What gives with Intel gen 5 CPUs?

[Dale Preston]

About 6 years ago, Intel said that in 10 years, typical PCs would have 100 CPU cores. 10 years is almost here and yet the latest generation of CPUs from Intel are a step back 10 years. The i7-5500u, being touted as the greatest new processor from Intel by the laptop and PC makers has only 2 cores and has benchmark performance about half, even on a per-core basis, than the 4710mq.

I'm looking for a laptop to replace my 4-year-old i7-2630mq based HP and all the latest generation Intel-based laptops are weaker than my 4-year-old. If I go back a year+ to the gen 4 processors I get similar, even if barely better, performance than my i7-2630mq but the newest laptops aren't even close.

I've always been an intel fan since doing design and development of 8080 systems in the 70's but maybe it's time for an AMD comeback.

 

[teknobug]

Welcome to the devolving world of laptops, been buying and using laptops since the early 90's and I've seen a downward spiral the past 4-5 years with both build quality and processor features. Mobile market is gaining ground and companies are cutting corners on them because they can make boatloads of money off them due to popularity.

I have an Intel NUC with i3 4010U and it's a decent processor, it'll get most of what you need done and still have room to breathe, but still isn't anywhere nearly as good as the previous i3 4000M.

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

Welcome to the devolving world of laptops, been buying and using laptops since the early 90's and I've seen a downward spiral the past 4-5 years with both build quality and processor features. Mobile market is gaining ground and companies are cutting corners on them because they can make boatloads of money off them due to popularity.

I have an Intel NUC with i3 4010U and it's a decent processor, it'll get most of what you need done and still have room to breathe, but still isn't anywhere nearly as good as the previous i3 4000M.

My favorite thing they do with laptops is to weld the chip to the board so you can't either upgrade the chip or migrate the old one to a different system.

 

[synphul]

I think first you need to decide what you want. Raw processing power or ultra low voltage energy efficiency. The u series as in the 5500u is an ultra low voltage variant designed for energy efficiency and manages the performance it does with a 15w tdp. Performance can mean many things, dodge has a v10 pickup truck that will make sure you hit every gas station. The prius on the other hand sips fuel thanks to being an efficient hybrid. Should someone who buys a prius complain it won't tow their speedboat?

Why not get a laptop with an i7 4940mx with a turbo up to 4ghz, quad core, hyperthreaded. It's also a 57w tdp inside a laptop though, vs the 15w of the 5500u. It's not that the current generation of laptops are weaker, it's the particular cpu options you're shopping. You're not going to find something to tow your boat shopping prius.

The 4710mq you're referring to wasn't a low power design and was a quad core cpu, not a dual core like the 5500u. You may as well be comparing an i3 to an i5. The dual core 2629m i7 would've been a more direct comparison to the 5500u. Usually intel releases the high end cpu's first, with broadwell they've only released the low end cpu's and higher end broadwell's aren't available yet.

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

I think first you need to decide what you want. Raw processing power or ultra low voltage energy efficiency. The u series as in the 5500u is an ultra low voltage variant designed for energy efficiency and manages the performance it does with a 15w tdp. Performance can mean many things, dodge has a v10 pickup truck that will make sure you hit every gas station. The prius on the other hand sips fuel thanks to being an efficient hybrid. Should someone who buys a prius complain it won't tow their speedboat?

Why not get a laptop with an i7 4940mx with a turbo up to 4ghz, quad core, hyperthreaded. It's also a 57w tdp inside a laptop though, vs the 15w of the 5500u. It's not that the current generation of laptops are weaker, it's the particular cpu options you're shopping. You're not going to find something to tow your boat shopping prius.

The 4710mq you're referring to wasn't a low power design and was a quad core cpu, not a dual core like the 5500u. You may as well be comparing an i3 to an i5. The dual core 2629m i7 would've been a more direct comparison to the 5500u. Usually intel releases the high end cpu's first, with broadwell they've only released the low end cpu's and higher end broadwell's aren't available yet.

The problem is they haven't fully fleshed out the specs on future Skylake chips. That U series isn't geared to gamers or even general PC usage, the Skylake specs might be interesting when they eventually release them but I don't expect them to release their gaming chips until 2016 if only not to undercut the 58xx series which gamers and power users are presently gravitating to.

Because AMD hasn't released a new chip in a while I really don't expect much from Skylake if only because they're not being forced to innovate with a new AMD chip nipping at their heels.

I wish there were 4 or more competitive CPU chip makers. Then we might see 100 cores running at 8ghz in 10 years.