Confused about Processors. Can Someone explain :)

[Jordan Gulrajani]

Why are there so many numbers on CPU's this present days?  Please explain me all the details that I need to know about Processors whether it's there numbers or performance and etc.

[Litargirio]

First off, plural is constructed by adding ONLY the letter S and not 'S with the apostropy. It's CPUs, not CPU's. Numbers, not number's. Processors, not processor's. (some exceptions apply, like mouse/mice etc.)

 

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_processors

 

 

There are different processor types for two reasons:

 

One is that different people have different needs, so you'll pick a different processor depending on what you are going to be using it for.

 

The other reason is so they can make certain overpriced processors wich increase their ability to make amazing 60$ processors such as the Pentium G3258.

[Megah3rtz]

An i3 cpu has 2 cores to process with, an i5 has 4 cores, and i7 has 6 cores.

 

the more cores the better. a 6 in the i5 6500 means it is part of the skylake series. a 4, (i5 4690 for example) is haswell. 

 

a K version of a processor means it is unlocked, and you can overclock it (manually increase the speed of it) .

A T version of a processor means low power consumption.
 

so a i7 6700k is a skylake, 6 core processor, and is overclockable 

 

a i5 4690 is a haswell 4 core processor, and is not overclockable. 

 

i3 6100T is a skylake 2 core processor and has a lower clock speed, and has a lower TDP. (lower power and heat) and cannot be overclocked. 

 

I don't know if this is 100% accurate but it is my understanding.

 

[Megah3rtz]

This all changes if you decide to buy an AMD processor by the way. but I do know how to explain it better. 

[Megah3rtz]

Spoiler

 

 

[astrosheen]

11 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

An i3 cpu has 2 cores to process with, an i5 has 4 cores, and i7 has 6 cores.

 

the more cores the better. a 6 in the i5 6500 means it is part of the skylake series. a 4, (i5 4690 for example) is haswell. 

 

a K version of a processor means it is unlocked, and you can overclock it (manually increase the speed of it) .

A T version of a processor means low power consumption.
 

so a i7 6600k is a skylake, 4 core processor, and is overclockable 

 

a i5 4690 is a haswell 4 core processor, and is not overclockable. 

 

I don't know if this is 100% accurate but it is my understanding.

 

 

 

 

It is not quite that simple. i7 CPU's vary in core count (4-10 physical cores. 8-20 logical cores due to hyperthreading). The more cores the better is sort of true, only if you are comparing CPUs within the same generation(ie a 6 core cpu from 6 years ago will be slower than a 4 core from today). And once you get past 4 cores the number of programs that will take advantage of all the cores decreases very quickly. 

[Litargirio]

2 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

I don't know if this is 100% accurate but it is my understanding.

"The more cores the better" is not at true statement.

 

A family home PC used for web browsing, text writing and other such tasks would be good with a Pentium G3258, an i3 6100 or 4150. Anything above that will NOT improve the performance, and would thus be a waste of money.

 

A PC used solely for gaming would do fine with an i5 6400 or 6600K. Anything above that would not increase performance and thus be a waste of money.

 

A PC used for gaming, video editing, streaming and recording would benefit from an i7 6700. This is the best processor for this given platform (Z170).

 

 

 Also, laptop CPUs tend to be different from desktop CPUs, as there are even a few i7s with only 2 cores and 4 threads.

[Megah3rtz]

3 minutes ago, Litargirio said:

"The more cores the better" is not at true statement.

I knew that was a mistake the moment I typed that lol. 

 

however for gaming I can understand 4 cores being better than 2, but 6 cores being almost equal or a bit better to 4 cores. yes? (lets say a 6700k vs 6600k.) 

[jj9987]

20 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

An i3 cpu has 2 cores to process with, an i5 has 4 cores, and i7 has 6 cores.

 

the more cores the better. a 6 in the i5 6500 means it is part of the skylake series. a 4, (i5 4690 for example) is haswell. 

 

a K version of a processor means it is unlocked, and you can overclock it (manually increase the speed of it) .

A T version of a processor means low power consumption.
 

so a i7 6600k is a skylake, 4 core processor, and is overclockable 

 

a i5 4690 is a haswell 4 core processor, and is not overclockable. 

