I already have a FW12 with the i5 CPU, and I’m thinking of buying another FW12 for my wife. However, to keep cost down I’m considering the i3 version. She’s a Mac addict, but needs a Windows computer to run some lightweight Windows apps. Mainly a student grade and performance app, and using MS Word and Excel offline. No gaming, no Photoshop editing, etc. I’ve used i3 units in the past, mostly Surface Go’s, and the performance was OK, but not great. My fear is that the i3 in the FW12 won’t offer an acceptable level of performance to keep her happy. Are there any subjective opinions on how the two processors compare in real world use? Would the i3 version offer decent performance, or should I just suck it up and go for another i5 model?
Hello,
How are you defining performance? User response time? Memory utilization? CPU use?
I’m running a FW12, with the i3-1315U CPU, 16Gb ram, in a dual boot configuration. 90% of the time in Debian, running in Power Saver mode. I mostly run Firefox to access a variety of websites, news/weather/photography groups/computer groups/Youtube…etc, Never a problem waiting for pages to load quickly (unless the website is having a problem). User response to UI input is sub-one-second.
When I’m not running Debian/Firefox I’m in Windows 11 running Lightroom/Faststone(image viewer)/Firefox. Again performance is surprisingly good. Respectable response time to UI inputs, fast page loads…etc. In Lightroom I might notice a bit of lag waiting for a compute intensive task to complete, mask generation, AI object removal…etc. But simple stuff like exposure/contrast/color settings are “snappy”. If I’m running in Windows power saver mode I might notice the odd lag now and again, but nothing scary. When I’m in for long photo editing sessions I’ll run in High Performance mode with the machine connected to AC.
Early on I did some testing to determine CPU/Memory utilization in Linux/Windows while executing various tasks. I would see CPU/Memory peak & hold at high levels 90-100% for short periods of time but level off at 30-50% “average” using a program like Lightroom. As I type this response, in Debian//Firefox, in Performance Saver Mode, I see my memory utilization at 25%, CPU, speed at 1.5 Ghz and System Load <5%. I just opened a 2nd tab in Firefox and am running a Youtube video there. CPU jumped to 27% @ 1.7Ghz, System load remains at <5%.
Hope that helps, if there is something specific I can help with, don’t hesitate to ask.
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Rod
3 Likes
Rod, thanks for that great reply. I think the answer is overall performance, which I subjectively equate to response time. Knowing the user (my lovely wife), I want to make sure the system is responsive enough to meet her expectations as to performance. I also understand her computing needs on this device will be pretty low overall. As I said, lots of web browser time, and some lightweight installed apps. She’s smart as a whip (she’s a math teacher), but when it comes to computers her paradigm is all Mac, so I want to make sure her Windows experience will be as smooth and performant as her M1 MacBook. Any ‘laggy’ performance and the first thing I’ll hear is, “See, I told you Mac is better!” 
Brian
I had a Macbook Air M1 many years ago, I’d say, as best I can recall, that the FW12 i3 user interaction is on par with the M1 Mac.
The only way you are going to know for sure is to test drive it.
But there is a whole big thing you haven’t mentioned–The different UI paradigm. My suggestion is for you to create a 2nd user on your FW12, set up the environment as your wife would use it and let her test drive it. If she balks at the UI paradigm game over. If she balks at UI performance (on your i5), game over. But if she adapts to the UI without difficultly, and no performane issues…. order up an i3 and see what happens, you do have a 30day return policy to fall back on.
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Rod
2 Likes
And another thing 
screen resolution. Mac (all Macs) are known for thier amazing screen resolution, clear, crisp, lots of dots:-) The FW12 resolution is 1900 x 1200, it can be noticeable and problematic for some who are coming over from a Mac. That said, I find the screen on the FW12 pretty damn good, I was surprised. I’ve used a lot of laptops with 1900 x 1080 resolution, HP, Dell, Asus, IBM, Lenovo, Acer…probably a few more, and the screen on the FW12 beats them all hands down. Close to the Macbook I once had but a small notch below.
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Rod
For light tasks like Word, Excel, and basic student apps, the FW12 i3 performs well. Web browsing, videos, and simple Windows apps run smoothly with minimal lag. Heavy tasks like photo editing or compute-intensive workloads will be slower than i5, but for everyday student use, i3 is sufficient.
The i5 has 15% lower CPU performance for multithreaded applications (gaming, rendering etc) because it cuts the i5’s 8 efficiency cores down to 4.
Singlethreaded workloads like browsing, excel, youtube etc perform the same, as the two hyperthreaded performance cores are the same between i3 and i5.
Those wanting a deep dive comparison between Framework’s current offering may find this useful: https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-intel_core_i3_1315u-vs-intel_core_i5_1334u#summary
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Rod
If you want a macOS-like experience and the user is anyway just using the web browser most time, you can also save a lot of money and use a Linux distribution like elementaryOS that looks quite like a mac. Most softwar should be available and run. And you can order the DIY edition of a framework – without Windows.
AFAIK there is no 2.8K 120Hz Display option for the FW12. The only option I see is the 1920 x 1200, and as I mentioned in an earlier response to this conversation string, I find it quite good for my needs. YMMV
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Rod