Does intel core i5 generate more heat than i3?

Is there a disadvantage of opting i5 beside the price? Do faster processors generate more heat?

 

My experience, having owned the i5 model before the i3, is that the opposite applies for light use, browsing- the i3 tends to run a bit hotter, although only by a few degrees.

Somebody here said it was to do with the fact that the silicon used for the i3 was not as high quality (I cannot remember the exact phrase used) as the the i5 and i7 chips, thus making it less efficient. This seems a plausible explanation to me.

Of course, the i5 will run hotter at full power because it turbo's to a signifcantly higher clock speed.

I personally don't see any disadvantages to getting the i5 besides price.

 

The standard versions of these CPUs all have a nominal 35W power rating. This means that the i5 CPU should be more efficient because they can run faster for the same amount of heat or produce less heat for the same speed. The foregoing assumes that the CPUs are classified based on their performance during testing. It is also possible that i3 CPUs could perform as i5s but are turned into i3s in order to make up the numbers. In that case they wouldn't normally reach their 35W design power (my i5-2520M draws about 25W when running at 2.5GHz).

In conclusion, I don't see a disadvantage in option for the i5. How much heat it generates depends on usage.

John

 

I think that's true.

What most likely happens is a binning of die off of a wafer based on a gaussian distribution of leakage current. Die from the center of the wafer might have lower current leakage for transistors in the off state, leading to lower overall power dissipation, making it easier to clock higher and stay within the TDP spec. If the edge die have higher leakage currents, they might get binned to operate at lower clock frequencies to stay within the TDP spec.