Dylan McIntyre :
SkylerJacobs :
Single core performance between an i5 and an i7 of the same architecture are likely to be very very close, and exactly the same when matched clock for clock.
i was assuming that, but wasnt exactly sure
Yupp, so say for example: We have an i5-4670k and an i7-4770k. The difference between the two CPUs is that the i7 is hyper-threaded. This allows for the i7 to be a "logical" 8 core (2 threads per core x 4 cores), while the i5 will only be seen as a quad-core processor.
At stock speeds, the i7 is likely to have a slightly higher single core performance because of its slightly higher clock speed. When both are overclocked to the same frequency, the single core performance is likely to be the same. Where the i7 really shines is with multi-threaded applications, where the computer can take advantage of the extra threads.