If you're looking for additional information on processors then you've come to the right place!
i5 vs i7
If you are really pushing the envelope in terms of applications and are either looking for the best gaming experience or have already upgraded all the other components in the computer, then you may want to consider an i7 over an i5 processor. Most of our customers are more than happy with the i5 and the value-for-money it delivers. The main difference between most generations of i5 and i7 processors is the number of threads they handle. For example the i5 3570 supports 4 cores and 4 threads, whilst the i7 3770 supports 4 cores and 8 threads. Both of these processors run at 3.4GHz and for normal every-day usage you're unlikely to notice any difference between them (see benchmark results in graph below). If you're running very CPU intensive applications, or lots of active applications at the same time, or advanced gaming then the additional threads essentially allow the i7 processor to do more at the same time. At the higher end of the gaming spectrum for example, when using a decent graphics card you may find that the difference between and i5 and an i7 amounts to fewer dropped frames in a game. Yes, the i7 is better - but only if you're really pushing the PC... and it's definitely overkill for general computing use. One of the other factors to consider is demand. Because there are a lot of older computers out there, people often look to upgrade their existing PC rather than buy new... for many this means looking for an i7 that will work in their existing i5 system. Given that many fewer i7s are sold in the first instance and lots of people look to upgrade this means that secondhand i7s demand quite a premium and therefore represent a notable price jump that doesn't necessarily reflect the performance advantage they offer.
Processor Generations
While some may query buying a 3rd or 4th generation processor that’s several years old, the fact is that there’s minimal performance difference between that and later generations is often overlooked, especially considering the value they offer. With no moving parts the processors can last decades in normal use (the CPU cooling fan may fail, but these are very cheap to replace!). We've included a graph showing the relative performance of processors from the 1st generation of i5.
First generation i5 as well as Core2 (E8500), and especially earlier models of i3, Celeron, Pentium or Atom processors (not pictured) all perform substantially slower than second generation and later i5/i7 processors (or 9/10th generation i3) – so just because they’re of a similar age or GHz speed value doesn’t mean they perform the same… and this might have been your experience with computers of similar age (but quite different specification) in the past. If you’re looking at either an i5-3470 or above then you’re getting the performance of a really decent 3 year old computer for a fraction of the price and 80%+ of the performance of a brand new current generation unit. Given that few people actually stress the CPU, its unlikely you'll actually notice much difference in everyday use between them!
If you are keen to get that little bit extra performance, the selection of suitable secondhand in later generation equipment is significantly harder to find and unless we have a stock item on hand that suits, our recommendation is typically to buy new. When the latest brand new Intel i3-10100 both outperforms a used i7-7700 (and is cheaper to buy!) our recommendation is either to go new (with a warranty) or buy a used 3rd/4th generation system because quite simply the 6th and 7th generation platforms don't deliver any significant performance benefit for the cost premium they demand.
Processor cores/threads by generation. The 10th generation i3 is as powerful as a 7th generation i7, and a 10th generation i7 is as powerful as a 9th generation i9! While the i3 used to be the poor performer and the i7 the go-to option, the current generation of i3 processors offers sufficient processor capacity for most and the new i5 processors can cope with just about any workload you can throw at it. Short of very specialist or high-end use cases the i7 represents an un-necessary level of capacity and investment.
| Processor | 4th Gen | 6th Gen | 7th Gen | 8th Gen | 9th Gen | 10th Gen |
| i3 | 2/4 | 2/4 | 2/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/8 |
| i5 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/12 |
| i7 | 4/8 | 4/8 | 4/8 | 8/8 | 8/8 | 8/16 |
| i9 | - | - | - | - | 8/16 | 10/20 |
Data Source: cpu.userbenchmark.com. Userbenchmark.com compares the results of tens of thousands of individual end-user benchmarks to provide averaged performance results across a range of CPU, GPU and SSD options. We selected the most common i5 processors from each generation to include on this summary graph using the userbenchmark average performance percentage and providing a relative comparison to the i5-3570 baseline (100%).