Yes, this point is so obvious, I feel like I've got to be missing something. I am a professional programmer. I am vaguely aware that Intel chips have X-Lake based codenames. I have no idea how to compare the chip in my current laptop to a new laptop based on Intel's marketing names. To convince myself to upgrade, I just go to Geekbench, because nothing else in the marketing tells me the new chip is better. Seems like a very fundamental marketing failure that could be resolved by exposing the X-Lake names to the public in some friendly form.

Intel CPU numbering:

iX-YYZZZ[Suffix]

X = 3/5/7/9 = market positioning bucket. Higher is better

Y = generation, currently at 11. This is basically a numeric form of the "* Lake" naming, except for 10th gen where Ice Lake (10nm, better power efficiency) and Comet Lake (14nm, higher max perf) co-existed in laptops

ZZZ = position within that generation, higher is better, more detailed than the i3/i5/i7/i9 bucketing.

Suffixes:

H = "High Performance" - laptop CPUs with higher perf and higher energy usage. The fastest laptop chips in a given gen previously got branded "HQ" (originally the Q meant quad core), but otherwise HQ = H.

U = "Ultra portable" - laptop CPUs with lower perf and energy usage. Usually can boost well for short tasks, so you might not notice if the most intensive thing you do is compiling code but fall flat for longer workloads such as gaming.

Y = Lowest power usage - These are all garbage, to be honest. You might have one in your windows tablet or netbook.

M = "Mobile" - dead these days, as the H chips replaced them, there were a couple of gens where H and M co-existed with H > M > U.

G_N_ - Integrated graphics rating. All G3 cpus in the same gen will have the same igpu. This only exists on tenth gen/eleventh gen 10nm chips. These chips are more efficient than H/U series chips at the same perf, but don't yet reach the performance peaks of the H series due to lower clock speeds.

K - Unlocked overclockable CPUs, mostly desktop chips, but HK chips for laptops exist too.

F - No integrated GPU. Mostly desktop only.

T - Power efficient desktop CPU (thanks mehlmao)

These suffixes can be combined, e.g. HK for overclockable laptop cpus or KF for desktop cpus with overclocking and no IGPU.

---

So the rule of thumb version for a laptop buyer is H = high power, U/Gx = better battery life, within that, pick highest perf ranking number (ZZZ) within your budget. Deduct 1-2 positions per generation out of date. If you need to compare cross-gen or vs AMD, you need to go look at reviews.

The G numbers in particular are pretty meaningless to consumers. Basically all Intel iGPUs fall into a bucket that is "Good enough for windows or esports titles, not good enough for new or recent AAA games".

Other features are more of interest to DIY builders, nobody is going to sell you a laptop with no igpu and no dgpu, and if you're not interested enough to read up on this, you certainly don't care about overclocking.

Oh wow, this is great Macha! You've provided a concise solution to a real puzzle who's importance fit precisely in the space occupied by "important enough to know" and "not important enough to research it myself". Intel should put your explanation in a PDF and distribute it widely. (Or better, review their marketing approach.)

Well...this is incredibly useful information that is remarkably obscure.

They might not do it anymore but they also previously used P for GPU-less CPUs as well, i.e. 3350P.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/69114/i...

There's also the T suffix for desktop processors, indicating lower power usage. I put one of those in my NAS/Plex server.

Has anyone made a website that decodes the numbers like this?

I think Intel's marketing may have fallen down because:

- At one point everyone upgraded their PC every few years anyway.

- Just having Intel on the box was sufficiently impressive to make the sale.

Now they really need to push their latest CPUs as the latest and greatest.

I like the Lake names but I've never understood from a marketing perspective (what have chips got to do with lakes - were they designed near these lakes?) they feel more like code names that accidentally got leaked.

Many years ago Intel got sued for using code names that were things like "Hendrix" so they started using code names that were geographic features that could not be "owned" by others...

They are not real lakes, as far as I know. They might have been once but Skylake and Ice Lake are just made up.

They are code names.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_codenames

Thing is, unless one is doing AAA games, surviving Android, Rust or C++ builds, or trying to see how much Docker instances it is capable to stuff into the machine, any 10 years old computer will do let alone a randomly chosen one at the computer store down the street.

Even ARM, if it wants to displace Intel, it will be selling cloud pizza boxes or phones to replace those that get stolen/broken.