Is the i5-3470 considered an upgrade over an i7-2600s?

[dallas4u]

I have a PC with an i7-2600S processor. I used it as an HTPC using the HD 2000 GPU and it runs fine. Wondering if going to an i5-3470 with the HD 2500 GPU will be an improvement at all both processor wise and graphics wise? It's a new architecture, but specs show the only think the i5 will probably give is ability to run faster memory? It doesn't look like, per the link below, that the HD 2500 is an improvement over the HD 2000 as the base and max frequencies show slower on the 2500 than the 2000

http://ark.intel.com/compare/52215,68316

I'm guessing the i7 is still the better option. Opinions/thoughts?

[gshv]

Are you looking for i5-3470 or i5-3470S? I think the 3470 should have about the same or a bit faster single-core performance than the i7-2600S. Multi-threading performance should be close. The HD 2500 graphics is faster than the HD 2000.

Gennadiy

[dallas4u]

I'm not looking at upgrading the processor in my current PC. Current PC, used as an HTPC, has the i7-2600 (not a 2600s as I originally thought), Sandy Bridge processor. I can get a really good deal on a PC with an i5-3470 (not an 's'). From what I am seeing this would not be much, if any, of an upgrade. I don't totally understand the comparison between the two in my link posted above, but more L3 cache on the i7, base clock speed is faster, can boost with turbo, has hyperthreading. Even the base frequency and dynamic frequency of the HD 2000 graphics on the i7 show higher than the HD 2500 on the i5.

What am I missing?? i5 supports DDR3-1600 and the i7 doesn't (just up to DDR3-1333).

[gshv]

CPU-World site doesn't have comparison of the i7-2600 with i5-3470, but it does have comparison with the i5-3450:

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/421/Intel_Core_i5_i5-3450_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-2600.html

Take a look at graphics benchmarks. Core i5-3470 is a few percent faster.

Gennadiy

[dallas4u]

So... I guess the question is, if the PC is an HTPC running Windows Media Center and possibly watching some 3D content, would it be worth moving from the current i7-2600 to the i5-3450? I'm not sure the bit quicker graphics in the i5 will give me anything in video viewing content, correct? Not sure where I would see this performance gain (if at all).

[gg1978]

or you could get a real video card like a radeon 6450, etc that would be faster than either GPU wise..

[dallas4u]

You are right... I think I'll go with a low profile HD 6450 or 6570. Should make Blu-Ray 3D run nice a smooth without much of a CPU hit.