The question that has come to many enthusiastic and non-enthusiastic gamers’ mind is, “Is i5 good for gaming?”. Well, there is no one word answer to this question and still I will try to answer this in short and in detail both. Because not only the processor but also its generation also matter while deciding whether it would be good or not for gaming.Currently 12th generation CPUs have also come in the marketand they are performing really well. But as a newbie still you would ask this question when you would see other processors like i7 or Ryzen7, i9 etc.
Short answer I will give is – “As a newbie i5 processor would be a great starter for you because its a mid range product that come under affordable price. Also recently launched 12th gen processors have proved to be a great CPU for the gaming PC or gaming laptop for that matter. They come with sufficient number of cores that help you while multitasking. These processors are able to give up to 4.5 GHz processing speed which is quite good.”
But in case you are an experienced player and want to enhance your gaming skill to the level that you want to play in tournament, then you should go for minimum i7 or Ryzen 7 processor or even i9 processor. Otherwise if you would ask me to what processor I would like to buy at this time, I would have said yes to i5 processor without a second thought at this stage.
Now to get into the detail, Let us discuss a number of points for better understanding to reach a better conclusion..
Table of Contents
Graphics card Compatibility
While looking for a CPU you should also check the graphics card compatibility. Because as we all know that gaming is about intensive graphical performance that make the virtual gaming world an adventurous experience in itself. So, its very important to look for the compatibility of GPU with CPU.More compatible it is, the better performance you would get. If the graphics card is really good (6GB for example), you might not get good performance with Core i3 or even last generations’ i5 processor. Similarly i5 processor would not be able to take the most of 8GB graphics card. So, you should also check the compatibility of GPU with the CPU.
With i5 the suitable GPUs will be RTX 3050, RTX 3050Ti, RTX 3060, Radeon RX, GTX 1650 and GTX 1650Ti. With i5 you will get the full power of graphics card be it any of these. Also keep the processor of at least 10th generation or more. And in today’s time 12th generation i5 processors have come in the market and these will certainly help to better sync with these GPUs.
Neither processor like i7 or i9 don’t make full use of their power unless you have a heavy graphics card
Processing / Clock speed
As the new evolved CPUs come in the market as new generation, they come with more power and more compatibility with the recently launched other hardware components. This let you play the recent AAA titled games. For example you can see the i5 processors with 11th gen and 12th gen. These give you really good processing speed and the power it gets from the graphics that use it at full potential.
11th gen and 12th gen processors give you processing or clock speed as high as up to 4.6 GHz. This is really really good. And obviously as this comes under mid range budget, you will get this at affordable price. You can see few selected gaming laptops if you are interested that we have covered on our site.
i7 vs i5 a brief comparison
Since we are taking the context of gaming, I will stick to the i5 and i7 processors that are for gaming specifically. We will talk about Alder lake-H chips where “H” stands for higher performance. We have several models for i5 and i7 processors. The gaming laptops that I have included on our website come with i5-12500H and i5-12600H that offer higher cores count. Similarly for i7 counter gaming laptops that I have included i7-12700H and i7-12800H processors. You know what I didn’t include a gaming laptop with i7-12650H processor because an i5-12600H processor is better in terms of performance than this.
So, as you have seen that not only the generation but also the models of CPU tell us which one is better. Hence before deciding the processor choice, clearly see the generation and model of a particular CPU that you are thinking to buy.
Now,12th gen i5-12600H processor is really goodwhen it comes to the performance. Obviously i7 will have its added advantages but comes costly. But don’t forget to see its model.
Effect of generation
Of course, there is positive effect of latest generation processors. Because latest generation processors come with better speed(quick response), more compatibility and more compact design. They are more suitable to the hardware components of today. They have evolved architecture, larger memory and lower power consumption. So yes, it would be better if you buy a processor of latest generation. Also one more thing I should tell you that i3, i5 are processors of 3rd and 4th generation respectively. But this is not the case, these are just the models of processors. You can get a processor i3 of 10th gen and 11th gen both.
Now coming to the gaming aspect, since gaming is a demanding task you would need a powerful processor. And you should never think below i5 processor for gaming. In that also, you should see which gen processor it is, I have included gaming laptops of i5 processor with the latest 12th gen in my updated gaming laptop article.
Suitable Gamers for i5
Now we can also discuss about who would be the right gamer who needs i5 processor in his gaming computer. See, i5 is the first processor that you should talk about for gaming and then you can go beyond also like for i7 or i9. So, I would say 11th or 12th generation i5 processors are really really great and you can go for them without any risk. These will perform well if the GPU and other hardware components are in sync. Now, for a beginner and mid level gamers, i5 processor is the best. In case you want to play in tournaments then you can go for i9. Otherwise i5 processor is good enough to enjoy the gaming adventure. Also keep in mind that for streaming, video editing and other intense tasks, you might need i7 processor else i5 is the way to go.
Is intel i5 good for gaming – The Conclusion
Now, we come to the end of this article and as you saw different aspects of the i5 processor, you can clearly decide whether it would be a good processor for you or not. We have seen aspects like graphics compatibility, clock speed and generation effect of this processor. Now, it is very clear that the latest 12th gen or 11th gen processor is really good and can be used by gamer without any suspect. He/she can decide to go for higher processor only if he wants to do more intensive tasks and even i5 would be sufficient for those task as well. At lthe last I would say if you are looking for really great gaming laptop with i5 processor, you can read our article here. Also I would like to thank you for reading this article to the end.
With best wishes from Roomkit.