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Difference and Comparison between Intel’s Single Core Processors, Core 2 Duo vs Core 2 Quad vs Core i7 vs Core i5 vs Core i3.

I have tried to cover every aspect which can mainly come into one’s mind when he/she thinks about Intel Processers.

Fasten your seat belt & be paitent.. Let’s find the Myth of i3,i5 & i7.

 

Introduction

Several people have been asking me this question and I had this research pending for a quite a few days now. In this article, I will discuss about the comparison between different processor technologies by Intel. This looks like a very technical question but when you go to buy a desktop or a laptop computer, this turns out to be a core question.

and mainly a question “Should I buy i5 or i3″ My cousin’s neighbour’s friend told me that there is no difference between i5 & i3 BLA BLA..

Flash Back

Most of us have been using those good old single core processors. Then Intel came up with their dual core technology. Dual core means, you have physically two processors that are soldered together into one microprocessor. They work independently and you actually have two processors working in your computer.

Then came a wave of processors including Cor 2 Quad, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 that people started losing clue of, how exactly these processors are better than the typical Core 2 duo. There are technical architectural level changes that we may not be able to discuss, and those who are interested in a detailed comparison, can go through the table at the bottom of this post. But we will discuss the main changes in this post.

 

Hyper Threading Technology

Intel’s Hyper threading technology dates back to the days of the single core processors. Intel’s single core processors initially got the capability of running two threads at the same time instead of running two processes in parallel. This can be a tricky fact and we’ll compare threads and processes in the next section. Hyper threading technology is useful and has continued to be available off an on in the newer processors as well.

 

Difference Between Thread and Process

Every program that runs on your computer is basically a separate Process. Processes are independent running programs on your computer. They have their independent memory, variables, resources and they participate in competing for using the CPU time. Once you boot your PC, it runs several processes at the same time and once you have only one processor (on a single core computer) you will run only one Process at the same time.

One thread may want to run several parallel tasks at the same time. For example a sofware downloading a file may have one thread receiving data from network, another thread saving the downloaded data on the disk and another thread to display the download status on the screen. Threads use the common memory space and variables defined within a process and can talk to other threads within the same process. You can create threads without spending too much of memory or processing power while processes required significant resources to be spent when creating a new process. Last but not least, threads do not participate in the competition for using the CPU, rather whenever the process containing these threads executes, these threads get a chance to execute.

Threads can easily talk to the parent process and other threads within the same process. Processes can only talk to other processes through an external communication channel named IPC (Inter process communication).

 

Difference Between Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad

Core 2 Duo is a dual core processor and can run two independent processes at the same time. It can run two processes at a time. Hence, total number of parallel threads that can run on Core 2 Duo is 2.

Core 2 Quad is a quad core processor. That means that four different processors are built into one processor chip and can run four different processes at the same time. There can be 4 parallel processes that this processor can execute.

 

Difference Between Core 2 Duo and Core i3

As Core 2 Duo technology has been here for some time, Core i3 is targetted to replace Core 2 Duo in the market pretty soon. Both Core 2 Duo and Core i3 are dual core processors and can run two processes at the same time. The main difference between these two is the number of threads. Two cores on Core 2 Duo are single threaded while Core i3 has a dual thread running capability on each core. Hence total number of threads that can run on Core 2 Duo is 2 and 4 threads in total can run on Core i3.

Difference Between Core 2 Quad and Core i5

Core 2 Quad and Core i5 are both quad core processors, that is, four cores in one processor chip. This necessarily means, they can run four different processes at the same time. Both of them can run four threads at the same time too. Whats the difference then? The difference is somewhere else. The difference is Turbo Boost technology. Core 2 Quad does not have Turbo Boost Technology, while Intel Core 5 has Turbo Boost enabled.

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Intel Turbo boost technology is a smart way of over clocking the processors. Gamers and enthusiasts around the globe have been using tricks to overclock their processors to get better speeds. This fact has become so popular that Intel has included Turbo Boost as their native feature. Whenever the processor is over loaded and reached its 100% processing limit, Intel Turbo Boost tehcnology comes into play. It increases the processor’s core frequency by 133 MHz after random and frequent intervals. The processor frequency continues to increase till the upper limit for the processor Turbo is reached. The upper limit is the maximum overclocking frequency that is allowed by Intel. You may end up frying your processor if you dont stop there.


Difference Between Core i3 and Core i5

Intel Core i3 is a dual core processor while Core i5 is a quad core processor. While Core i3 can run total of 4 threads and 2 processes at a time, Core i5 can run 4 threads and 4 processes at a time. Intel Core i3 is necessary a next version of Core 2 Duo while Core i5 is the next version of Core 2 Quad.

 

Difference Between Core i5 and Core i7

Am I getting redundant here? Not really. Intel Core i5 is a quad core processor that can run four processes at a time, while each process can run only one thread. While Intel Core i7 can run four processes and eight threads at the same time on its four cores. So you can say that Core i5 has uni-threaded four cores, while Core i7 is a quad core processor with each core running hyper threading technology.

 

Difference between FSB (Front Side Bus) and DMI (Direct Media Interface)

 

Front Side Bus – FSB

Front Side Bus 

FSB is a BUS technology that is used in Core 2 Quad/Duo processor technologies and earlier. FSB allows the processor to communicate with other components of the computer including Memory, PCIe, Video as well as IO devices like USB, Hard disk, Network etc. Everything that goes in and out of the processor goes through FSB. See the diagram below to see a typical Core 2 Duo processor and FSB communication channels.

Direct Media Inteface – DMI

 

Core i7 running on DMI 

DMI bus technology is used in Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors. The basic difference in architecture is, that the processor communicates over a different channel with RAM, a different channel with PCIe and a third channel DMI to communicate with all other components of the computer. This increases the performance significantly. See diagram below for a typical Core i7 architecture.

 

To buy or not to buy the new Processor

As it name only clears that it is some kind of technology that boost (empowers) the performance. If you are a normal user and dont do alot of number crunching, you may not find a significant difference between these processors in day to day use but if you are a power user and do a lot of DVD ripping, video conversion, extreme 3d gaming, mp3 and video editing, photo conversion, programming or even file compression (zip or rar etc), you will need a faster processor. Go for a top of the line processor if your current machine is out of date but the price of these processor drops faster than the apple falling from a tree. So watch out and dont spend too much on a processor.

I’ve tried to simplify the comparison between these processors in this article but if you think not enough detail has been given, please go through the following table that has been taken from Intel’s website and it compares five different processors, one example from one technology each.

 

Processor Comparison Table

This table has been taken from Intel’s website.

 

Processor Comparisons

 

I know it’s a very long post.. but i am sure if you read it you’ll never have to ask someone about what to buy or what’s the difference between corei5 & corei3 etc. If i have missed or mis quoted anything do share with me :)

 

- THANKS

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