When Intel introduced the new members of the Intel family, immediately the PC landscape changing dramatically and unexpectedly. During the last decade, the common perception was that while a superior overall product manufactured by Intel, AMD, main competitor of Intel, offers consumers better value per dollar. However, with the launch of the Intel Core i5, specifically the 750, at the end of 2009, Intel not only took again the Crown of the best PC for home, but that he did so at a price as low as its competitor manufactured by AMD, AMD Phenom X 4. Perhaps the most impressive of the i5-750 was how quickly and that well earned the consumers of games, a market segment that had been the lifeline of AMD. At the time of the start-up of the i5, Intel also presented the i7. The main difference between i5-750 and i7 is the i5 does not have Hyper-processor (HTT). In other words, the i5 is limited to four physical cores, while the i7 can access four additional virtual cores.
However, this is not the same as having eight cores. Benchmarking test that users realize only the benefits of HTT in specific scenarios, most of which are outside the scope of normal use. Apart from HTT, Lynnfield Core i5 has everything the i7 has, albeit at a pace slightly slower clock: 2.66 GHz. But the i5-750 can increase its clock speed of up to 3.2 GHz when needed through a feature called Turbo Boost. Turbo Boost allows the CPU to increase the rate of one (2.8 GHz) or two (3.2 GHz) nuclei through the deactivation of one or two cores. The drawback is that it only works when at least one of the four cores in use, still speedup is not more beneficial when the software is not taking advantage of the architecture of the four nuclei.
Another benefit of the Lynnfield architecture used by the i5-750 is the dual-channel DDR3 memory controller. What allows that when the system use the memory in pairs (2 x 1 GB, 2 x 2 GB, 4 x 2 GB, and so on) will make more efficient use of memory. One of the most exciting aspects of the Intel Core i5 is its energy efficiency. Compared with i7-920/930 at full load, the i5-750 uses up to 60 watts less. In addition, as Turbo Boost is essentially overclocking for the masses, the i5-750 makes underclocking follows. When the nuclei are not in use, the i5-750 them off, which equates to a real savings over the course of a year when most of the time the equipment is in standby mode or is used to browse the Web. We used to say that Intel was the King of performance, but that AMD has provided us with best value per dollar. How have times changed!. Now, it is said that the family Intel Core i7 is the King of performance, but the i5-750 offers the best ratio quality price, and is also the undisputed king of energy efficiency. There is little doubt why it is one of the best sellers in the market.