What is hyper threading?

[mrfishes]

I am looking to upgrade from a laptop to a mid size gaming tower and as I was looking at CPU's i noticed only some have hyper threading. What is it? Do I need it? Do only i7 CPU's have it?

[Askew]

[Shd0w2]

If you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it.

 

 

Especially since you said "gaming" I doubt you'll be video editing or renering, where an I7 excels at.

 

 

 

If you just want to game and you want intel, go for a 4690k or 4670k.

[mrfishes]

If you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it.

 

 

Especially since you said "gaming" I doubt you'll be video editing or renering, where an I7 excels at.

 

 

 

If you just want to game and you want intel, go for a 4690k or 4670k.

So do I even need an i7 for gaming or would a i5 with similar frequency be just as good if not better?

[Shd0w2]

So do I even need an i7 for gaming or would a i5 with similar frequency be just as good if not better?

NO you do not need an i7 for gaming, as I said, if you are looking to get into a newer CPU + have about $240, go for a 4690k. It can reach 3.9ghz with turbo. 

[Askew]

So do I even need an i7 for gaming or would a i5 with similar frequency be just as good if not better?

 

For gaming, the i5 performance is identical in most cases, if you're buying one now take the 4690K and a Z97 motherboard.

[Faceman]

So do I even need an i7 for gaming or would a i5 with similar frequency be just as good if not better?

You only need an i5.  Hyperthreading for gaming does next to nothing when you have 4+ cores.  The i5-4670k or i5-4690k + Z87/97 motherboard will do you well for any game out there.

[Glenwing]

(Note: very simplified explanation)

Hyperthreading is (so to speak) a protocol that allows each CPU core to be assigned a "backup task" that it works on whenever its primary task is stalled (waiting for data retrieval from the RAM, waiting for another core to finish a calculation that it needs the results from, or various other reasons).  Because of these "backup tasks", each core can still do useful calculations when it would otherwise be idle while the main task is stalled, wasting CPU cycles.  In this way, it mitigates efficiency loss on certain types of applications, particularly heavily-threaded RAM-intensive applications.  Content creation programs (video rendering, CAD, 3D modeling/animation, etc.) and servers benefit from this most.  Games basically don't benefit at all, so an i5 is the best choice for gaming.

 

Hyperthreading is artificially disabled on most desktop i5 CPUs to create market segments.  Physically, the i5 and i7 CPUs are exactly the same chips.  In general, the Pentium CPUs are dual-core, i3s are dual-core with hyperthreading, i5s are quad-core, and i7s are quad-core with hyperthreading, but there are some exceptions to this, and mobile CPUs have an entirely different system of naming/categorizing.

[Wiff]

(Note: very simplified explanation)

Hyperthreading is (so to speak) a protocol that allows each CPU core to be assigned a "backup task" that it works on whenever its primary task is stalled (waiting for data retrieval from the RAM, waiting for another core to finish a calculation that it needs the results from, or various other reasons).  Because of these "backup tasks", each core can still do useful calculations when it would otherwise be idle while the main task is stalled, wasting CPU cycles.  In this way, it mitigates efficiency loss on certain types of applications, particularly heavily-threaded RAM-intensive applications.  Content creation programs (video rendering, CAD, 3D modeling/animation, etc.) and servers benefit from this most.  Games basically don't benefit at all, so an i5 is the best choice for gaming.

 

Hyperthreading is artificially disabled on most desktop i5 CPUs to create market segments.  Physically, the i5 and i7 CPUs are exactly the same chips.  In general, the Pentium CPUs are dual-core, i3s are dual-core with hyperthreading, i5s are quad-core, and i7s are quad-core with hyperthreading, but there are some exceptions to this, and mobile CPUs have an entirely different system of naming/categorizing.

an i3 has hyper threadiing but an i5 not?

[Glenwing]

an i3 has hyper threadiing but an i5 not?

 

That's correct.  The i5s are i7s with hyperthreading artificially disabled to create market segments.

[Wiff]

That's correct.  The i5s are i7s with hyperthreading artificially disabled to create market segments.

is there a way to ,,unlock'' this in an i5

[Glenwing]

is there a way to ,,unlock'' this in an i5

 

There is no way to unlock it that I'm aware of.  It's likely they are physically crippled (necessary connections lasered off) to prevent this.

[Wiff]

There is no way to unlock it that I'm aware of.  It's likely they are physically crippled (necessary connections lasered off) to prevent this.

ok

[LukaP]

There is no way to unlock it that I'm aware of.  It's likely they are physically crippled (necessary connections lasered off) to prevent this.

thought it was possible on some Ivy i5s by chenging the microcode, making it an i7