Im confused, im buying an apple iMac and i dont know which processor will be faster. intel core 2 duo with 3.06 GHz, an intel i3 3.06 GHz processor, or an intel i5 with 2.66 GHz? im confused because the intel core 2 duo and i3 are not as good but yet the i5 has less GHz?

Im confused, im buying an apple iMac and i dont know which processor will be faster. intel core 2 duo with 3.06 GHz, an intel i3 3.06 GHz processor, or an intel i5 with 2.66 GHz? im confused because the intel core 2 duo and i3 are not as good but yet the i5 has less GHz?

The i5 might not be as fast on paper, but supposing this is a Lynnfield chip, it is a quad-core while the other CPUs you mention are dual-core.

The C2D has less cache than the other chips, meaning some of those processor cycles are wasted waiting for memory. Meanwhile, the i5 has dedicated L1 and L2 caches, which allow each core to work more independently of each other.

http://www.everymac.com/mac-benchmarks/index-mac-benchmarks.html
According to these benchmarks (using Geekbench 2), the C2D scores 4212, the i3 scores 5917, and the i5 scores 8237.

Keep in mind that this is just one piece of the puzzle. RAM, installed programs, and other factors determine how "fast" your computer will feel.

Duo = 2 cores

i3 = 3 cores

i5 = 4 cores (bonus for getting this is that each core has 2 threads)

I go for the i5. Despite the GHz, i5 is better. two brains are better than one, three brains are better than two, 4 brains that are as smart as 8 brains is better than 3 brains.

if i was you i would have bought i7 even its GHZ are less but its still very powerful