Intel's iSeries Mobile Processors i3, i5, i7 What's the difference?

Aren't the processors in the laptops the same as the desktops?

No. The processors in the laptops have been designed to be more power efficient and give off less heat making it more portable. This means you don't have the as much power as you have in the desktop. In this blog post I hope to explain the differences between the Mobile i3, i5, i7 and their desktop counterparts. In most current laptops the current processors are the mobile chips from AMD, The dual Pentium, The Core2 Duo, i3, i5 and i7. As stated before the laptop chips are meant to be mobile so if you were to take a desktop i7 using the Socket 1156 or the 1366 socket you would have a 8" high laptop. So we give up clock speed, and for the most part the number of cores on the processor. *To be fair I am putting a disclaimer. This is my best educated guess as to the processors that Apple has selected and may actually differ from the actual processor being used in the laptop. Apple doesn't release the chip spec it has selected for it's laptops. Based on the information available this is my best guess for the actual processors inside the Macbook / Macbook Pro. If apple or anyone would like to provide the actual Macbook for disassembling, I would be happy to confirm my guess.

Below you will find a lot of technical information about the mobile CPU's and GPU's but for those of you who aren't as technically interested I'll just sum up everything here. Your best Value for a high end laptop processors would be something with the i5 540, the i7 720QM or a desktop Phenom X4. The i7 720QM is a 4 core processor and has hyper-threading. It is pretty much as good as your going to get for an i7 without completely draining the bank. If you can manage to get a Phenom X4 it's a desktop processor so your getting desktop power just remember to watch the temperature of the CPU and battery life. The i5 540 is a dual core with hyper threading and the i7 620M doesn't offer much more performance over the i5. So if I were to buy a Mac Laptop I would go with the i5 540. It's $200 cheaper, granted the GT 330M that comes with the 15" i5 only has 256MB dedicated video but for most of the Mac and windows laptop games available it should be good enough. It will play starcraft 2 really good.

As for overall value I would say if you can find a laptop with any of the following mobile processors and one of the dedicated mobile video cards, you will probably get a good deal.

Mobile Processors:

i7 720QM, i5 540, i5 450, Core2 P8600, P8700, P8800, T9000 Series. AMD Phenom Quad Core.

Mobile Graphics Cards:

ATI Cards: 5430, 5450, 5470, 5650, 5730, 5750

NVIDIA Cards: GeForce 310M, 320M, 330M, 220M, 230M, 240M, 260M

Apple Intel Processors

High End MacBook Pros

Apple has selected the i7 620M and the i5 540. Both are dual core processors and both have the Intel HD Integrated Graphics Chips in the processor. The i7 has the faster clock speed and more smart cache.

Intel® Core™ i7-620M Processor (4M Cache, 2.66 GHz)

Intel® Core™ i5-540M Processor (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz)

Mid-Range

For the midrange Apple more the likely slected the i5 520M because it doesn't support ECC memory. With that exception the two processors are virtually identical.

Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor (3M Cache, 2.40 GHz) or Intel® Core™ i5-520E Processor (3M Cache, 2.40 GHz)

Entry Level / Low End

The entry level MacBook and MacBook Pro are 2.4 GHz Core2 processors and more then likely is the P8600 due to the front side bus being 1066 MHz and the Intel Trusted Execution Technology.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T8300

or

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8600

Other more common laptop processors.

Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Processor

Intel® Core™ i7-620M Processor

Intel® Core™ i5-540M Processor

Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor

Intel® Core™ i5-430M Processor

Intel® Core™ i3-350M Processor

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P9600

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9550

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8800

Intel® Core™2 Processor P8700

Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9000

Below you will find a comparison of the listed CPUs.

Comparison of Mobile Processors (CPU Benchmarks)

This table is sorted by the approximate speed of the (laptop) CPU.

Note, that there are also some desktop processors in the list (because some laptops are equiped with desktop CPUs and for comparison).

