHz CPU clock speeds. Intel’s core i5 processors are usually more powerful than core i3 processors of the same generation. Moreover, core i5 processors offer the best price for performance within Intel’s core series.

Here are some typical use cases for the Core i5 chips;

4K streaming.
Moderate programming.
Photo editing
Gaming.
General productivity tasks

INTEL CORE I7

These are high-end processors that offer excellent CPU performance for discrete-level graphics and AI acceleration. Intel’s Kaby Lake core i7 CPUs come with only 4 cores but more modern Alder Lake family of i7 CPUs feature up to 16 cores and standard clock speeds that range go up to 5.00 Gh. They have larger cache memories (with 12 gen core i7 having upto 25MB cache memory) and feature overclocking, hyperthreading and turbo boost. Core i7 chips are more powerfull and a lot more expensive than core i5 chips of the same generation.

Here are some use cases for core i7 chips;

4K streaming.
4K video editing.
3D modeling.
Data analysis.
High settings gamming.
Raw photo editing.

INTEL CORE i9

The core i9 is intel’s flagship CPU. It features a performance hybrid architecture designed for intelligent performance, optimized creating, and enhanced tuning to allow gamers to game with up to 5.8 GHz clock speed. Core i9 chips typically come with 8-16 cores but the latest Intel Core i9-13900K gaming desktop processor have up to 24 cores. Moreover, core i9 chips feature hyperthreading, overclocking, and turbo boost and can come with upto 30MB cache memory.

Here are some typical use cases of core i9 chips;

8K streaming.
6K and 8K video editing.
Studio 3D animation.
Machine learning execution.
Complex coding.
Professional gaming.
General productivity tasks.

NOTE; When comparing CPU’s of the same generation, the higher core i number, the better.

CPU GENERATIONS

CPU generation is indicated by the number that comes directly after the core i number. When a processor has four or five digits the first one or two digits represent the generation.

To make this easier to understand lets take Intel® Core™ Processor i7-13700K as our example.

The number 13 comes directly after the core i7 indicating that the processor is a 13th generation processor.

If the CPU name had only four digits after the core i for example Intel® Core™ Processor i7-9700K then the fist digit which in our case is 9 indicates the generation of the processor.

NOTE; If we are to compare two processors of the same series but different generation, the one with the higher generation will be better.

THE SURFIXES

Suffixes are the letters that are at the very end of the processor name. Their meaning might change depending on weather its a Desktop CPU or a mobile laptop CPU.

Here is a list of some of the suffixes your will find and their meaning.