Which intel chip should i get

Not all laptops come in all varieties of processor. However, the iG7, ig7, ig7 and ig7 mobile processors are the 11th Gen laptop highlights as they have Intel Xe graphics. These chipsets are better than the integrated GPUs of their respective desktop cousins, and let you play games once thought of as ultra-demanding on a thin and light laptop.

An Intel Core i5 is a sensible place to start whether you plan to buy a laptop or desktop. They have enough power for high-end gaming, intensive image editing work and video editing. And they use less power than a Core i7 or i9, which is nice.

The Core i7 is more powerful than the Core i5 series. And the Core i9 chipsets are, you guessed it, more powerful than the i7s. So how do you quantify the differences between an Intel Core i3 and an i9?

I can use a human analogy here. If you have more cores, you have more workers to do a job. And a higher clock speed means each of these workers can get stuff done at a quicker pace. Some tasks, like gaming, benefit more from a few fast cores than an increased number of them. But others like video editing love a processor with lots of cores, because the applications are designed to exploit all the available CPU power. Games are, for the most part, miners of graphics card power.

In previous years we would have had to explain another term to get to the root of performance differences, hyperthreading. But all the main 11th Gen have hyperthreading. This is where you to torture the metaphor a little more get to give each of the workers two jobs at at time instead of one. Those folks should unionise. Higher-end Intel processors also have more cache memory than mid-range and low-end ones. This is very fast storage used to hold the data the CPU cores are about to need.

However, the last gen i9- K has 20MB. Choosing whether to buy a Core i5, i7 or i9 can seem pretty simple. But you also need to pay attention to the letters at the end of a CPU name before you head to the checkout. As we mentioned before, in normal circumstances, only one thread can be served by one core of your processor at a time. So if a CPU is a dual-core, then supposedly only two threads can be served simultaneously. However, Intel has introduced a technology in recent years called Hyper-Threading.

This changes this status quo by enabling a single core to serve multiple threads at once by virtually doubling the cores that your operating system perceives. This means that while an i5 might have 4 physical cores, hyper-threading effectively doubles this - allowing for potentially huge performance improvements when it comes to applications that support multiple threads.

The maximum amount that Turbo Boost can raise clock speed at any given time is dependent on the number of active cores, the estimated current consumption, the estimated power consumption, and the processor temperature. Basically, it lets you get the best of both world when it comes to clock-speed and core-count.

What's more, some offer the Turbo Boost 3. This doesn't replace Turbo Boost 2. Whenever your CPU finds that it keeps on using the same data over and over, it usually stores that data in a part of the processor called the cache.

With a larger cache, more data can be accessed quickly. Unlike clock speed and core-count, cache size is without reservation a case of bigger being better. The more memory you have, the more your CPU has to work with. This is clearly one area where an i7 outperforms a Core i5 or Core i3 processor. Generally speaking, Core i7s are better than Core i5s, which are in turn better than Core i3s. Core i7 does not have seven cores nor does Core i3 have three cores.

The numbers are more of an arbitrary way to distinguish between their relative processing powers than a specific designation based on core count or clock speed or anything technical like that. Introduced in , the Core i9 series is a super-high end range of processors that boasts incredibly high thread and core-counts.

The top-end Core iXE Scorptec touts cores clocked at a base clock speed of 2. Meanwhile, the cheapest option in the current lineup - the i Amazon - boasts 10 cores capable of serving 20 threads and a base clock speed of 2. Intel's Core i9 processors are also really expensive. Intel's Core i7 processors are usually better than Intel Core i5 processors, which are in turn usually better than Core i3 processors.

They're not really suitable for gaming or heavy multitasking but, at their best, Core i3 processors are the cheap option you can get away with having. In the context of laptops, they're suitable basic tasks like web browsing and checking your email. However, desktop-builders will likely want to steer clear of them. Intel Core i5 processors usually have the highest base clock speeds while Intel Core i7s and beyond tend to boast the higher core count. If you're keen to run graphically intensive games and apps, it's probably going to be worth shelling out for the extra 'oomph' that an i7 provides.

If your needs are more modest, your money might be better spent on an Intel Core i5 with higher clock speeds than an Intel Core i7 with additional processor cores. Finally, if you're looking for the beefiest processor Intel can build, you'll want to be looking at Intel's current crop of Core i9 processors. They aren't cheap and are probably overkill for most users but they deliver incredible payloads of performance nevertheless.

In some ways, the technical differences between each and every iteration of Intel's Core CPU lineup are less important than learning the differences between the target audiences for Intel's Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 and Core i9 processors.

