Not all processors are made equal.

The larger the “I” number is not a deciding factor of speed alone. The i7 is not always the fastest. An i3 can be faster than an i5. An i3 can even be faster than an i7.
The thinking for most is that the larger the i number, the faster the processor should be. It’s not. It never was. See the three examples below. The red number is the user speed experience

Here is an i3 (fast)
Speed 8072

Here is an i5 (not as fast)
Speed 7171

Here is an i7 (slower)
Speed 6991

The GHz is not a determiner of speed alone also. See the three examples below.
The thinking for most is that the larger the GHz speed, the faster the processor should be. It’s not. It used to be that the faster the GHz, the faster the process. Not anymore.

Here is a 2.2 GHz processor – Rating 12471 (fast)

Here is a 2.8 GHz processor – Rating 8838 (not as fast)

Here is a 3.4 GHz processor – Rating 7171 (slower)

Don’t be fooled into thinking AMD processors are slower either. Check out this rating of 26027!

There are mixed numbers that are anomalies. As seen below:

Here is an i5, 1.7GHz. Maybe it’s that next number between the i5 and the 1.7GHz that matters? 8350U?

Let’s see. Nope. Here is an i7 4790K 4.00 GHz. The 4790K is smaller and this is faster!

Maybe it’s the price. The more money I spend the faster the processor? Nope. Scroll up and look at all of the Last price changes of the processors above. The most expensive processor is the slowest processor out of all of these? These processor prices where all viewed on the same exact day so there is no skewing of the numbers for the period these were sampled.

Well, then how can I determine what processor is the best deal? Look up the exact processor model before you buy on cpubenchmark.net. Research is the only real answer here. It is extremely important to remember that these speeds are when the processor is new. After 3 years or more, most processors are damaged but pass all diagnostics and still continue to run because of error checking and corrections made by the computer to keep you running.

Just for grins. This one is a brand new computer that is cheap.
This was a hot-selling “doorbuster” deal. Look at that junky speed!

- cyanohydrax