Pos	Manufacturer Series	Model	FSB	L2+L3 Cache	MHz	Cores/Threads	64 Bit	3DMark06 CPU	Cinebench R10 Rendering Single	Cinebench R10 Rendering Multi	wPrime 32	wPrime 1024
1	Core i7	920XM	2500	1MB + 8MB	2000-3200	4/8	Yes	3816	4322	11916	24	791
2*	Core i7	620M	2500	512KB + 4MB	2660-3333	2/4	Yes	3052	3432	7521	23	786
3	Core i7	720QM	2500	1MB + 6MB	1600-2800	4/8	Yes	3086	3157	8870	28	937
4	Core i5	540M	2500	512KB + 3MB	2530-3066	2/4	Yes	2835	3132	6983	26	834
5*	Phenom II X2	X620 BE	3600	2MB	3100	2	Yes
6	Core 2 Duo	T9600	1066	6MB	2800	2	Yes	2524	3204	5936	28	900
7	Core i5	520M	2500	512KB + 3MB	2400-2933	2/4	Yes	2727	3024	6645	27	830
8	Core i5	450M	2500	512KB + 3MB	2400-2933	2/4	Yes	2796	2930	6800	19	596
9	Core 2 Duo	T9550	1066	6MB	2660	2	Yes	2384	2958	5530	29	922
10*	Core i3	370M	2500	512KB + 3MB	2400	2/4	Yes
11	Core i5	430M	2500	512KB + 3MB	2260-2533	2/4	Yes	2566	2734	6300	23	735
12*	Phenom II X2	N620	3600	2MB	2800	2	Yes	2282	2524	4907	26
13	Core 2 Duo	T9400	1066	6MB	2530	2	Yes	2262	2848	5341	38	1641
14	Core 2 Duo	P8800	1066	3MB	2660	2	Yes	2355	2890	5357	31	993
15	Core 2 Duo	P8700	1066	3MB	2530	2	Yes	2231	2826	5273	31	1020
16*	Core i3	350M	2500	512KB + 3MB	2260	2/4	Yes	2357	2384	5781	31	977
17	Core 2 Duo	P8600	1066	3MB	2400	2	Yes	2135	2588	4857	33	1099
18*	Core i3	330M	2500	512KB + 3MB	2130	2/4	Yes	2206	2301	5518	27	868
19*	Phenom II X4	X920 BE	3600	2MB	2300	4	Yes
20	Core 2 Quad	Q9000	1066	6MB	2000	4	Yes	2841	2405	8059	36	1147
21	Core 2 Duo	T7600	667	4MB	2330	2	Yes	1997
22*	Core 2 Duo	T6770	800	2MB	2300	2	Yes
23	Core 2 Duo	T7500	800	4MB	2200	2	Yes	1879	2304	4284	37
24*	Turion II Ultra	M660	3600	2MB	2700	2	Yes		2278	4403
25*	Turion II	N530	3600	2MB	2500	2	Yes
26*	Turion II Ultra	M640	3600	2MB	2600	2	Yes
27	Core 2 Duo	T7400	667	4MB	2160	2	Yes	1817
28*	Core 2 Duo	T6600	800	2MB	2200	2	Yes	1942	2391	4525	63	2014
29*	Turion II Ultra	M620	3600	2MB	2500	2	Yes
30*	Turion II Ultra	M600	3600	2MB	2400	2	No	1905	2120	4100

The table below is a list of all currently common video graphic cards in laptops / notebooks including benchmarks and specs. The list is ranked by the aproximate speed of the GPU (may differ with some 3DMark values).

Pos	Manufacturer	Model	Pixel Shaders	Vertex Shaders	Direct X	3DMark05	3DMark06	3DMark Vantage P	3DM Vant. P GPU	Cinebench R10 OpenGL	Crysis XGA low	Crysis XGA high
1	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 5870	800		11	17932	12711	7860	7584	5836		48
2*	NVIDIA	GeForce GTX 460M	192		11
3	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 4870	800		10.1	16349	10655	6631	6139	5190		43
4	NVIDIA	GeForce GTX 280M	128		10	18414	12569	6328	5243	5846	105	45
5	NVIDIA	GeForce GTX 260M	112		10	14773	10167	4953	4316	3966	120	35
6*	NVIDIA	GeForce GTS 260M	96		10.1
7*	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 5750	400		11
8*	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 5730	400		11	14020	7258	3812	3224	5611		23
9	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 5650	400		11	12579	6578	3225	2728	4733	76	22
10	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 4650	320		10.1	12609	6244	2456	2207	5085	77	22
11	NVIDIA	GeForce GT 330M	48		10.1	12599	6106	2523	2050	3388	78	20
12	NVIDIA	GeForce GT 240M	48		10.1	11811	6077	2429	2092	3509	53	17
13	NVIDIA	GeForce GT 230M	48		10.1	10689	5647			2819	54	17
14	NVIDIA	GeForce GT 220M	32		10.0	8696	4010	1378	1144	3065
15*	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 5470	80		11	6359	3496	1168	921	4027	53	11
16	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 4570	80		10.1	6755	3358	1082	853	3623	37	9
17*	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 5450	80		11		4280
18	NVIDIA	GeForce 310M	16		10.1	6852	3154	1129	885	3054
19*	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 5430	80		11	5509	3082	962	750	3702
20	NVIDIA	GeForce GT 320M	24		10.1	7358	4286	1860	1551	3419	40	11
21	ATI	Mobility Radeon X1600	12	5	9c	3708	1821
22	ATI	Mobility Radeon HD 3470	40		10.1	3854	1574			2342	22	5
23*	ATI	Radeon HD 4250	40		10.1	3828	1908
24	Intel	Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4700MHD	10		10
25	Intel	Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD	10		10	1227	679			791	8
26	Intel	Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500M	10		10	987	594			687

This table is based on 2228 benchmarks.
* Approximate position of the graphics adapter

Sources:

http://www.notebookcheck.net

http://www.intel.com