Nobody enjoys lag and poor graphics while playing games on their computers because of a slow Central Processing Unit (CPU); so when it comes to choosing the right parts to do the job, don’t rely on advertising and pushy sales people to give you an honest choice that will give give you the best bang for your buck; after all, newer technology does not always out-do the older.
Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 are the two of the top CPU’s on the market today, and many pre-built gaming computers will boast having the newer (and more expensive) Core i7 with ‘Hyper-threading technology.’ Take a look at the following sales points for the i7:
Intel Core i7 advertisement (LandRoverz)
That all seems cool, but this processor is valued around $100 or even more compared to Core i5 processors, as shown below:
i5 price vs i7 in different models, i5 is much cheaper (bottom of table) despite similar specifications (Tomshardware)
So why are the i7’s worth so much more than the i5’s? The major difference that i7’s use what is called ‘hyper-threading.’ This basically means that the CPU can handle multitasking much more efficiently.
When looking solely at gaming capability however, the i7 is overkill price wise to the i5 and completely necessary because most games today do not utilize hyper-threading in the first place. That said, actual game benchmarks tell the rest of the story when comparing the two CPU’s and their relative performance (in frames per second) for the new game called Skyrim:
benchmarks for i5 and i7 CPU’s in game ‘Skyrim’ in frames per second (higher value means smoother video output that you see). Both are relatively equal. (notebookcheck.net)
As shown above, the top i7 model produces a maximum of only 2.2 frames more per second than the oldest i5 model. This test shows that the cheaper i5 CPU’s (without hyper-threading) are on par with the newest and most expensive generation in the i7 CPU’s. The sum of these arguments is given below,
applications of i5 and i7, which one is better for different tasks. (custompcreview)
As mentioned above, for gaming, the i5 is truly the way to go when gaming and basic applications are that majority of tasks to be done by the computer as opposed to the newer and more advanced i7 processors. This is interesting considering that in this day and age, ‘newer’ is often synonymous with ‘better’ (especially with computer science and technology advances).
Most comparison tests will render similar results to the above example, and that takes into account the fact that even the most demanding games like Skyrim do not take advantage of the hyper-threading that i7 processors boast. Thus the i5 generation of CPU’s are perfect for basic tasks and gaming and will save at least $100 if bought instead of an i7. That $100 or more that is saved by purchasing an i5 instead of i7 can go towards purchasing a nice monitor to play your games on.
-Surbinder Bolina
