How to explain (laymans terms)

pieterclassens · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:10

Hi all,

I know someone who is thinking of uupgrading their CPU.

Thing is they are looking at the comparison between a 2.66GHz Intel Celeron and a 2.5GHz Intel i5.

He wants to know why the i5 is better? Surely 2.66 is better than 2.5?

I did try to explain that's not quite how it works and comparisons need to include other variables like FSB etc but I'm not quite sure I'm explaining in terms he understands.

Anyone know a better way of putting it, without sounding condescending?

Cheers,

PC.

RiseAgainst · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:19

well in lasymans terms, your celeron is like two brains working fairly fast where as the i5 is 4 brain, while these brains cant think about as many things a second they are still a lot faster as they have evolved and become better optimized.
That would be the way i would explain it to my parents so i dont know if that helps :L

ThomBassmonkey · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:28

The motorway analogy works for most stuff. Speed is speed (duh) and bandwidth as lanes.

The celeron might be moving faster, but the i5 has more lanes, so more traffic gets through in a given amount of time.

pieterclassens · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:57

Thanks Thom. I'm liking the motorway analogy!!!

Cheers,

PC.

WingZero30 · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:08

2.5Ghz i5 will beat 2.66Ghz celeron in single threaded applications aswell.

Different architecture and clock for clock it is faster.

Plus i5 has more transistors packed in than celeron. So able to process more data even if it is at lower clock speed.

Hence i5 has processing power prowess

Surveyor · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:11

Are they upgrading the motherboard, and possibly RAM, as well?

The Celeron is probably a Socket 775 processor, maybe even Socket 478.

I'm not sure what i5 processor you're referring to at 2.5GHz but an i5 won't be Socket 478 or 775.

Reaper 392 · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:31

unfortunately that motorway lanes explanation would make your friend head straight to the AMD 1100T, being a 6 core @ 3.3Ghz, which is somewhere we dont want him going. you need your friend to take into account work done per clock cycle as well (which should tell him why the 2500k is better than the 1100T)

i'm pretty pants at analogies, but i'll do my best to expand the motorway explanation:

imagine a motorway specifically for buses (to make my analogy a lot easier). the best motorway would be the one that can carry the most people from one end to another in the shortest time.
- the number of cores on the processor will be equivalent to the number of lanes on the motorway. more lanes (core) means more buses
- the clock speed is like the speed limit, the higher the clock speed, the faster the buses can go
- the work per clock cycle is like the number of people you can get on each bus. obviously the more people you can get on the bus the better it will be

if he can understand this then you might want to tell him about overclocking (in the motorway analogy this would be increasing the speed limit) and hyperthreading (which i dont understand well enough to put into the analogy)

pieterclassens · 31 Aug 2011 at 14:31

Thanks guys for the extra info.

And, surveyor, yes they are going all out (IOW mb, ram etc)

Cheers,

PC.

eddyr · 31 Aug 2011 at 15:31

Needs a bit of work but you could try engines:

pistons being cores
literage/piston size as amount of transistors
max rpm as mhz
design/tuning as new architecture optimizations

LeJosh · 31 Aug 2011 at 21:07

Just tell him they managed to cram more trannies into a smaller space than the celeron.

RollerBall · 31 Aug 2011 at 21:11

LeJosh said:
Just tell him they managed to cram more trannies into a smaller space than the celeron.

I don't think he'll take that the right way...

LeJosh · 31 Aug 2011 at 21:13

lol

switches/transistors.

Steves_pc · 31 Aug 2011 at 22:46

the way i'd explain is
celeron = old single decker bus not very fuel efficient doing 60mph
i5 = double decker buses running on gas doing 60mph quite fuel efficient

othe than that a couple of good ones here already, Lol'd at the trannies, they have what to do with a cpu?? yeah well anyways good luck!

mickyflinn · 31 Aug 2011 at 22:54

Evoloution.

TheJackal · 31 Aug 2011 at 23:03

Explain to him what Celeron means and that should put him off ever considering a Celeron processor in a PC.
Celeron used to mean that it didn't have a dedicated maths co processor. ie. about as useful as a Ferrari with a spud shoved up its exhaust.

Justintime · 31 Aug 2011 at 23:55

TheJackal said:
.
Celeron used to mean that it didn't have a dedicated maths co processor. ie. about as useful as a Ferrari with a spud shoved up its exhaust.

Celeron has never meant that. Celerons have traditionally had limited FSBs and small or non existant L2 Cache, none lacked a co-processor, cpus that lacked that were before the Pentium era, looong before the Celeron.

richb93 · 31 Aug 2011 at 23:58

Surely if they are getting along okay with a Celeron now then the logical upgrade for them would be an i3?

bru · 1 Sep 2011 at 00:04

he doesn't need to understand why, just say to him its the same way that a new 1600cc ford focus is so much quicker than a old 1600 ford escort and its the same with modern CPU's.

if you must explain it too him use reapers buses on the motorway analogy

TheJackal · 1 Sep 2011 at 00:07

ok maybe I got that confused with multiprocessing, it was along time ago.
However, they were in effect crippled processors with features disabled.
Either way the finer points would be lost on the OPs friend.

dave_beast · 1 Sep 2011 at 00:20

Using the bus analogy

Celeron

i5