For many years, Intel has been a leader in the processor market. There were periods when AMD was able to seriously undermine the flagship's position. And recent years have been marked by a serious strengthening of the competitor. And although Intel now retains a significant market share, to some extent the company is playing catch-up. Tom's Hardware journalists have compiled their rating of the five best Intel processors in the company's history.
The first place in the ranking is given to the legendary Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor. The history of this processor is connected with the successful launch of the Core series. In pursuit of frequency, the company has led the family of processors based on the NetBurst architecture to a dead end. This was the rise of the AMD Athlon 64 processor and the decline of the Intel Pentium processor. But everything changed with the release of Core. The new processors were a development of the mobile energy-efficient Pentium M series. Core were more economical, operated at lower frequencies, but outright outperformed older CPUs and competitors. After the successful launch of the Core series in 2006, the same Core 2 Quad Q6600 was introduced a year later – the first quad-core processor for the mass consumer market. The processor consisted of two dual-core Core crystals. It was a crude solution and had some drawbacks, but even this CPU dominated AMD's later quad-core processors. The Core 2 Quad Q6600 successfully competed even with AMD Phenom II X4 processors from 2009. Also, the Core 2 Quad Q6600 was loved by enthusiasts and Aroged, since with overclocking it was possible to squeeze out a significant increase in performance.
Tom's Hardware experts give second place to the Core i9-13900K processor. The appearance of this processor was preceded by a difficult struggle with AMD. The first years of the second decade passed under the sign of Intel, but this led to gradual stagnation and lack of innovation, when progress from generation to generation was scanty, and after 2014 the company produced processors based on the 14 nm process technology in its various variations for several years. In 2017, AMD returned to the big leagues with the release of Ryzen and began to quickly regain lost ground by releasing faster and faster processors with each new generation of Zen. In an attempt to regain its edge, Intel was able to introduce fast Alder Lake architecture and 12th generation Core. In the next generation, the company increased the number of cores and finally returned to parity with its competitor. The flagship Core i9-13900K received 8 productive cores with HT and 16 economical cores, which gives a total of 32 threads. And this computing monster is still relevant, since the 14th generation Core uses the same architecture, and all the improvements have been reduced to a slight acceleration in frequencies.
Third place is given to the Core i7-920 processor. These processors appeared in 2008 as part of the launch of the new Nehalem architecture as an attempt to develop the high-performance processor segment. Core 2 was limited to only two cores, and Core 2 Quad became a hybrid solution using two crystals. Nehalem offered four cores with L3 cache and support for Hyper-Treading, meaning the processors processed eight threads. These CPUs were also the first to offer three-channel memory access with DDR3 support. The new line of processors was positioned as a solution for enthusiasts, but the junior Core i7-920 had an affordable price of under $300, which ensured its popularity.
The fourth place is occupied by the Core i5-2500K. The processor is truly legendary and may still be in the PCs of some of our readers. It belongs to the Sandy Bridge generation, which cemented Intel's dominance. The processors offered a certain unification of the CPU crystal, integrated graphics and memory controller. The excellent combination of performance and price has made them a massive success. Moreover, subsequent generations no longer showed such a noticeable increase in performance, so the Core i5-2500K was the optimal choice for a gaming PC for several years to come. The processor was also the best choice for overclocking enthusiasts due to its unlocked multiplier and good frequency potential. However, the Core i5-2500K only has four cores, and if you wanted more, you could purchase the Core i7-2600K, which supported Hyper-Treading and processed eight threads.
Fifth place goes to the Intel 8086. This is the pioneer with which the history of x86 processors began. This chip appeared in 1978, when it had serious competitors from Motorola and Zilog. But it was the Intel 8086 that became the leader, gradually occupying 85% of the 16-bit processor market of that time. This was facilitated by the success of IBM PC computers based on the optimized and slightly stripped-down Intel 8088. It is with them that the history of personal computers begins.
The Alder Lake family of processors deserves special mention. For Intel, this is a landmark generation, which appeared against the backdrop of a serious confrontation with AMD Ryzen. Alder Lake – the first hybrid processors with different cores, plus the long-awaited transition to the new 10 nm process technology. The flagship Core i9-12900K showed comparable performance to the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, but was cheaper.
It is worth adding that Tom's Hardware unfairly ignored the Pentium processor line; some of these processors clearly deserve a place in the ranking of the best.
Source:
Tom’s Hardware