We have gotten very used to seeing that little eye in front of Intel CPU numbers since the first
i7 came out all the way back in 2008, but now it's the end of an era as Intel is changing
its CPU branding. Instead of the lowercase i and a number, Team Blue CPU lineup will be split into
Core and Core Ultra segments, with the Core CPUs being designated as either Core 3, 5, or 7,
while Core Ultra CPUs will be branded as Core Ultra 5, 7, or 9. But why did Intel decide to
make such a big change when many of us have gotten quite used to what Core i5 or whatever
means about a processor's performance? We sat down with Intel and got some answers,
and we'd like to thank both Intel and Thomas Hannaford for their assistance.
First of all, even though many of us in the tech enthusiast space find Intel's Core i
something branding followed by 14th gen or whatever, to be pretty straightforward,
it turns out that many other people don't. Intel got feedback from both everyday users and OEMs
who build computers with Intel CPUs that they then have to turn around and sell that the old
branding was actually rather confusing. If we're talking about the lowercase i specifically,
it appeared that lots of consumers simply didn't know what the heck it's supposed to stand for.
So Intel thought a good starting point would be just to remove this extraneous letter. I mean,
it's not like they're Apple. But if the goal is simplicity, why are they splitting the lineup
into Core and Core Ultra? The Core Core Ultra scheme is part of Intel's plan to de-emphasize
what generation or gen a chip is a part of, as they think that future chip architectures will be
a little more purpose built than they have been. In the past, you'd see a new broad lineup of CPUs
whenever a new architecture was ready to be released. There would be new chips from the
Celeron all the way up to the Core i9. The specific chip that you'd buy would depend on what exactly
you were going to use it for, but each chip generation would be the same architecture. However,
Intel thinks that in the future, certain architectures will work better for some use cases than others.
So instead of putting an emphasis on what generation a processor is,
the Core versus Core Ultra distinction will be the one that gives the consumer the largest
amount of information about what a chip will be good for. And Intel's own market research showed
that the generation language was also confusing to many consumers, which kind of makes sense.
Fourteenth gen means something to folks who closely follow developments in PC hardware,
like, say, a tech-linked viewer. But not much to the average person who walks into a Best Buy
and just wants to know if a certain laptop is good for gaming. Core Ultra is supposed to mean
good for gamers and content creators, while just plain Core is supposed to mean good for
productivity and general use. Meanwhile, Intel has also ditched the Pentium and Celeron brands
and is now simply calling their entry-level offerings Intel processors. Again, the intent
is to simplify things, considering later model desktop Pentiums and Celerons weren't super
different from each other. But it remains to be seen if this move will instead create a
who's on foist situation. So did you get an Intel processor? Yes. Wait. Well, no. Huh? Who's on first?
There will also be shortened model numbers that follow the main Core or Core Ultra designation.
Intel is moving to using just three numbers, with the first telling you the generation,
the second telling you the relative performance level, and the third digit appearing to indicate
features like a higher clock or more PCIe lanes, though Intel hasn't made this super clear yet.
Is this actually less confusing? Maybe, maybe not. But it's understandable that Intel would
consider names like i9-14900KF to be a little unwieldy, and general feedback from OEM so far
seems to be positive compared to the old naming system. What might be a bit more confusing,
though, is exactly what the numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9 will mean. But this was already becoming an issue
with the old naming scheme. For quite a while, Intel's desktop chips followed this pattern,
but as larger Core Counts became more common, it was no longer possible to tell how many
cores the CPU had just by looking at i5 or i7, for example. It's likely that these numbers
will indicate a relative performance tier within the Core or Core Ultra brands instead of a specific
number of cores, especially as typical Core Counts will likely continue to change in the future.
Plus, there'll be flying cars and, you know, that's complicated. Although there are a handful of
mobile chips already out with the new branding, we'll have to wait until at least the second half
of 2024 to see it start appearing on the desktop side. When that happens, we're planning to do a
follow-up video with more specific details about the naming scheme, but for now, weigh in down in
the comments as to whether you think Intel is simplifying things or just making them more complicated.
But you know what's not complicated? How much I appreciate you and the fact you watch this whole
video. Thanks for watching! Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it,
check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions, and don't forget to subscribe
and follow. And that's the simplest thing anyone's ever said.