Current Intel Processor (CPU) Line Up

A look at all the current Intel consumer Central Processing Unit brands.

This knol is a guide to the current line of Intel central processing units. This knol explains what various Intel brand names such as Atom, Core 2 Duo, and Core i7 mean, as well as ranking their relative performance.

Overview
Celeron
Pentium
Core 2
Core i5
Core i7
Additional Information

Note 3/9/10- This knol is currently being updated. Updates should be done by the end of this week. You will not find information on some of Intel's newest CPUs.

Overview

        This knol is a list current Intel CPU brands as well as giving a little bit of information about each and the general groupings of Intel's CPU line up. This list is a rough estimate of performance for each line up going in order from lowest to highest performance. Mobile line ups are at the end of each respective grouping.

       Note- A significant amount of computer terminology is used in this knol. If you have any problem understanding what certain words mean, I recommend another knol, Computer Terms Dictionary , for help.
       Note- I have left out Xeons since they are generally aimed at non-consumer markets. This guide is for general computers, not servers.

Celeron

Celeron - Base line, nothing fancy.

Celeron D - Introduced a little bit higher performance than a similarly clocked Celerons.

Note- Celeron D is not a dual core CPU. Don't get it confused with the Pentium D which is.

Celeron Dual Core - Newest Celeron, also the most likely to see when shopping for a new computer.

Celeron M - For mobile computing, mainly in laptops and other small computers.

Celerons are generally "Value CPUs" which are cheap and offer performance similar to but a bit slower than a similarly clocked Pentium released at the same time. This is due to Celerons generally having more advanced features disabled and lower cache sizes. Look for them in value desktops and value laptops. The Celeron name is also now attached to value Core 2 Processors.

Pentium

Pentium 4 - Anything below this should not be looked at when buying a computer.

Pentium D - The first dual cores, good performance gains over similarly clocked Pentium 4s

Pentium Dual Core - Newest line up, slightly better than Pentium D and uses less power.

Pentium M - For mobile computing, mainly in laptops and other small computers.

Pentiums are more mainstream CPUs, they were the dominant CPUs from Intel up until about two or three years ago, they are good still for cheaper desktops and laptops but are slowly falling out of favor for newer Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, and Atom for the mobile kind. Expect to see these if you are buying an older computer. Only Pentium Dual Cores are still in production.

Core 2

Core 2 Duo - Mainstream dual core, this is probably the most likely name you will see.

Core 2 Duo Extreme - The current high end for dual cores.

Core 2 Quad - Intel's mainstream quad cores.

Core 2 Quad Extreme - The current highest end offerings from Intel.

Atom - The newest for mobile computing, mainly for laptops and other small computers.
Dual Core Atom - No official name for the series yet, only the Atom 330 is a dual core at the moment.

This section of the list is what you are most likely to see when buying a new computer today. The Core 2 Duo currently seems to be the most popular line up but Core 2 Quads are great for higher end systems. Atom is a new entry aimed at small form factor computers. It is generally found in Netbooks and Nettops, performance is not great, comparable to a similar Pentium 4, but allows for much smaller computers.

Core i5

Core i5 600 series - Intel's newest dual core processors for desktops. The successor to the Core 2 Duo lineup with a significant performance boost and an integrated graphics processor.

Core i5-650 - 3.2 GHz - 4M cache - $176

Core i5-660 - 3.33 GHz - 4M cache - $196

Core i5-661 - 3.33 GHz - 4M cache - $196 (20% better integrated graphics performance.)

Core i5-670 - 3.46 GHz - 4M cache - $284

Core i5 700 series- Intel's new quad core processors for desktops. These successors to the Core 2 Quad lineup have a significant performance boost but have hyper-threading disabled compared to the Core i7 series.

Core i5-750 - 2.66 GHz - 8M cache - $196

Core i5-750s - 2.40 GHz - 8M cache - $259 (Low power version.)

Core i7

An Intel Core i7 CPU

       Core i7 - Intel's new enthusiast quad cores.
        Core i7 Extreme Edition - Intel's highest performing quad core, only the Core i7 965.

            Core i7 is Intel's newest architecture. It is a substantial improvement over Core 2, but is currently restricted to only enthusiast systems, with X58 motherboards. Expect mainstream derivatives with the Core i5 naming in late 2009.

Additional Information

Official information about Intel Celeron Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Dual Core Celeron Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Pentium Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Core 2 Duo Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Core 2 Quad Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Core 2 Extreme Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Core i7 Processors can be found here.
Official information about Intel Core i7 Extreme Processors can be found here.