 

i3 6100T is a skylake 2 core processor and has a lower clock speed, and has a lower TDP. (lower power and heat) and cannot be overclocked. 

 

I don't know if this is 100% accurate but it is my understanding.

 

Incorrect.

Pentium is 2 cores and without HT.

i3 is mostly 2 cores and has Hyper-Threading (2 threads per core), so 2 cores and 4 threads.

i5 is mostly 4 cores and does not have HT. Some mobile ones are 2 cores and 4 threads (i5-5200U for example).

i7 mainstream CPUs are 4 cores and mostly with HT, so 4 cores and 8 threads. Some mobile ones are 2 cores, 4 threads as well.

i7 enthusiast CPUs are 6, 8 or 10 cores with HT.

 

When looking for a new processor, start out by understanding what it will be used for. Is it light workload, such as browsing and coding, or very high workloads, like gaming, video editing/rendering etc. Write out what you will be using the computer for.

 

Then it is recommended to look at the newest architecture, which would be Skylake for mainstream CPUs and Broadwell-E for enthusiast CPUs. When comparing CPUs, it is not as simple as just comparing frequencies. If they are from same architecture (for example, two Skylake processors) then yes, you can look at the clock speeds and see which one is faster. 

 

There are so many processors because they all vary in price - depending on people's needs. For gamers, 4 cores is enough - very few games can make use of more than 4 cores. Video editing and rendering on the other hand require a lot of CPU processing power - many cores. Very light workload, such as browsing, document editing, can be completed easily by even two core processor, such as i3, Pentium or even a Celeron.

 

This is more-or-less all from the Intel side. I am not aware of the current status on AMD's processor line-up, so can't say much about that.

 

EDIT: Some suggested CPUs if you need a desktop one:

If you are a enthusiast and require a lot of CPU power, go for i7-6800k or i7-6850k.

If you want to do overclocking, go for i5-6600k or i7-6700k. Both have 4 cores. i5 has 4 threads, i7 has 8 threads.

If you want just a good gaming processor, go for i5-6500.

If you want a basic CPU for light gaming and browsing, go for i3-6100.

[Morgan MLGman]

24 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

An i3 cpu has 2 cores to process with, an i5 has 4 cores, and i7 has 6 cores.

 

the more cores the better. a 6 in the i5 6500 means it is part of the skylake series. a 4, (i5 4690 for example) is haswell. 

 

a K version of a processor means it is unlocked, and you can overclock it (manually increase the speed of it) .

A T version of a processor means low power consumption.
 

so a i7 6600k is a skylake, 4 core processor, and is overclockable 

 

a i5 4690 is a haswell 4 core processor, and is not overclockable. 

 

i3 6100T is a skylake 2 core processor and has a lower clock speed, and has a lower TDP. (lower power and heat) and cannot be overclocked. 

 

I don't know if this is 100% accurate but it is my understanding.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

It's just half of the truth though, there's also an i7-6800K for example, which is not Skylake, and yet it has a 6 at the beginning of its number. It's Broadwell-E, which is an enthusiast version of Intel's 5th gen - Broadwell (those chips are for X99 chipset and start with 6 cores going all the way up to 22 cored Xeons)

Same thing applies to i7-5820K and other of X99 "5th" gen chips, they're Haswell, which theoretically is 4th gen. They're just called Haswell-E and they start from 6 cores in a CPU as well.

 

I'd say OP needs to understand this when it comes to desktop CPUs from Intel:

 

i3 - 2 cores / 4 threads, first digit is generation, and the rest of the digits are the model. Letter at the end of the CPU name means it's a low-powered, lower-clocked version.

i5 - 4 cores / 4 threads, same rule applies as above, with the addition of the letter "K" at the end of the name meaning the CPU is unlocked and can be overclocked

mainstream i7 (Z-series chipsets) - 4 cores / 8 threads, again, same rule as with the i5

enthusiast i7 (X-series chipsets) - usually from 6 cores up, there are only the 'K' versions (overclockable) with the exception of old gen ones (for example, i7-3820 for X79 chipset). They're usually one architecture behind the latest flagship, despite having the same first digit in their names.

Xeon - server grade CPUs from 4 cores up. Their naming is complicated so don't even bother.

