UserBenchmark: Intel Core i3-3225 vs i7-950

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IntelBX80601950

BUY • $100

IntelBX80637I33225

BUY • $325

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Real World Speed

Performance profile from 39,734 user samples

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36,389 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 74% Base clock 4.2 GHz, turbo 4.15 GHz (avg)
Worst Bench: 54% Base clock 3.05 GHz, turbo 3.05 GHz (avg)

Poor: 54% Great: 74%

SPEED RANK: 486^th / 1445

Gaming 66%

Battle cruiser

Desktop 69%

Battle cruiser

Workstation 50%

Yacht

3,345 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 66% Base clock 3.3 GHz, turbo 3.3 GHz (avg)
Worst Bench: 48% Base clock 3.3 GHz, turbo 3.3 GHz (avg)

Poor: 48% Great: 66%

SPEED RANK: 605^th / 1445

Gaming 59%

Gunboat

Desktop 66%

Battle cruiser

Workstation 42%

Speed boat


Effective Speed Effective CPU Speed		65.9 %	Faster effective speed. +13%		58.5 %


Memory Avg. Memory Latency	86.7 Pts	Slightly lower memory latency. +7%	80.9 Pts
1-Core Avg. Single Core Speed	75.5 Pts		82.7 Pts	Slightly faster single-core speed. +10%
2-Core Avg. Dual Core Speed	144 Pts		145 Pts	+1%
4-Core Avg. Quad Core Speed	248 Pts	Faster quad-core speed. +18%	211 Pts
8-Core Avg. Octa Core Speed	350 Pts	Much faster octa-core speed. +64%	214 Pts


Memory OC Memory Latency	96.1 Pts	+3%	93.3 Pts
1-Core OC Single Core Speed	88 Pts		91.8 Pts	+4%
2-Core OC Dual Core Speed	170 Pts		173 Pts	+2%
4-Core OC Quad Core Speed	309 Pts	Much faster OC quad-core speed. +33%	232 Pts
8-Core OC Octa Core Speed	417 Pts	Much faster OC octa-core speed. +80%	232 Pts

Market Share

Based on 67,877,826 CPUs tested

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Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0.02 %	Insanely higher market share. +∞%	0 %
Value Value For Money	87.3 %	Much better value. +56%	56.1 %
User Rating UBM User Rating	55 %	Slightly more popular. +8%	51 %
Price Price (score)	$100	Much cheaper. +69%	$325


Age Newest	182 Months		141 Months	More recent. +23%
TDP Thermal Design Power (TDP)	130 Watts		55 Watts	Much more energy efficient. +58%
Cores CPU Processing Cores	4 cores	Hugely higher core count. +100%	2 cores
Threads CPU Processing Threads	8 threads	Hugely higher thread count. +100%	4 threads
Lithography Manufacturing process	45 nm		22 nm	Much newer manufacturing. +51%
Base Clock Base Clock Speed	3.07 GHz		3.3 GHz	Slightly faster base frequency. +7%
Turbo Clock Turbo Clock Speed	3.33 GHz	+1%	3.3 GHz
64-Core OC Multi Core Speed	434 Pts	Hugely faster OC 64-core speed. +86%	233 Pts
64-Core Avg. Multi Core Speed	356 Pts	Much faster 64-core speed. +66%	215 Pts


Series CPU Architecture	Nehalem	Ivy Bridge
Socket Motherboard Socket	LGA1366	FCLGA1155
Graphics Integrated Graphics	None	HD 4000
Launch Date Launch Date	Q2'09	Q3'12
Cache Cache	8 MB SmartCache	3 MB SmartCache
Instruction Set Extensions Instruction Set Extensions	SSE4.2	SSE4.1/4.2, AVX
Lithography Lithography	45 nm	22 nm
Recommended Price Recommended Customer Price	$305.00	$134.00
Bus Speed Bus Speed	4.8 GT/s QPI	5 GT/s DMI
Max Memory Size Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type)	24 GB	32 GB
Memory Types Memory Types	DDR3 800/1066	DDR3 1333/1600
Memory Channels Max # of Memory Channels	3	2
Package Size Package Size	42.5mm x 45.0mm	37.5mm x 37.5mm
Thermal Monitoring Technologies Thermal Monitoring Technologies	No	Yes
Turbo Boost Tech Intel® Turbo Boost Technology ‡	1.0	No
	More specs »	More specs »

The i7-950 is a first generation Core processor which is now three generations and four years old. The 950 was included in the group test as a reference for how fast processors were back in 2009. This particular generation of processor heralded the 4 core 8 thread configuration that Intel has been kitting its top end processors with ever since. In terms of real world performance based on single core horsepower (most applications are still unable to make use of multiple cores concurrently), with a PassMark Single Thread score of 1320 the i7-950 is approximately 50% slower than its modern day equivalent, the i7 4770K. ^{[Feb '12 CPUPro]}

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The Core i3-3225 Ivy Bridge processor offers both superb real world performance and excellent value for money. For raw single threaded performance the i3-3225 scores 28% lower than the i7-3770K but costs less than half as much. At first glance one might assume that I am crazy for recommending a puny Core-i3 over the mighty Core-i7's but for real world consumer use there is simply no point in having 4 cores and 8 threads, they will hardly ever be used. All of the third gen Ivy Bridge Core-i3s are superb but the i3-3225 sports the slightly more 3D capable HD 4000 Graphics vs the HD 2500 offered on the other models. For real-world performance in an energy efficient package with modest on-board graphics, this is a superb choice. For most use cases including: email, surfing, watching movies, listening to music and office apps, this processor will deliver almost as good an experience as any other processor on the market. ^{[Jun '13 CPUPro]}

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CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-13600K $273	Nvidia RTX 4060 $280	Crucial MX500 250GB $39
Intel Core i5-12400F $120	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-12600K $165	Nvidia RTX 4070 $490	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $39	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $39	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $32	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $45	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $62	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16

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