Which is better ? i7 or i5

Solution
i7 is better than i5. It usually has better clock speeds, depending on the variant. It also has same amount of extra logical cores along with the physical cores depending on the generation, whereas the i5 is only restricted to physical cores.
For eg. the latest i5 8500 comes with 6 cores only, whereas the i7 8700 comes with 6 cores and 12 threads.

Edit: If this is for gamin, the i7 8700k smashes all other CPU, followed by i5 8600k close on its heels.

Hellfire13

Respectable
Apr 20, 2016
389
0
2,210
i7 is better than i5. It usually has better clock speeds, depending on the variant. It also has same amount of extra logical cores along with the physical cores depending on the generation, whereas the i5 is only restricted to physical cores.
For eg. the latest i5 8500 comes with 6 cores only, whereas the i7 8700 comes with 6 cores and 12 threads.

Edit: If this is for gamin, the i7 8700k smashes all other CPU, followed by i5 8600k close on its heels.
 
Solution

geofelt

Distinguished
Which I5, and which I7?
What will the processor be used for?

For multithreaded batch apps, the I7 like the I7-8700K which will have 12 threads will be better.
However, for gaming. an overclockable i5-8600K with 6 fast threads should perform better than a I7-8700 with 12 slower threads.

 

derekullo

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2009
135
0
18,660
It depends on the purpose.

For a program like handbrake that transcodes video from one form to another and uses all threads available then an i7 is vastly faster than an i5.


For a game that only uses 4 threads then you want to make sure you have a cpu with at least 4 threads, both the current i5 and i7 qualify.

After that you want to maximize frequency.


The i5 8600k maxes out at 4.3 gigahertz at stock.

The i7 8700k maxes out at 4.7 gigahertz at stock.


Personally I'd go with the i7 because you can always overclock either of the processors if you need/want to, but you can't add 6 more threads to an i5.
 

geofelt

Distinguished
FWIW:
as of 12/01'2017
What % of I5-8600k chips can oc
at a agressive vcore of 1.4 or so and delidded
4.9 98%
5.0 84%
5.1 65%
5.2 38%
5.3 13%

What % of I7-8700k chips can oc
at a aggressive vcore near 1.4 or so and delidded
4.9 99%
5.0 72%
5.1 43%
5.2 16%
5.3 3%


 

derekullo

Distinguished
Jan 25, 2009
135
0
18,660


It would suck to be in the 1% of i7s that couldn't reach 4.9 gigahertz lol.

In any case the stock settings or even 4.9 gigahertz is fast enough for the majority of gamers and professionals.

I also don't see him delidding his cpu based on his original question.
 

geofelt

Distinguished
These statistics come from silicon lottery.
It bins processors and sells the better ones for a premium.
As a part of the process, they delid and guarantee the product.

The stats give one some idea of the capability of these chips.