L2 Cache vs 64 bit - which one?

K

Ken 7878

New Member
I am considering buying an Intel i3 processor but I noticed that if I want L2 Cache I can't get 64 bit. I can get one or the other but not both.

So which one should I choose?

I use my computer for (in the order of importance):
  • programming micro controllers and embedded systems
  • PC programs (C, Visual Basic, Java)
  • spread sheets
  • online banking
  • word processing and other general tasks

PS: I also getting:
  • new mother board (Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 with B85 chip set for 4th generation i3, i5, i7 processors)
  • 16 GB of DDR3 RAM.

Thanks
Ken
 
Ken 7878 said:
I am considering buying an Intel i3 processor but I noticed that if I want L2 Cache I can't get 64 bit. I can get one or the other but not both.
Click to expand...

Why not invest a little bit more now and you can get both? You'll have the motherboard and there's really no reason to compromise if you're going to be running many programs.

Here's a popular i5 (4570): http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54570

but here's the better one (4690K): http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690k
 
Ken 7878 said:
I am considering buying an Intel i3 processor but I noticed that if I want L2 Cache I can't get 64 bit. I can get one or the other but not both.

Ken
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean by this? All i3 have 2X256 KB of L2 cache and are 64bit.
 
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Ken 7878 said:
I am considering buying an Intel i3 processor but I noticed that if I want L2 Cache I can't get 64 bit. I can get one or the other but not both.
Click to expand...

Which specific CPUs are you trying to compare?

It sounds like you had a huge mixup of misinformation somewhere.
 
Thanks for all the info.

Ok, I guess I was not well informed. I was on Newegg's web site and scrolling through the Intel processors. Whenever I found one that said 64 bit there was no mention of L2 Cache, and the ones that had L2 Cache did not say 64 bit.

So I went to Intel's web site and got some more information. I looked at i3s and filtered for 64 bit and up came a whole list of i3s; so then I filtered for 32 bit and got zero results which I guess is telling me there are no 32 bit i3s.

I knew that the i3 was duel core but from Intel's web site I see they also support Hyper Thread which means four threads which I believe would be a big performance increase.

But I can't find anything about L2 Cache. Intel's site says the i3 has 3MB of Smart Cache (whatever that is) but it doesn't say if Smart Cache is L2 or L3.

I did find this information on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)

it says there that the i3 4160 has 3MB of L3 Cache but not a word about L2.

From my understanding if a processor has both L2 and L3 Cache that each core has its own L2 Cache but they share L3 Cache. Wouldn't having L2 Cache make a big speed increase?

This is the processor I am interested in:
Code: 
Intel Core i3-4160 Haswell Dual-Core 3.6GHz LGA 1150 54W Desktop ProcessorIntel HD Graphics 4400 BX80646I34160

    Series: Core i3
    L2 Cache: 2 x 256KB
    L3 Cache: 3MB
    Manufacturing Tech: 22nm
    Model #: BX80646I34160
    Item #: N82E16819117447
[

This data was from Newegg's web site - you can see it says L2 Cache but nothing about 64 bit; whereas the Intel site said it is 64 bit but says nothing about L2 Cache.


I welcome any and all advice.


Thanks again,
Ken
 
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