Advice Request What's the lowest generation Intel processor to buy in 2020/21?

[Ink]

General question for when buying a computer.

10th is the latest and greatest, but is it OK to buy an 9th gen or lower?

Not everyone needs that extra fraction of a micro-second in stats. So what would you recommend the lowest generation to go for in 2020/2021?

 

[mlnevese]

Sure. I would say that 8th generation is more than enough for most people.

 

[Paul Lee]

Definitely 8th gen, but it depends on what the use case would be. For gaming I'd say 8th gen but for office work you could get away with a 5th-6th gen

 

[sepik]

I'm using 8th Generation I5-8400 "Coffee Lake" and i'm happy with it.

Kind regards,
-sepik

 

[blackice]

I’m still on an i7 6700 and it is still snappy and keeps up with my video card just fine. I wouldn’t recommend buying that now, but their higher end processors tend to have decent longevity. An 8th gen would probably be good for a good long while and a 9th gen I would recommend.

 

[plat]

The lowest? I think Skylake 6th generation is getting too old, all-around. I would feel like I'm buying a brand-spanking new Oldsmobile (Olds is defunct since 2004).

I would get the highest level I am willing to pay to make some so-called future-proofing. BUT you run the risk of locking yourself to a cpu-mainboard from two generations to the next ones. For example: I can't put an i7 10700K on my new and modern Z390 board. but I was already aware of that. So I would look into component upgrade compatibility before buying. I have 9th generation hardware and definitely can't complain, even though it's locked there. You're right: a fraction of a second is meaningless here.

Intel is having so many problems right now with its technology and personnel, it shakes my confidence a bit in anything coming out in the near future. I have no personal experience with AMD but a lot of people on Steam are sporting some amazing Ryzen builds for considerably less money than Intel counterparts.

 

[Bryan320]

i just bought an HP ENVY x360 with an intel core I7 10th gen and i absolutely love it!!

 

[CyberPanther]

If the ourpose to purchase a laptop to browse the internet and office suites, I do recommend to use the 9th or 8th generations processers. But if the purpose is gaming and graphics usage (video editing, Autocad, etc) then I recommend 10th generation processors.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

Choose older generation only if you don't care about power efficiency.

For mobile I won't recommend 6th - 8th gen+ (8th gen was a huge upgrade )

For desktop an Exon wich can be bought used locally or via AliExpress .
I recommend it because it has better to slightly better value then newest ryzen chips depending upon workload unfortunately power draw is a major concern in my opinion although depending upon region

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

i just bought an HP ENVY x360 with an intel core I7 10th gen and i absolutely love it!!

Yeah really wanted to get the ryzen model because of the performance per watt over Intel and ram + SSD can be upgraded quite easily unfortunately haven't found any deal on the 1000 nits display version

 

[show-Zi]

If you're not editing videos or playing games, we recommend choosing a cpu based on your budget, not your performance.
The state-of-the-art processor is too luxurious for general use such as browsing online or watching videos. In this case, it is more comfortable to spend money on the speed of the communication line and the introduction of ssd.

 

[shmu26]

In order to future-proof your computer, you should get new hardware. But it won't be backwards compatible. Newer Intel CPUs do not fully support Windows 7 and 8.

 

[show-Zi]

If you can install win95 on the latest hardware, it should work lightly enough to leave an afterimage.
...Probably a delusion that everyone would think about once.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

Choose older generation only if you don't care about power efficiency.

For mobile I won't recommend 6th - 8th gen+ (8th gen was a huge upgrade )

For desktop an Exon wich can be bought used locally or via AliExpress .
I recommend it because it has better to slightly better value then newest ryzen chips depending upon workload unfortunately power draw is a major concern in my opinion although depending upon region

Correction I just seen I said I won't recommend 6th -8th gen it was a Typo .
Actually I meant to choose between 6th - 8th for older mobile CPU.

 

[Stopspying]

Intel is having so many problems right now with its technology and personnel, it shakes my confidence a bit in anything coming out in the near future. I have no personal experience with AMD but a lot of people on Steam are sporting some amazing Ryzen builds for considerably less money than Intel counterparts.

I'm not a gamer so aside from power usage considerations I'm not too bothered about having the latest build, never have been. Those micro-second speed boosts pass me by without being noticed. No video I watch on machines here ahve any noticible lag etc, none of them are anywhere near brand spanking new machines. If I had to build a new PC I'd most likely not use Intel, their 8,9,10th gen CPUs are really good but Intels future looks blurred, at least in the near term, wheras AMD looks like it may have a more settled future.

 

[juhful]

I run an I5-6200 for Office, surfing, movies, and TV and it runs great. So there's that lol

 

[mlnevese]

The differences between generations are quite inconstant. There was a jump in performance in mobile 8th to 9th generation, for instance. But from 9th to 10th the changes are less noticeable on day to day use.

 

[cali_max99]

It's a little inappropriate to post AMD in an Intel thread, but I have to say that the newly released Ryzon 7 4800U is the best value for money yet.