What is the difference between intel mobile CPU's ?

cmi86 · Jul 31, 2014

My new laptop has an i7 that is only a dual core with HT. I thought the i7's were all quads and that is why they cost more and perform better vs the mobile i3's and i5's that are also dual cores with HT. So what makes my i7 any better than a far less expensive i3 of equal speed ??

Suztera · Jul 31, 2014

Here is a good explanation of why there are different variety of i3, i5 and i7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLSPub4ydiM&list=UU0vBXGSyV14uvJ4hECDOl0Q

Desktop i7 typically are quad cores.
Laptop i7 can vary from dual cores.

Zircoben · Jul 31, 2014

cmi86 :

With mobile Intel CPUs, the -M class are much more power powerful and are the quad cores. Meanwhile, the -U ones are more power efficient.

You are probably looking at the i7-4500U, which, like the i5-4200U, is a low-power dual core.

jaguarskx · Aug 1, 2014

For Desktop Core i7 CPUs all of them are quad core CPUs with Hyper Threading. However, for mobile CPU it is a different story...

All mobile Intel CPUs are dual core CPUs with Hyper Threading; this includes the Core i7 CPUs. The exceptions are Core i7 CPUs with the following designations which are quad core CPUs with Hyper Threading:

MQ
HQ
MX

All CPUs with "M", "U" and "Y" designations are dual core CPUs.

Example:

Core i7-4610M = Dual Core + Hyper Threading
http://ark.intel.com/products/80345/Intel-Core-i7-4610M-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz

Core i7-4800MQ = Quad Core + Hyper Threading
http://ark.intel.com/products/75128/Intel-Core-i7-4800MQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz?q=i7-4800mq

cmi86 · Aug 1, 2014

Thanks for all the responses guys. Unfortunately I understand the nomenclature now but am still baffled to what separates this supposedly high and mighty i7 from a lowly i3 costing half as much ?? Is it really only a slightly better igpu and a little more cache ?

jaguarskx · Aug 1, 2014

It's called "Diminishing Returns".

The more performance you want the more you have to pay. It does not scale up linearly. Sometimes for a small performance gain of 100MHz, the price increases by $200 or more. A dual core i7 "U" or "M" runs faster and has more cache and potentially may have the more powerful Intel HD 5000 vs the Intel HD 4400 (in "U" models only). The Intel HD 4600 in fact is more powerful than the Intel HD 4400.

A major difference is the Core i3 lacks Turbo Boost which allows the CPU to overclock itself as long as it is not too hot. Only Core i5 and i7 CPUs have Turbo Boost.

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What is the difference between intel mobile CPU's ?

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