When "pentium" does not mean "pentium"

50Twuncle

I remember in the not too far distant past - when picking a processor was a simple job of looking for the word PENTIUM in the specs - then Intel started to produce i3/i5 and i7 processors - leaving standard PENTIUM as an option
But now - various manufacturers are offering PENTIUM powered laptops without specifying what PENTIUM actually means (ie Speed and cache)
I mean - What is a Intel Pentium 3825u dual core processor ?
Is it a CELERON ?
In the benchmark tests - this particular processor, outperforms an i3 4005u - and is cheaper
I am confused - my nephew is looking for a cheap (first) laptop and needs some advice
I would have said - stick to an i3 - but in light of this - I am now unsure ......

kwikbreaks

You'll be even more confused by AMD processors then.

Usual cpu comparison site recommended here - http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Don't forget that CPU isn't the end of the story but most manufacturers will produce a balanced machine so a budget processor means other components are budget too.

paddyrg

Gosh, yes, it's meant lot of things over the years. Back in the 1990's Intel introduced 'Pentium' as it was discovered that you couldn't protect a chip number (breaking the chain 4004, 8088, 286, 386, 486... so only they could make 'pentiums' instead of 586's.

esuhl

Pentium is just a brand name; it doesn't mean anything specific.

And it would never have been good advice to choose a processor just on whether it was a Pentium or not.

The best way to choose a CPU is to look at benchmarks and prices. You can also search using model numbers to reveal the specs of each chip for comparison.

Just choose the cheapest one that (you guess) exceeds your performance requirements.

stator

Celeron are the absolute worst, wouldn't ever buy one
Pentium are still budget but might be worth considering
i3, i5 and i7 are the medium to high range.
They are all brand names, sometimes they swap them around and what used to be a Pentium sometimes becomes a new Celeron. I've never heard of a Celeron becoming a Pentium. The name is meaningless, it's doesn't mean you get any specific technology anymore. It used to be that Pentiums were single core and all Core processors were Dual core or better but now that's not true.

You want to check out the technology behind the processor by looking up the exact model. There are lists on Wikipedia of every Intel processor, as well as otherwebsites that let you do a side by side comparison.

Look for how many cores (dual core minimum, 3 or 4 if you can afford it), the clock speed (3ghz minimum) and the cache size (bigger the better)

Also look for a laptop with a SSD, don't settle for a magnetic drive any more, and look out for 'hybrid' drives, they aren't as good as SSDs but are bette rthan magnetic. Having a decent SSD is probably the single biggest performance boost for a laptop.

pappa_golf

paddyrg wrote: »

Gosh, yes, it's meant lot of things over the years. Back in the 1990's Intel introduced 'Pentium' as it was discovered that you couldn't protect a chip number (breaking the chain 4004, 8088, 286, 386, 486... so only they could make 'pentiums' instead of 586's.

Johnmcl7

The Intel site will give you all the details of a processor and you can compare it against other processors as well, for example the Pentium and i3 you've mentioned:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/75105,86348

The Pentium processor is one position below an i3 but they're still similar, generally dual core with hyperthreading but no turbo boost for either - the i3 gets a slightly higher clockspeed and a little more cache. In your example, the Pentium comes out better because it's a newer version and has a slight clock speed advantage, if you have a look at the same Pentium against an i3 from the same generation, the i3 should be slightly faster with it larger cache and higher clock speed:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/85212,84695,86348

I've also added an i5 in with the same core so you can see the differences it offers, it offers a more significant performance boost as it supports turbo boost allowing the processor to run its core clock higher in cases where one core is idle, that means it can hit 2.7Ghz while the Pentium/i3 models are stuck at their 2Ghz base speed.

It's also worth checking the stats when looking at higher end processors as often you can be paying a large price premium for a higher model for a very slight increase in performance.

John

HappyMJ

stator wrote: »

Celeron are the absolute worst, wouldn't ever buy one
Pentium are still budget but might be worth considering
i3, i5 and i7 are the medium to high range.

Some modern Celeron chips can be much faster than some older i3 chips. It's not easy to choose a chip these days based just on the name.

I look for £ compared with performance. A £1,000 chip would far exceed my needs so I've got to weigh up how much I'm willing to spend and look at what I can get and whether that meets my requirements.

pappa_golf

the g3258 Pentium rocks when fitted to the correct motherboard

paddyrg

pappa_golf wrote: »

Good example - it's NOT an Intel processor :-)

John_Gray

If you wish to compare CPU chip speeds, 'check out' CPU Benchmarks. Basically, you need to know the model.