Long live the king. Read our full Intel Core i5 K review. That the Core i5 K takes the top spot is hard to argue with—awesome performance at a good price will do that—but Intel's top chip hitting the second spot may be a little more surprising. The reasoning here is that the vast majority of gamers should get the Core i5, leaving this second spot covering those that need even more performance. If you're building a high-end PC not just for high-end, 4K gaming, but for more serious pursuits like 3D rendering and video editing, then this is the chip for you.

It's a powerhouse, no question about it, but one that really needs a system built around it to make it shine—you'll need a beefy PSU to get that absolute best from it, and a serious cooler wouldn't hurt either. The fact that there is plenty of overclocking headroom will allow you to push it to a whole new level as well.

When it comes to gaming performance, this is the fastest chip out there, by a considerable margin. The problem is, you only get a few more frames per second over our top recommendation and you have to pay royally for the privelige. And even when you're buying an 'ethusiast' class CPU, you still need to have an eye on overall value for money.

Read our full Intel Core i9 K review. There's very little between any of the Ryzen chips in games, which means you'll hit the same frame rates with this chip as you will the more expensive Ryzen 9 X. Which is incredible when you think about it—top-tier performance from the most affordable Zen 3 CPU? We'll say yes to that every single day. This does have half the core count of the X, rolling in as it does with six cores and 12 threads.

However, this is only an issue with those more serious workloads, which is more than sufficient for more reasonable stuff. You could argue that gaming could go beyond the threads we have here, but there's no evidence that is the case so far, and that's even though the next-gen consoles are rocking 8-cores and threads.

The Ryzen 5 X also bucks the Ryzen family's trend by shipping with a Wraith Stealth cooler, so you don't have to drop extra money on a third-party chiller. You don't need to, but if you do, you'll hit higher clocks for longer and also open up the wonderful world of overclocking, which could make it worthwhile. This is a decent little overclocker, and while it won't affect gaming much, it'll help in other areas nicely.

The key takeaway for us as gamers is that this improvement means AMD pushed Intel to improve, and improve it did with Alder Lake. Whatever resolution you are gaming at, this processor can handle it and keep your graphics card of choice fed with many juicy frames. The fact that this is a core, thread monster means that it can cope with anything else you throw at it as well. So if you have dreams of 3D rendering, video editing, or any other serious tasks, you'll know that you have the raw grunt to handle it.

That it won't hold you back when gaming makes it even sweeter. The only real downside is the pricing and the dropping of the Wraith cooler—don't forget to factor in when you buy. You do get what you pay for, though, and this is a phenomenal chip for gaming and anything else you might want to do. If you're in the market for absolute power, you could step up to the Ryzen 9 X , which gives you 16 cores and 32 threads.

Okay, with the K being a frustrating chip, maybe it's not a total return to the old days, but the K is still an outstanding six-core, thread gaming processor. It's also affordable too, with a price tag well underneath the Ryzen 5 X and performance figures that have it trading blows with AMD's otherwise excellent Zen 3 chip. The Cypress Cove 14nm backport may have made it relatively power-hungry, but that doesn't stop it from being a great gaming CPU and one that delivers a lot of processor silicon for not a lot of cash.

And PCIe 4. Though that is of dubious benefit at the moment as our testing has not so far gone well with supported PCIe 4. That will hopefully change, but even so, this is still one of the best cheap gaming CPUs around. The Core i5 F is a surprisingly exciting option. It's slightly faster than the previous-gen Core i5 , but that F-suffix means it ditches the Intel integrated graphics completely.

Overall, it's an excellent budget-friendly choice that doesn't cost much more than a Core i3 part. There are other compromises, like the locked multiplier—no overclocking here. But you can save money and grab an H motherboard. At least you get a cooler in the box, something we'd like to see as an option with every CPU. Most boards will happily run the F at 3. Future games may start to push beyond its 6-core capabilities, but probably not before you're ready for an upgrade.

Right now, the i5 F is plenty fast and extremely affordable. If the Intel Core i7 K didn't exist, this would be an incredible chip and would have been higher up the recommendations, no sweat.

It's excellent for gaming, producing the exact figures that can be seen for the X and X. Still, it also appears to hit the sweet spot in configuration terms, with its eight cores and 16 threads surely seeing it right for the future, seeing as that is what the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 are rocking.

Unfortunately for AMD, Intel does exist, and the blue company's latest Core i7 trounces this in plenty of the more critical metrics but has this chip beat in one significant way—value for money. This can be faster in some tasks, and if that's what you've got an eye on, then buy this and don't give it a second thought. But if you're mainly looking at gaming, Intel does better and costs less. And that's hard for AMD to get away from. Competition aside, this is still Zen 3 strutting its stuff, and it does that impressively well.