i7 vs. Normal Quad

[Night Fox]

What exactly is the difference between an i7 processor, an i5 processor, and a normal quad core processor?

 

[veg1992]

i7 is a newer Quad-core with a new manufacturing process and comes in either LGA 1156 or 1366 and includes Hyperthreading.
i5 only comes in LGA 1156, but basically it's i7 minus the hyper-threading, but in LGA 1156, multi-GPU setup's don't perform as well as with x58's from LGA 1366.

 

[Yami]

I have no idea what you mean by 'normal' quad core processor.

Anyway the i7s are Intel's latest quad-cores, they use hyperthreading. The i5s are Intel latest quad-cores which don't use hyperthreading.

 

[Night Fox]

What does hyperthreading do?

 

[Yami]

Hyperthreading is sort of like having virtual cores.
Hyper-threading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[synergy]

Probably one of the biggest differences with the i7/i5 is the inclusion of the memory controller onto the CPU die. That also brings about triple channel memory.

 

[aliasaid]

^ so does that mean the i7 made for socket 1156 doesn't have the memory controller on the cpu die?

 

[synergy]

Sorry. I shouldn't have said that triple channel came from the on-die memory controller because it was just a technology that came about at the same time but not dependent on that. The i5 runs dual channel and has no QPI or hyper-threading, but still has an on-die memory controller.

 

[TheKaras]

Not to forget that Turbo is available on the i5 and i7s when you are doing CPU intensive tasks. This ensures that your CPU is only "overclocking safely" when necessary as opposed to forcing it to a certain speed.

 

[Vazvalaloo]

^^ I've heard that it's not a good idea to keep the Turbo enabled when you're overclocking. Is this true?