How do I understand Intel CPUs?

[daffaqua]

I've been working with primarily AMD CPUs since I believe they are generally easier to understand than Intel's, but I've been wanting to try Intel CPUs for a while now, but have been too scared too considering the sheer amount of CPUs Intel has produced. How do I pick and understand an Intel CPU in case I do decide to try them.

[Dr. Will0hlep]

2 minutes ago, daffaqua said:

I've been working with primarily AMD CPUs since I believe they are generally easier to understand than Intel's, but I've been wanting to try Intel CPUs for a while now, but have been too scared too considering the sheer amount of CPUs Intel has produced. How do I pick and understand a Intel CPU in case I do decide to try them.

In short: you look at benchmarks.

 

But it does help to understand the naming scheme. For all currently released consumer Intel CPUs the model number is decyphiered as follows:

The first number (or two) is the generation. So a 9600K is a 9th generation CPU and a 13700K is a 13th generation CPU.

The last 3 numbers are SKU number, higher typically indicates more powerful (for Desktop CPUs at least, mobile is more complicated).

Finally there might be a letter after the model number. K is overclockable (with the right motherboard chipsets) and F lacks an iGPU.

 

As a final note: I would only recommend switching to Intel if it gives you better value for money in your use case. Otherwise, you should stick with AMD.

[Tegneren]

Basically this

 

[JonS77]

The numbers are easy to understand, 13400, 13600, 13700, 13900... bigger number means better. Don't bother with understanding i3, i5, i7... it's pointless. Then you just have to look at their number of cores and frequency + cache and power draw. K means it's unlocked, F means it doesn't have n iGPU, and KF means it's unlocked and doesn't have an iGPU which allows for theoretical better performance or lower temps.

 

Then you need to look at single core and multi core scores for how fast it would be for different apps. That's all

[Somerandomtechyboi]

for the past 15 or so years theyve been using core i3/5/7 and more recently i9 since skylake x

 

for mainstream desktop

pre 8th i7 gen are ht 4 core

8th gen i7 are ht 6 core

9th gen i7 are non ht 8 core with i9 being ht 8 core

10th gen i7 are ht 8 core with i9 being ht 10 core

11th gen i7 and i9 are ht 8 core

12th gen same thing as 11th but + ecores (i7 has 4 i9 has 8)

13th and 14th gen is just 12th gen but doubled ecores

 

for hedt

45nm bloomfield i7 are ht 4 core (i7 920-975), xeon counterparts are x/e 55xx and w35xx

32nm gulftown i7 are ht 6 core (i7 970-990x), xeon counterparts are x/e 56xx and w36xx

32nm sandy and 22nm ivy i7 are ht 4 core (38/4820) to ht 6 core (39/4930k or 39/4960x) with xeon e5 1680 (v2 for ivy) being 8 core

22nm haswell are ht 6 core (5820k 5930k) to ht 8 core (5960x) with overclockable xeons reaching upto 14 cores (e5 1691 v3) but these are unobtainium

14nm broadwell same thing as haswell but now theres also a 10 core (i7 6950x), xeon counterparts are e5 16xx 26xx v4 but the 16xx are worthless for broadwell due to locked multi (unlocked till haswell v3 xeons)

14nm skylake - cometlake up to 18 cores (x980xe)

intel 7 sapphire rapids upto 56 cores for overclockable ws xeons (w9 3945hx) or 60 cores for scalable (platinum 8490h)

 

pretty familiar with details/characteristics for x58 since i have that platform and do 3000+ ddr3 ocs, others i only know through reading, some i just have no clue on

[podkall]

2 hours ago, daffaqua said:

I've been working with primarily AMD CPUs since I believe they are generally easier to understand than Intel's, but I've been wanting to try Intel CPUs for a while now,

why resort to more expensive similar performance heat pump CPUs brand in view of gaming use case? (at least if you're comparing the recent ones)

[podkall]

2 hours ago, will0hlep said:

As a final note: I would only recommend switching to Intel if it gives you better value for money in your use case. Otherwise, you should stick with AMD.

Gobless

[Dr. Will0hlep]

4 hours ago, podkall said:

Gobless

? no idea what this response means

[podkall]

26 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

? no idea what this response means

god bless

[daffaqua]

11 hours ago, podkall said:

(at least if you're comparing the recent ones)

Recent Intel CPUs?

[podkall]

3 minutes ago, daffaqua said:

Recent Intel CPUs?

current gen Intel is worse value than AMD for gaming, 99% of people who are unbiased will tell you this

[daffaqua]

4 minutes ago, podkall said:

current gen Intel is worse value than AMD for gaming, 99% of people who are unbiased will tell you this

So I should just stick to my AMD preference

[podkall]

6 minutes ago, daffaqua said:

So I should just stick to my AMD preference

depends on use case, but gaming is currently AMD favoured