For many consumers on the hunt for a new desktop or laptop PC, one of the biggest considerations is the type of processor the system should have. Two of the CPU families most often in contention in mainstream systems are the Intel Core i5 and the Intel Core i7. And that makes picking tricky, because the two lines have a lot in common.

The differences among Intel's key processor families are clearer when you're looking at the Core i3 (found mainly in budget systems) or the Core i9 (powerful CPUs for content-creation and other high-performance scenarios). The differences between the Core i5 and the Core i7 can seem subtle and more nuanced, especially when the prices for a Core i5 versus a Core i7 PC sometimes can be so close. There isn't always a clear-cut, definitive answer to which is better in a given situation, and often, it just comes down to your budget. But knowing the essentials about each can help you make a smarter choice. Let's get into the key differences between the Core i5 and the Core i7. How Many Cores Is Enough? Simply put, a Core i5-equipped system will be less expensive than a Core i7-equipped PC, if all else is equal. But in most cases, if you're comparing apples to apples (that is, a desktop chip to a desktop chip, or a laptop chip to a laptop chip, and the same generation to the same generation), the Core i5 will have fewer, or dialed-down, capabilities. A Core i7 will typically be better for multitasking, media-editing and media-creation tasks, high-end gaming, and similar demanding workloads. Often, though, the price difference will be small, so it's worth playing around with the online configurator of whatever PC you're buying to see if you can afford a Core i7-powered machine. (At this writing, for instance, the difference was less than $100 for the Dell XPS 13.) When you're using software that can leverage as many cores as it can get (modern content-creation programs, like the ones in the Adobe suite, are excellent examples), the more cores you have in your CPU, the faster it will perform. In addition to that, the ability for each core to handle more than one processing thread at the same time is an added bonus. (That ability, called Hyper-Threading, is not a given, though. More on that in a moment.) Nearly all Intel Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs from the 8th and 9th Generations (desktop and laptop varieties alike) have at least four cores, which is what we consider the sweet spot for most mainstream users. Many late-model desktop Core i5 and Core i7 chips have six cores, and a few ultra-high-end gaming PCs come with eight-core Core i7s. Meanwhile, a few ultra-low-power laptop Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs have just two. (You'll find these mainly in ultra-thin systems such as the Acer Swift 5.) The same rough Core nomenclature has been used for quite a few generations of Intel CPUs now, all of which share four-digit model names (such as the Intel Core i7-8700). To make sure you're buying a system with a recent-generation processor, look for the Core ix-8xxx or Core ix-9xxx naming structure. Most CPUs designed for thin or mainstream laptops have a "U" or a "Y" appended to the end of the model name; chips meant for power laptops tend to end in "H" or "HK"; and those intended for desktops have a "K" or a "T" at the end (or just end in a zero). Intel releases a new generation pretty much every year, and this fall we'll start to see 10th Generation chips for laptops (dubbed "Ice Lake" and Comet Lake"). Expect some slight tweaks to the naming structure, but all of the chips announced so far feature a "10" in the first position: Core ix-10xxx. Unless you're shopping the used-PC market, you'll find Core i5 and i7 chips of the 7th Generation or older in end-of-life/closeout systems and some budget PCs, while you'll find 8th and 9th Generation chips in most new PCs. The rough guide, if you don't want to get in too deep: To get better performance within each generation and within each class (Core i5 or Core i7), buy a processor with a higher model number. (For instance, an Intel Core i7-8550U generally has better performance than an Intel Core i5-8250U.) But you'll also want to take a look at key features like Hyper-Threading.