Which computer is better than Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7. Iron experiment: senior Core i3 versus junior Core i5 in games

Recently, I am often asked the same question: “ Is it better to take a high-frequency Core i3 coupled with more powerful discrete graphics or an entry-level Core i5, but with a less powerful graphics card?"In the monthly column" Computer of the Month "I now and then push to buy a" true "quad-core processor. The reasoning is simple, it is based on three logical conclusions. Firstly, the Core i5 will last for a long time, as it will become outdated much later than any video card. Secondly, the chip and the platform as a whole are changed the least of all. Finally, thirdly, a large number of games have been released that use more than two threads of the central processor. Still, it's 2016. At the numerous requests of the workers, I made a small experiment. I hope this article will fully answer the sore question.

Iron experiment: Core i3 vs Core i5 in games

About choosing a processor

An interesting situation. Users with a preference for a particular processor were divided into two parts. One half thinks the dual-core Core i3 is purely an office chip. Using it in gaming assemblies is blasphemy and profanation. Others are sure that there is no point in overpaying for a quad-core Core i5, because four Core i3 threads are "dragging" be healthy! The money raised, as already stated, is better spent on a more productive video card.

A slow Core i5 is 4-5 thousand rubles more expensive than a fast Core i3

From the point of view of economy, Core i3 (against the background of the older line) looks more attractive. Let's say I have 50,000 rubles. And I need to convert them to a gaming system unit. With Core i3-4170, I can afford to take a video card of the level of GeForce GTX 970. The cheapest 4-core - Core i5-4460 - costs 4-5 thousand rubles more. Having additionally saved on the motherboard, I still cannot meet the agreed budget. You will either have to add some money, or take an adapter of the level of GeForce GTX 960 (Radeon R9 380 / 380X). The choice is not easy.

Building with Core i3

Modern Core i3 processors (Skylake and Haswell) have achieved very high frequencies. This experiment was carried out using a Core i3-6100 model that runs at 3.7 GHz. A very high figure with a TDP of only 54 watts. As you know, due to the Hyper-threading technology, two physical cores additionally have two virtual ones. Therefore, games that require at least a 4-core processor run smoothly on systems with Core i3. The cheapest Skylake with true four cores - the Core i5-6400 - costs $ 65 more than the Core i3-6100. The "fifth" operates at a very low (in comparison with the opponent) frequency of 2.7 GHz. Turbo Boost technology increases this parameter, but only up to 3.3 GHz for one core, and for four - up to only 3.1 GHz. So which is better?

Intel Core i5-6400

Testing

Test stand:

• Processors: Intel Core i3-6100, 3.7 GHz; Intel Core i5-6400 2.7 GHz
• Cooling: Noctua NH-U9S
• Motherboard: ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING
• RAM: DDR4-2133, 4x 4GB
• Video Cards: AMD Radeon R9 380 , 4 GB; AMD Radeon R9 NANO , 4 GB
• Storage: SSD, 480 GB
• Peripherals: monitor LG 31MU97
• Operating system: Windows 10 x64

I note right away that a comparison of the Core i3-6100 with the Core i5-6400 will roughly show how things will be in other pairs of processors of the corresponding lines. For example, between the models Core i3-4160 / 4170/4330/4350/4360/4370 and Core i5-4440 / 4460/4590 /, which, judging by my observations, are selling well even in 2016. I have already written in detail about the choice of a central processor for a gaming computer and processor dependence in general. In this material - a special case on the example of 15 modern games. "Dotka", "counter" and "tanks" did not consider, as for such games Core i3 is enough with the head.

All games (with the exception of Rise of the Tomb Raider) were run at maximum graphics quality settings in Full HD resolution, but without anti-aliasing. The adventures of polygonal Lara Croft in Mother Russia were tested with the "High" preset, since the program is very demanding on the amount of video memory. The stands used the adapters Radeon R9 380 and Radeon R9 Nano. The first is as an example of a fairly popular representative of the Middle-end class. In terms of performance, it is similar to the GeForce GTX 960 accelerator, which currently ranks third in the list of configurations for Steam users. The second video card is a full-fledged High-end. In theory, the Radeon R9 Nano needs a really powerful processor to unleash its own potential.

