Comparison of i3 and i5

[bvr37]

I am looking of a laptop.

The difference between the i3 and i5 listed are
2.1GHz i3 and 2.3GHz i5
i5 has turboboost technology and the speed may go upto 2.9GHz under some conditions.

In what circumstances does it go up ?

Does it make appreciable difference ?

Speed depends on external ram also. And the ram operates at 1333MHz in either case.

Effectively how much gain would be there ?

For which kind of applications is the difference significant ?

Thank you

 

[henydiah]

Wow i5 faster

 

[sarinaide]

For Sandy Bridge (1155) processors

I3 2100/2105/2120/2125:

The i3 is a 32nm Dual Core processor with 2 physical cores and 2 hyperthreads effectively making it a 2 core and 4 threads processor. The 2100 runs at 3.1ghz while the 2120 runs at 3.3ghz. The 2105 has updated HD 3000 integrated graphics but is a 2100.

The I5 is a quad core processor with 4 cores and 4 threads, has no hyperthreading, but has Turbo boost 2.0 support. The lower end i5's (2300/2310/2400/2500) have locked clock multipliers, while the highend 2500k has unlocked clock multipliers.

In gaming the i3 is as good as an i5 in gpu bound games, but will drop in performance where games are more cpu bound, the 2500k is pretty much as good as it gets but the i3 is not blown away. If you are just gaming and want to cut costs a bit, the i3 and good GPU is a good gaming platform. If you are into Home Theatre and encoding and more multithreaded applications then the i5's are better.

 

[bvr37]

Thanks for the reply.

I am looking for the laptops

The two processors are i3-2310 and i5-2410.

Both have 2 core and 4 threads.

Can u pl clarify now ?

Thans

 

[photonboy]

To be clear:

Pretty much any modern CPU has plenty of processing power for most tasks. If your a GAMER then your graphics card will likely be the bottleneck anyway.

My advice if your a non-gamer is to ignore the CPU specs. In fact, a "faster" CPU may simply use more power and thus generate more heat and thus more fan noise.

It is rare for a modern CPU to reach 100%. It usually does so ONLY when booting up (and only for a few seconds), when running Anti-Virus software or when converting video.

I believe laptops using the i3 CPU which also show Intel graphics have those graphics on the same chip as the CPU. These laptops should be very quiet and, again if your a non-gamer the CPU and graphics are adequate for your needs.

Other:
If I was recommending a laptop to a non-gamer I'd be telling them to look at these things:
1) company. recommend Asus or HP
2) Screen size? 15.6" or 17"
3) screen resolution and ratio (get a 16x9 ratio, and at least 1366x768 for 15.6" and HIGHER than this for 17")
4) outputs: at least 3USB and HDMI (if HDMI is important. It means you can output video to an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)
5) hard drive: at least 250GB (pretty standard). 7200RPM drives are faster than 5400RPM. I recommend 7200RPM if possible (and eventually in a year or more I'd get an SSD)
6) If 17", if possible, I recommend getting a laptop with two hard drive bays. One will be used. If you eventually get an SSD, you can CLONE the main hard drive to it, then use that hard drive as a backup drive.
7) RAM. 3GB or 4GB (more than 4GB is overkill and just creates heat)

Video tip:
If new to watching any movies or videos you have on your hard drive, I recommend you install and use the program "VLC" (videolan). Turn on the feature "enable video acceleration (overlay)" in preferences-videos. This will enable certain videos to be decoded using a special chip which uses less power instead of on the CPU. It will reduce fan noise especially for High Definition video.

 

[ojas]

For Sandy Bridge (1155) processors

I3 2100/2105/2120/2125:

The i3 is a 32nm Dual Core processor with 2 physical cores and 2 hyperthreads effectively making it a 2 core and 4 threads processor. The 2100 runs at 3.1ghz while the 2120 runs at 3.3ghz. The 2105 has updated HD 3000 integrated graphics but is a 2100.

The I5 is a quad core processor with 4 cores and 4 threads, has no hyperthreading, but has Turbo boost 2.0 support. The lower end i5's (2300/2310/2400/2500) have locked clock multipliers, while the highend 2500k has unlocked clock multipliers.

You're correct, but you're talking about the desktop processors, he's asking about the laptop processors.

The two processors are i3-2310 and i5-2410.

Both have 2 core and 4 threads.

Can u pl clarify now ?

Thans

You are correct, both have a 2C/4T config. The difference here would lie in AES-256 support and some other features (click "compare processors" on the intel site) unlocked on the i5. The difference between 2.1 GHz and 2.3 GHz would probably be noticeable in benchmarks and in CPU intensive applications only, otherwise i doubt you'd see much of a difference. But, the difference between 2.1 GHz and 2.9 GHz should be pretty obvious, and if you're running CPU intensive tasks then it should help significantly in speeding up your work. Word processing won't be able to highlight the differences well enough.

I don't know why you'd want to complicate it with bringing RAM speeds into the picture, though if in both cases the RAM's at 1333 then faster CPU clock=more performance, since both CPUs are based on the same architecture.

Also: Turbo boost kicks in as long as your processor is cool enough to support that function (and the CPU thinks it needs more power and speed). What i'm saying is, as long as the processor is within a thermal ceiling (that intel decides), it'll use more power than specified by it's TDP, and increase it's clock rate, should it (the CPU) think that it's needed. When the temperature reaches a certain point, the clock speeds will automatically drop, allowing the CPU to cool down.

For more info on turbo boost and sandy bridge, see: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833.html


Hope this helps,
Ojas

 

[ojas]

My advice if your a non-gamer is to ignore the CPU specs. In fact, a "faster" CPU may simply use more power and thus generate more heat and thus more fan noise.

Both processors have the same TDP at stock clocks. Once turbo kicks in, the i5 will consume more power.

 

[jaguarskx]

In the Core i5-2410M the 2.9GHz clock speed is only obtainable if one of the cores is being stressed. If both cores are stressed then then the clock speed will only go up to 2.7GHz for both cores.

"Stress" is any program that requires a lot of processing power. An easy example is games. Other examples includes compression and decompressing files, encoding music and/or videos, and compiling a database.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Well you can see how they stack up at http://ark.intel.com/compare/52224,52220 . With Turbo Boost 2.0 you will have a higher clock speed on the processor even when you are using all the cores as long as the processor is staying at a reasonable temperature.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[photonboy]

I recommended a laptop to someone who had basic business, internet and e-mail needs. The choice of Asus versus HP was down to availability and sale price:

- HP laptop
- 17", 1600x900 resolution screen
- two hard drive bays (recommended for a future 120GB SSD main drive + storage hard drive configuration)
- Intel i3 CPU with integrated Intel graphics
- 4GB RAM
- HDMI output (to output DVD, stored videos, slide show software etc to a 2nd monitor or HDTV)
- DVDR only (but a BluRay drive could be swapped in the future when prices drop)
- 4USB inputs, headphone
- SD card slot
- webcam (pretty standard)

Other:
I also talked him through the process of downloading and installing:
1) BIOS update (main board)
2) drivers and other software (specific to this laptop from the HP site)
*In general there are very few updates beyond one year of a new laptop being released but there are often a few critical updates in the first six months. My dad's HP laptop stuttered playing video and a BIOS update solved this.

**I've never seen auto-update software truly work properly. If in doubt, simply download all the latest driver or BIOS updates and install them (be sure they are for YOUR laptop model specifically). It doesn't hurt to re-install drivers. If you know a bit more you can open the Device Manager and find the driver versions and compare them online.

Write down which the driver versions you apply (a TEXT file on your laptop is a good idea to keep track) and check every month for updates until they've stopped for several months.