Is i3 i5 and i7 the same chip?

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Spiral Nemesis

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Jun 1, 2013
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You might know that when cpu manufacturer make chips, they test it. Depending on the result and the amount of defect, they will label these cpu differently. For example, if an i5 is well made, they will label it 3570k, but if the frequency of it cannot go as high, label as 3350p.

I was wondering if this also spans across the different i-series such as that all chip is based on the i7 but depending on how much stuff is working, label it different. for example, label something as i5 if hyperthread isnt working and an i3 if 2 core and hyperthread is not working.
 
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ayushde


See the i5 and the i7 are the same chips. The i5 is the lower binned chip with 2 mb L3 cache disabled and hyperthreading disabled.
But the i3 is a different chip. It is...
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ayushde

ayushde

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See the i5 and the i7 are the same chips. The i5 is the lower binned chip with 2 mb L3 cache disabled and hyperthreading disabled.
But the i3 is a different chip. It is the same chip as the Pentiums and the Celeron. It is a higher binned chip which unlike Pentium has hyperthreading and unlike Celeron has 1 mb extra L3 cache..
 
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Spiral Nemesis

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I see. I know that they can make an 3770k into a 3570k easily. Do they do this through hardware or software restriction?
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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aushide pretty much nailed it.

The i5 and the i7 are the same chip, and the i3 and the Pentiums are the same chip (essentially; sometimes it's a higher chip that doesn't perform as well, and sometimes it's a chip manufactured to lower specifications to meet demand.), but the celerons actually are different, as far as I'm aware.
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Hardware. You can't take a 3570k and, say, enable hyperthreading through a cracked BIOS, like you could with older processors.
 
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ayushde

ayushde

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It is more or less a hardware restricton. They use various methods like precise laser cutting to disable a part of the chip like a few cores (i7 3820 is actually the same chip as a 8 core xeon) or the cache..
 
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