Let's start with the Radeon R9 380. This 3D accelerator "pulls" most games at maximum graphics quality, but without abuse of anti-aliasing modes and other tricks. For example, NVIDIA HairWorks and others like him. "Pulls" - that is, it gives out a conditionally playable minimum of 30 frames per second. No strong drawdowns and freezes. What do we see in the chart below? Out of 15 games, the stand with Core i3-6100 on board did not "pull out" only two. These are GTA V and Tom Clancy's The Division. In the second game, the video card choked on its own. The processor has nothing to do with it (with the Core i5-6400, exactly the same situation is observed).

And yet, processor dependence is observed in some games even with the Radeon R9 380. This is clearly seen in games such as GTA V, The Witcher 3, Need For Speed, Star Wars: Battlefront and Battlefield 4. The last three are based on the popular Frostbite engine. ... EA loves him. Mass Effect Andromeda and Mirror's Edge are coming soon. So the trend is already visible. Rockstar's bestseller reacted by increasing both average and minimum FPS. In other games on the stand with Core i5, the picture became smoother, as the minimum FPS increased noticeably: in the third Witcher by 29.6%, in Need For Speed ​​by 30.7%, in Star Wars: Battlefront and Battlefield 4 - by 51.4% and 15.4%, respectively.

In 5 out of 15 games, the Core i5 outperformed the Core i3. In other applications, equality

There are games in which the Core i3-6100 performed better than the Core i5-6400. These are DiRT Rally and HITMAN in DirectX 12 mode (with DirectX 11, there is practically no difference between the processors). For the rest, parity is fixed between the processors.

And now the dry statistics:

• In 5 out of 15 games, the Core i5-6400 turned out to be better;
• In one (DiRT Rally, HITMAN in DirectX 12 mode, I don't take into account) out of 15 games, the Core i3-6100 turned out to be better;
• In 9 out of 15 games, relative equality is observed, since the performance "rested" on the capabilities of the video card.

As you know, statistics is the third degree of lies. Yes, the Core i5 performed better in five games. But of these, only in GTA V and Star Wars: Battlefront, the difference in the number of frames can really be called significant. So Core i3 feels quite comfortable together with a video card of the Middle-end level.

Test results. Booth # 1

Let's complicate the task for our "stones" by installing a faster Radeon R9 Nano in the stands. I must say right away that DirectX 12 again showed itself in all its "glory". HITMAN using a different graphics adapter kept crashing. At the same time, in DirectX 11 mode, the benchmark worked stably. As a result, out of 15 applications I selected, the difference between the chips in question manifested itself again in five games. This time, Battlefield 4 dropped out of the pool of processor-dependent games, but its place was taken by Dragon Age: Inquisition - another child of "frostbyte". DiRT Rally ran faster again on the Core i3 stand. Obviously, this game is affected by a noticeable difference in frequency. In other games, there is relative equality between the processors.

Hello dear audience. In this article, we will analyze how the i5 processor differs from the i7. This is the second article in a series of comparisons. You can see the differences between i3 and i5 in. Here we will try to explain whether it makes sense to overpay for the top-end chip in the line, although it is damn good in all respects. Interesting? Then let's go.

As in the previous article, tables, comparisons, search for flaws (at least prices for i7 for an ordinary consumer), as well as other technological nuances will be used. The information is purely for informational purposes, but beginners will be very useful.

I would also like to note that we will consider chips of different generations. The most relevant at the moment are Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake, and they are interesting not only for their architecture, but also for completely different characteristics. Wondering what is the difference between Core i5 and Core i7? Let's get started.