 

Mobile CPUs - not gonna explain that, too many different versions.

 

As for AMD:

FX-line - the fastest of AMD CPUs, their names start with a number 4,6 or 8 which defines the number of "cores", the rest of the number is the particular model, example: FX-8350, FX-6100 etc.

A-line - APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), they contain a CPU and a Radeon GPU on a single chip. Starting from two to four cores, example of the name: A10-7870K, A8-6600K etc.

Athlon series - budget CPUs, they're basically APUs without the integrated Radeon GPU on the chip or with it disabled, they start from two to four cores, their names are for example: Athlon X4 880K, meaning that the number after the "X" is the amount of "cores", the K meaning it's unlocked and the 880 being a particular model.

 

Ugh, this was tiring. Especially that @jj9987 was a bit faster ^^

[Megah3rtz]

I haven't owned a intel cpu since my 2500k go easy guys l realized my mistake from the first 1-2 responses. 

[Zyndo]

25 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

Snip

i7's do not have 6 cores. also, there is no such thing as an i7 6600k...

 

pentium. 2 cores

i3 2 cores + ht

i5 4 cores

i7 4 cores + ht (they can go as high as 10 cores)

[Megah3rtz]

5 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

there is no such thing as an i7 6600k...

typo 

[SCHISCHKA]

you might like to read this site on intel CPU SKU:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html

I dont know if theres something similar for AMD

 

[Megah3rtz]

6 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

 

i7 4 cores + ht (they can go as high as 10 cores)

do any desktop skylake i7's have 4 cores? 

[Litargirio]

44 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

however for gaming I can understand 4 cores being better than 2, but 6 cores being almost equal or a bit better to 4 cores. yes? (lets say a 6700k vs 6600k.) 

100% equal unless you are going to multitask.

 

42 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

even a Celeron

In my experience, Celerons are good for nothing; some of them can reach 100% CPU usage even on idle with just Windows running on them.

[Megah3rtz]

11 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

snip

I think for the fx series the FX-x1xx is bulldozer, and the FX-x3xx series is the updated version piledriver or vishera. not sure what to call it. 

[Morgan MLGman]

Just now, Megah3rtz said:

I think for the fx series the FX-x1xx is bulldozer, and the FX-x3xx series is the updated version piledriver or vishera. not sure what to call it. 

There are different generations, it's too confusing to remember, it's best to just know that anything beyond the FX-83/63 series is not worth it Forgot to add that "E" at the end of the FX-CPU name means it's lower-clocked to use less power and it's usually better binned.

[Megah3rtz]

1 minute ago, Litargirio said:

100% equal unless you are going to multitask.

what type of multitasking? just extra programs in the backround, like music/chrome etc? 

[Litargirio]

3 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

do any desktop skylake i7's have 4 cores? 

All of them?

[Litargirio]

1 minute ago, Megah3rtz said:

what type of multitasking? just extra programs in the backround, like music/chrome etc? 

CPU heavy multitasking.

[Megah3rtz]

10 minutes ago, Litargirio said:

All of them?

I guess the quote "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt" holds true. 

[Litargirio]

 

3 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

I guess the quote "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt" holds true. 

I disagree. Knowledge is power.

[Matias_Chambers]

Intel Pentium: 2 cores

 

i3: 2 cores w/ hyperthreading

 

i5: 4 cores (All laptop U and Y CPU's have 2 cores and hyperthreading)

 

i7: 4-10 cores w/ hyperthreading

 

Xeon: 4 cores without hyperthreading up to 22 cores with hyperthreading (made for server use)

 

C – Desktop processor based on the LGA 1150 package with high performance graphics

H – High performance graphics

K – Unlocked

M – Mobile

Q – Quad-core

R – Desktop processor based on BGA1364 (mobile) package with high performance graphics

S – Performance-optimized lifestyle

T – Power-optimized lifestyle

U – Ultra-low power

X – Extreme edition

Y – Extremely low power

 

 

 

 

[Megah3rtz]

Just now, Litargirio said:

I disagree. Knowledge is power.

I just mean I made myself look like a fool lol. I would say I've learned from my mistakes I don't think I'll ever 100% understand intel.