If you're simply getting a slight clock-speed bump and maybe Hyper-threading out of the deal, as is the case in the new iMacs and the 13" Retina MacBook Pro, your money is going to be best spent elsewhere unless you regularly do very CPU-heavy tasks like video editing and transcoding or very heavy Photoshop work, and the minutes and seconds you'll save with a marginally faster CPU are important to you. Apple doesn't list Intel's CPU model numbers, but if you're buying from another manufacturer you can usually tell the difference by seeing whether the processor has a Q (for quad-core) in its name (i.e., the Core i7-3610QM).
#BEST BUY MAC MINI I7 MAC#
If you're jumping from two cores to four (as you do in the Mac Mini), you'll probably be happy if you spend the cash. The answer to that question varies depending on what kind of Core i7 processor we're talking about.
#BEST BUY MAC MINI I7 UPGRADE#
Since the processors used by the new 13" Retina MacBook Pros are all dual-core chips, when you spend the $200 to upgrade to an i7 CPU, all you're really getting is a little extra clock speed and a little extra cache, which makes much less of a performance difference than the upgraded Mini's two extra cores.
Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron processors in both desktops and laptops lack this feature, but all of the i5s and i7s have it. These dual-core i5 and i7 chips also share other marquee features-the most important is probably Turbo Boost, which can greatly increase the speed of processor cores if your computer isn't using all of them at once. Mobile Core i7 processors can be quad-core chips-as they are in the $799 Mac Mini-but they can also be dual-core CPUs with Hyper-threading enabled, making them much less of an upgrade over their mobile Core i5 counterparts. It would be all too easy if Intel's mobile lineup followed the same rules as the desktop chips, but they don't: Mobile Core i5 processors are all dual-core parts with Hyper-threading, rather than quad-core parts. There are some oddities and variations within these product families, but in general it's easy enough figure out what's what. There is no Core i5 desktop processor with Hyper-threading and there is only one seldom-seen Core i5 desktop chip with only two cores (the low power i5-3470T), which draws a mostly clear line between the Core i5 and Core i7 product lines-on the desktop, dual-core CPUs are a market segment left to the Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron chips. The iMacs use desktop-class processors rather than the mobile processors used by the MacBook Pros and Mac Minis, which makes things a bit easier: a Core i7 upgrade will get you more processor cache, more clock speed, and Hyper-threading.
So what's the difference between a Core i5 and a Core i7? Well, thanks to Intel, the answer isn't simple. If you're in the market for a new Mac (or any computer, really), do these CPU upgrades give you a good bang for your upgrade buck? What's in a number? Well, it depends. For each of the new Macs Apple began selling yesterday, the company offers a $200 upgrade option that will turn your Core i5 processor into a Core i7 processor (and while it hasn't started selling the new iMacs yet, those computers should have a similar upgrade path).
If you like to upgrade when things are new, now is the time to strike.Īny new computer is an investment, though, and you'll want to make sure that what you're buying will last for as long as possible.
Apple unleashed a pile of new Mac hardware on its users Tuesday: new 13" Retina MacBook Pros and Mac Minis using Intel's newest Ivy Bridge processors are available for shipping now, while substantially redesigned iMacs begin shipping in November and December.
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