Comparison to Coffee Lake

The debut of the 8th generation Intel chips caused a stir among the public as the company finally gave users what they had been asking for for a long time - more cores, higher frequencies and lower temperatures. The payoff, however, was the complete incompatibility of the 1151v2 socket with the first generation 1151 platform.
The comparison table looks like this:

The number of cores increased by 1.5 times in both cases, while the i7 also received 12 virtual threads instead of the usual 8, as was the case in Kaby Lake. Did this make the chip the best choice for PC gaming? Definitely.

Add to this a high power density per core, support for overclocking most chips of the series, up to 5 GHz, as well as an impressive amount of cache memory (2 MB for each core). But the i5 will also give a light to everyone who does not expect outstanding results from the stone.

Which chip to choose for the motherboard?

I would like to say right away that the performance of systems based on i5 and i7 will be very high. But I would still like to recommend the younger version, since most simply will not notice much difference in computing power when working with routine tasks. The top series available for socket 1151v2 is still chosen by enthusiasts and people professionally working in multi-threaded applications.

Difference in cores

Since the number of computing units for the i5 and i7 has always been the same (if we do not consider the laptop CPU range), then the comparison has always slipped away from the listing of the number of virtual threads. For the "middle" class, this indicator is equal to the size of the physical cores, while the "flagship" has exactly 2 times more.

Turbo Boost

And here again there is full parity, since the technology is available to both the former and the latter. In fact, this is a lazy overclocking mode, but its beauty lies in the fact that the processor does not consume more than it needs, but is accelerated only when performing complex computational tasks that require straining all the computing power.

This takes into account the cooling system, the maximum allowable thermal package, voltage and other "limiters" that can be neglected during manual overclocking. The second advantage of the technology is the fact that some cores can be chased separately if the application cannot use more than 1 thread at a time.

In this article, we'll guide you through the differences between the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processor families. If you had to study the technical characteristics of computers, then you have probably seen this numbering more than once. Let's explain what it means.

Intel Core i3, i5 and i7: what do the numbers mean?

You shouldn't think that the i3 is older than the i7, as it immediately comes to mind. Intel has developed a naming scheme for its processors to categorize them by performance. i3, i5 and i7 are processor performance levels: the higher the number, the faster the CPU. However, it is not at all necessary that a computer with an i3 processor was produced earlier than with an i7 processor.

Depending on the number, the processors have different purposes of application and, of course, belong to different price categories. So, since 2017, there has also been a Core i9, which is intended only for professional users (for example, IT companies, research institutes, data centers). Below we will show you which categories of users are suitable for this or that processor family.

Intel's Core i3 series are entry-level processors for office workstations. They are excellent at "pulling" simple applications and at the same time have a reasonable price.

The Core i3 is powerful enough to run most desktop applications. Therefore, it is primarily used in office PCs - for surfing the Internet, using e-mail, editing texts and working with office suites. The I3 does not use a lot of power, which is why it is often used in laptops, which provides good performance with long battery life.

Historically, i3 processors have only been released with two cores. Thanks to the Coffee Lake architecture, Intel also offers 4-core i3 processors.

The Intel Core i5 processor is used in devices with a good price-performance ratio. Therefore, such processors can often be seen in home computers.

The Core i5 provides ample power for gaming, video editing, or other resource-intensive applications. Fast laptops also often have Core i5 processors. The Core i5 specifications fall between the i3 and i7. Many budget gamers often choose this processor series.

Technically, i5 processors can have a maximum of 6 cores and dispense with Hyper-Threading Technology, which is "reserved" only for i7 processors.

The i7 series processors provide enough power to run high-performance applications, which is why they are very popular among IT or multimedia professionals and gamers.

The Core i7 processor provides the ability to use resource-intensive applications such as video editing, rendering, running virtual machines, or powerful games.

i7 is aimed primarily at professional users as well as demanding gamers. If you are using an i7 processor, all other components in your computer must be of adequate capacity.

Intel's i7 processors use Hyper-Threading technology - parallel computing. This speeds up intensive routines like rendering.