Question My choices: Intel i5 10210U (Comet Lake) vs 1035G1 (Ice Lake)

[JEDI]

Im looking at Dell's refurb laptop list and noticed these two 10th gen cpu's as the most frequently offered quad cores.
(AMD's Ryzen 5 3500u being a distant 3rd.)

from this site, they seem almost equal?

Processor Comparison - Head 2 Head

Intel Core i5-10210U vs Intel Core i5-1035G1 - Benchmarks, Tests and Comparisons

www.notebookcheck.net

if i had a choice, which is the better buy for casual use (web surfing, movies, word/excel)?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Seems like a wash except for 7-zip which is heavily in favor of IceLake-U.

 

[piokos]

Actually, the SoCs are very close in CPU performance, so the laptop's cooling will be the deciding factor.
In other words: unless you find benchmarks of the actual laptops you're considering, ignore it and treat them as equal.

Just get the laptop you like more.
Slightly better SoC won't compensate inferior features or build quality.

Ice Lake has a slightly faster GPU, but that's probably irrelevant here.

 

[ondma]

Actually, the SoCs are very close in CPU performance, so the laptop's cooling will be the deciding factor.
In other words: unless you find benchmarks of the actual laptops you're considering, ignore it and treat them as equal.

Just get the laptop you like more.
Slightly better SoC won't compensate inferior features or build quality.

Ice Lake has a slightly faster GPU, but that's probably irrelevant here.

Not that it matters much for consumer use, but doesn't Ice Lake have more hardware level security fixes?

 

[AtenRa]

I would go for the Core i5 1035G1 because its a 10nm.

 

[piokos]

Not that it matters much for consumer use, but doesn't Ice Lake have more hardware level security fixes?

AFAIK the same as Comet Lake, which is actually a younger lineup.

I would go for the Core i5 1035G1 because its a 10nm.

There's almost no gain in this case. Intel used the free space for a larger IGP that OP may or may not need.
Ice Lake has a slightly more modern instruction set (DL Boost). Otherwise pretty equivalent SoCs.

 

[JEDI]

AFAIK the same as Comet Lake, which is actually a younger lineup.

There's almost no gain in this case. Intel used the free space for a larger IGP that OP may or may not need.
Ice Lake has a slightly more modern instruction set (DL Boost). Otherwise pretty equivalent SoCs.

interesting.. Does Intel regularly release 2 chips with the same performance?

 

[dullard]

interesting.. Does Intel regularly release 2 chips with the same performance?

No, but also Intel does not regularly have a chip production shortage in a time with high CPU demand.

Intel needs both lines of chips going in order to get close to meeting this demand--even if this means two different CPUs have about the same performance.

 

[ondma]

AFAIK the same as Comet Lake, which is actually a younger lineup.

Actually Comet Lake is just Skylake architecture after several iterations of the 14 nm process. Ice Lake is a new architecture.

 

[piokos]

Actually Comet Lake is just Skylake architecture after several iterations of the 14 nm process. Ice Lake is a new architecture.

And this is important because?

interesting.. Does Intel regularly release 2 chips with the same performance?

In 10th gen (and maybe 11th too) Intel makes mobile CPUs using 2 different semiconductor processes (and 2 different architectures).
They have some supply of 10nm, but not enough to make all mobile SoCs.

The very similar performance is not surprising when you think that for most customers the CPU is an i3, i5 or i7.
In other words: it would be nice if "10th gen i5" represented a certain level of performance - regardless of what's actually in the box. And it does.

 

[ondma]

And this is important because?

(Snip)

You are the one that brought it up, so it must be important to you. I was simply trying to clarify the point.

 

[aigomorla]

I would get a Ryzen just because.... (sarcasm because of all the AMD hit and run people)

On a serious note tho... JEDI what is the price factor on both laptops?
How much of a difference in price are we looking at between the two laptop, and what are the other specs like RAM and SSD size?

As others have stated, its pretty much a wash between the two, the other factors would probably play more heavily in our recomendation.

 

[coercitiv]

The OP would be better off mentioning laptop models than CKU SKUs in this case.

Given one of those 2 CPUs, I would prioritize the following:

• RAM quantity, especially if soldered (8GB is enough if spare slot is available)
• cooling & noise profile (including whether fan shut down during idle operation)
• display quality -> max brightness 300+ nits, no PWM switching preferable, a decent sRGB coverage
• touchpad & keyboard quality
• SSD size and speed

No matter the CPU of choice, the main performance limit on an ultralight unit will be cooling performance. If your're looking to maximize CPU performance, maximize cooling potential.

 

[IntelUser2000]

There's also the 1035G1 being on cores that suffer from almost no vulnerabilities. Despite the hardware mitigations, even Cometlake is affected by the latest several vulnerabilities, but Icelake isn't.