[kwlug-disc] OT: New Intel desktop/laptop CPUs

[John Van Ostrand]

----- "Khalid Baheyeldin" <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:

> Somewhat off topic, so feel free to press "Delete" now ...
> 
> If one looks at the flyers from Futureshop, BestBuy and Staples in the
> past few weeks, you see the Core i3, i5, and i7 in new laptops that
> cost
> $100's more than the Core 2 Duo that I have in my laptop.
> 
> Any idea what architectural benefits do these CPUs provide? Or is it
> just the usual "rebrand and raise the price" marketing strategy?

I've been curious too, and you're lucky I'm bored.

The summary is i3 is targeted for entry-level, i5 is mid-level, and i7 is high-level.

They are brands and not technologies so the specs and features will change over time. It seems that i3 has an integrated GPU, and the i5 and i7 have "Turbo Boost" which allows on-demand over-clocking of the CPU.

Right now i3 is dual core only and up to 3GHz. i5 is dual core up to 3.4GHz or quad core up to 2.6GHz. i7 is quad core up to 3.3GHz.