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Vanillagorila

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2010
16
0
I know they are still new but, are the I3 / I5's really going to be THAT much better than the core II duo? People say that the jump from the current (imac) 3.06 to 3.33 core II duo's really isn't worth the cost, maybe a 5% or less increase in speed. Is it worth it to wait and see if Apple puts either the I3 or I5 in the imac at its next revision?
 
Searching this forum would have shown many benchmarks showing huge differences in speed. Quad core = double the processors.
 
sorry man, I was talking about the dual core i3's and i5's, not the quad core i5.
maybe this question has been asked before. :(
 
Intel has told us and benchmarks have shown that they are about 10-20% faster at same clock speed, even 50% in some benchmarks, so yes, they are worth it.
 
Core II is dead. There is no reason to consider buying anything with it anymore.
 
Searching this forum would have shown many benchmarks showing huge differences in speed. Quad core = double the processors.


Same goes for you. The new i3 and i5 processors are dual-core, not quad-core. As someone else wrote, benchmarks show a 10-25% improvement at the same clock speed.

The new processors are a little bit quicker, and offer more performance than Core 2 Duo chips. But these processors are dual-core, not quad-core.
 
I know they are still new but, are the I3 / I5's really going to be THAT much better than the core II duo? People say that the jump from the current (imac) 3.06 to 3.33 core II duo's really isn't worth the cost, maybe a 5% or less increase in speed. Is it worth it to wait and see if Apple puts either the I3 or I5 in the imac at its next revision?

Well, yes they are faster overall. Not in all applications though, the 3.33 Core 2 Duo even out performs them in some tests, but overall they are faster. There is no extra cost involved. The macs with these processors will be the same price as they are now, just with faster processors. The i5 Quad core and i7 Quad core are much faster since they are Quad core. The below link will answer all your questions.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704&p=7
 
Well, yes they are faster overall. Not in all applications though, the 3.33 Core 2 Duo even out performs them in some tests, but overall they are faster. There is no extra cost involved. The macs with these processors will be the same price as they are now, just with faster processors. The i5 Quad core and i7 Quad core are much faster since they are Quad core. The below link will answer all your questions.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704&p=7

thanks for the link!!!

the reason I asked this question is my imac g5 failed this past weekend. I was able to repair it, but I don't know how long its going to stay working. My wife wants to get a new imac ASAP, I just wanted to find out how much more performance I'll be missing if I can't wait until the next update. it doesn't look too bad, all we do is websurf, email, and photos.

thanks guys.
 
Well, yes they are faster overall. Not in all applications though, the 3.33 Core 2 Duo even out performs them in some tests, but overall they are faster. There is no extra cost involved. The macs with these processors will be the same price as they are now, just with faster processors. The i5 Quad core and i7 Quad core are much faster since they are Quad core. The below link will answer all your questions.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704&p=7

Interesting. It seems the current 3.33 Core 2 Duo (E8600) holds its own against the new dual-core chips. The benefits seem marginal to me in the majority of tests. Given that you can combine the C2D 3.33 with a dedicated ATI graphics card, the current non-quad core iMacs seem plenty powerful. Am I right to think that it's only if the quad-cores trickle down to the 21.5" iMac where you are likely to notice a significant difference? But this is unlikely to happen, right?
 
Same goes for you. The new i3 and i5 processors are dual-core, not quad-core. As someone else wrote, benchmarks show a 10-25% improvement at the same clock speed.

The new processors are a little bit quicker, and offer more performance than Core 2 Duo chips. But these processors are dual-core, not quad-core.

same goes for you too.. :p

only the clarksdale and arrandale i5 processors are dual core.
the lynnfield i5's are quad core.

all i3's are dual core, both desktop and mobile variants.
 
I know they are still new but, are the I3 / I5's really going to be THAT much better than the core II duo? People say that the jump from the current (imac) 3.06 to 3.33 core II duo's really isn't worth the cost, maybe a 5% or less increase in speed. Is it worth it to wait and see if Apple puts either the I3 or I5 in the imac at its next revision?

The i5 IS in the iMac. The quad core version.
 
The new i processors have built in memory controllers on them which allows them to access data a lot quicker. This and the reduced manufacturing size helps increase performance by 10-25% over older generation processors.
 
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