Core i5-12450H vs Core i3-1215U, which should I choose?

[timur01]

Hi,

 

I'm currently speccing out a budget laptop (Lenovo Ideapad 3) on top of my desktop for some studies abroad, I'll be doing some web browsing, video playback, word-editing & Excel, and some relatively light database management (Access) and QGIS/ ArcGIS workloads.

 

I'm torn between the i5-12450H and the i3-1215U. Both would come with 16GB of RAM (5800 Mhz DDR5 for the first, and 3200Mhz DDR4 for the latter). I haven't found many reliable performance comparatives online. The i3 system is 70 bucks cheaper and comes with a better battery.

 

Is the i3 a good choice? Or will I notice enough of a performance difference to justify shelling out for the i5 instead?

 

Thanks

 

 

[jaslion]

Yeah get that 12450h the i3 is quite low end and only 2 perf cores HURTS. We know we have the 12 gen i5 u's here at work and they ain't that good.

[8tg]

Two different classes of cpu, H series are higher wattage mobile options, in this case a 45 watt chip with I think a 95 watt boost? It’s closer to its desktop counterparts than it is ultra mobile CPUs.

The U series are low voltage, low power options. 15 watts with a 45 watt boost. As well the core count is much lower than the i5, just in raw performance they’re not in the same league. The i5 will vastly outperform the i3 in this comparison.

 

That is not without drawbacks, a high power H series chip is going to be hot, loud, and have reduced battery life in comparison to a ulv U series. That’s the trade off for the higher performance.