Top 5 Intel processors

If we chose the best Intel processor for “here and now”, then we would definitely choose Intel Core i7-9700K. See for yourself: the difference in price from 9900K is more than a third, and the difference in performance is much less than in work applications, which (even more so) in games. Not surprisingly, there are as many physical cores here (eight instead of the previously maximum for i7 six), which allows processing enough threads even considering that Hyper-Threading is not available here. However, it has long been known that sometimes disabling Hyper-Threading even increases the speed of some applications, and the “hole” in this technology, which has recently opened, also plays a role - one cannot say that disabling HT has become such a loss.

The base clock frequency is even slightly higher than that of the 9900K: 3.6 GHz, but below the boost ceiling - 4.7 GHz. Compared to the previous generation i7, the first and second level caches increased in volume, and L3 became faster (12 cycles versus 16 for Coffee Lake).As a result, 9700K in “synthetics” has become faster than 8700K. But it accelerates in no way with a lower level of “dances with a tambourine” in terms of cooling: if previously understandable limitations were imposed by the thermal interface under the lid, then now it has to deal with solder with serious heating. At 5 GHz, even without using AVX instructions that increase power consumption to the limit, a good crystal eats almost 200 watts.

True, in games the difference with i7-8700K you will not see today without a magnifying glass, so you should not rush and upgrade an already assembled computer. But when building a new one, it really makes sense to give preference to the “nine”: the average prices for the market are not very different. On the other hand, 9700K has both Meltdown and L1TF (Foreshadow) vulnerabilities under the hood and at the hardware level, while previous generations need software patches that cut performance.

In fact, we do not have an eighth-generation i5 improved processor, but a “neutered” new i7: here two of eight cores with the corresponding part of the cache memory, rejected during factory testing, are disabled.However, the TDP passport level is the same here as the “source code” (95 W), which should promise us a longer work of the regular boost of frequencies, and better overclocking capabilities. And, indeed, even stress tests with AVX when you turn on Multi-Core Enhancements, which removes some of the restrictions, due to which the turbofeed is “cut” when the power consumption is exceeded, lead to an increase in the processor's appetite to just 120 watts. And this is a level that is quite acceptable for medium-level VRM motherboards. Therefore, buying a “trim” i7, you can get a good increase in speed without a special witch and clever cooling systems. Moreover, despite the increase in power consumption in comparison with the i5-8600K (for example, at 4.5 GHz at a voltage of 1.3 V, the old “fifth” consumed 23 W less), the core temperature almost did not change - that's the bonus for solder instead of thermal paste

But let's talk about the most "tasty" - about performance. In resource-intensive applications, the processor, in general, corresponds to its price at the level of other Intel “stones” - the gap, for example, from 9900K corresponds to the price difference, which is almost twice as expensive and twice as fast. But not always: when processing photos in Lightroom, the “fifth” is already catching up on the gap, reducing it to 1.15 times (so photo lovers should think about good savings - enough for a new lens), in video encoding - up to one and a half. And in all such cases, the processor is inferior to the Ryzen 7 2700X, which can be found in stores for the same price.

What is the "five-nine"? Expected - in games. Here, at the runoff frequencies, it is already comparable with the previous generation's “i-seven”, and in the overclocking, even the current one. So, with a reasonable budget limit, we can recommend this processor to gamers, it will justify its money.

Yes, two physical cores, let you and the "gold", now look dull. Although here there is Hyper-Threading, but with quad-core processors of the same generation, the "stub" in performance can not be compared.However, the fact that it is released on the LGA1151-v2 socket will further allow an upgrade to more efficient processors of the eighth to ninth generation at least, if you immediately shift the budget balance towards the motherboard. That is, the "hyperpension", as before, for many, takes the position of a kind of "gag" for the period of accumulation of money for an upgrade.

Compared with the previous "stumps", the new one received a faster cache with a slightly increased volume, formally even overtaking the seventh generation i3, then also having also only two physical cores. However, Intel still does not provide the Pentium series with support for the AVX and AVX2 instructions - of course, the processor becomes cheaper and colder from this, but in applications using vector computing, even the old and twice cheaper AMD FX-8320e will laugh at the stump. which and with multithreaded computing the situation is better. In games, this is not important, so here the “stump” is still more or less viable, although in actively using multi-threading (for example, many games with an open world, where NPC set code is parallelized) it loses to both younger Ryzen and “grandfather” FX .