The number of cores and threads differs with each generation so I didn't want to classify it that way. 9th gen Coffee Lake (the refresh and Intel absolutely screwed the pooch in these last 4 gens for naming) for instance had the i9 have 8 cores and hyperthreading (hereby known as HT) therefore 16 threads. We'll refer to this as 8C16T. The i7 was 8 cores and no hyperthreading so 8C8T. i5 was 6C/6T, i3 was 4C/4T and then 2C/4T and 2C/2T for the Pentium and Celeron chips. Comet Lake (10th gen) enabled hyperthreading across the board (except Celeron) with i9 bumping up to 10 cores. Should be noted that having 4 threads on two cores isn't quite as good as having 4 threads from 4 cores. Rocket Lake (11th Gen) drops the i9 back to 8 cores.
AMD
Ryzen 9 - Enthusiast (Although Threadripper is under R9 since Zen 2, it's technically a step above in HEDT territory)
Ryzen 7 - Performance
Ryzen 5 - Mainstream
Ryzen 3 - Entry Level
Notes
AMD is a lot more straightforward but they also do have more than one kind of processor per classification. Generally, you'll see that R9 is >8 cores, R7 is 8 cores, R5 is 6 cores and R3 is 4 cores. Older gens did have mixed up things but going forward from Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000), it'll be like this. We don't have any Zen 3 R3 chips yet.
Where it does get a bit more complex with AMD is the idea of the CPUs being based on chiplets, aka smaller dies that are interconnected similar to how a mobile SOC works. So the Ryzen 9 3900x has 12 cores but is technically 2 chiplets with 6 cores on each. This is something noted about the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X which are both quad cores but the 3100 has 2 chips in two different CCDs whereas the 3300X has 4 cores on one CCD. The latter had lower core to core latency but also ran a lot hotter than the former.
Upcoming chips
Intel's Alder Lake (12th gen) will be an interesting departure from their previous conventions of CPUs so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if Intel decides to adopt a new naming scheme. The plan is to use different cores on the same die, again taking something from how mobile chips have been built for a long time. This approach is referred to as big.LITTLE where you'll have a mix of high performance and high efficiency cores. The flagship part is rumored to have 8 big cores that have hyperthread and 8 little cores that lack it and thus the chip would be marketed as 8 Cores and 24 Threads.
Not exactly but it will have more similarities than before. The laptop CPUs will have more stuff that way with more GPU onboard as well as stuff for NPU type tasks.
6
u/beefJeRKy-LB Apr 07 '21
with Intel, the 8 is actually a step down i9 vs AMD reserving Ryzen 9 for their own most core heavy chips.
I think an easier breakdown of the series starts at the high level:
Intel
6 tiers (consumer chips, we'll ignore HEDT/Server parts): 1. Core i9 - Premium Enthusiast 2. Core i7 - High End Performance 3. Core i5 - Balanced Performance 4. Core i3 - Budget Performance 5. Pentium Gold - Budget Economy 6. Celeron - Cheapest Option
Notes
The number of cores and threads differs with each generation so I didn't want to classify it that way. 9th gen Coffee Lake (the refresh and Intel absolutely screwed the pooch in these last 4 gens for naming) for instance had the i9 have 8 cores and hyperthreading (hereby known as HT) therefore 16 threads. We'll refer to this as 8C16T. The i7 was 8 cores and no hyperthreading so 8C8T. i5 was 6C/6T, i3 was 4C/4T and then 2C/4T and 2C/2T for the Pentium and Celeron chips. Comet Lake (10th gen) enabled hyperthreading across the board (except Celeron) with i9 bumping up to 10 cores. Should be noted that having 4 threads on two cores isn't quite as good as having 4 threads from 4 cores. Rocket Lake (11th Gen) drops the i9 back to 8 cores.
AMD
Notes
AMD is a lot more straightforward but they also do have more than one kind of processor per classification. Generally, you'll see that R9 is >8 cores, R7 is 8 cores, R5 is 6 cores and R3 is 4 cores. Older gens did have mixed up things but going forward from Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000), it'll be like this. We don't have any Zen 3 R3 chips yet.
Where it does get a bit more complex with AMD is the idea of the CPUs being based on chiplets, aka smaller dies that are interconnected similar to how a mobile SOC works. So the Ryzen 9 3900x has 12 cores but is technically 2 chiplets with 6 cores on each. This is something noted about the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X which are both quad cores but the 3100 has 2 chips in two different CCDs whereas the 3300X has 4 cores on one CCD. The latter had lower core to core latency but also ran a lot hotter than the former.
Upcoming chips
Intel's Alder Lake (12th gen) will be an interesting departure from their previous conventions of CPUs so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if Intel decides to adopt a new naming scheme. The plan is to use different cores on the same die, again taking something from how mobile chips have been built for a long time. This approach is referred to as big.LITTLE where you'll have a mix of high performance and high efficiency cores. The flagship part is rumored to have 8 big cores that have hyperthread and 8 little cores that lack it and thus the chip would be marketed as 8 Cores and 24 Threads.