The 4th generation intels processors are based off of the Haswell and for the high end gaming cpu the Haswell-E micro architecture. The 5th generation intels are only based off of the Broadwell micro architecture. The Broadwell-E or 5th generation high end gaming cpu are not out yet. The difference between Haswell and Broadwell is not much. Intel follows a cycle when releasing micro architectures. It is a "Tock, Tick" cycle. When a brand new and different micro architecture comes out it is the "tock" The next release is the "tick" in which they take the same micro architecture as the "tock" but shrink it and make it more efficient in terns of heat, power, and performance. The Haswell or 4th generation cpus are the "tock" and the Broadwell or 5th generation cpus are the "tick"
To sum it up, Broadwell is only just coming out. If you want performance now, go with 4th generation because 5th generation is only in it's early stages and they are not much powerful than the mid or late 4th gens.
The desktop i5 is clearly a better buy.
The i5 5th Gen has 4 physical cores, no hyperthreading, and turbo boost.
The i3 5th Gen has 2 physical cores, hyperthreading, and turbo boost.
Without question the i5 is better. On top of that Broadwell (5th gen) is just a die shrink of Haswell (4th gen). So unless you're going to use the integrated GPU extensively, there is virtually no performance difference between the two generations. Broadwell just has lower power consumption, which you don't really care about on a desktop.
On laptops it's not so clear.
The i5 has 2 physical cores, hyperthreading, and turbo boost.
The i3 has 2 physical cores, hyperthreading, and no turbo boost.
Prior to Haswell, the turbo boost on most of the i5 line was pretty modest - about 5%-15% base clock speed. Not really worth the extra $50-$100 vendors were charging, and the i3 was a better value (the fact that Apple doesn't offer an i3 laptop was a big tip-off where the fat profit margins were). Only the ULV processors got bigger turbo boosts which made the i5 worthwhile.
Beginning with Haswell, the main i5 line became ULV processors (end in a U or Y), so most i5 laptops started to get turbo boosts of 30%-65%. So suddenly the i5 became a good buy compared to an i3 with the same base clock speed.
OTOH, Broadwell introduces some impressive battery life savings, and you're more likely to end up using the integrated GPU on a laptop.
So the answer becomes: If CPU performance is what's most important to you, then get the 4th gen i5. If battery life and integrated graphics performance is most important to you, get the 5th gen i3.
0 comments:
Post a Comment