I have an intel I3 processor by my task manager CPU history shows 4 graphs does that mean I have four cores?

Question

I have an intel I3 processor by my task manager CPU history shows 4 graphs does that mean I have four cores? I thought i3 only has two cores. isn't that right

Answer 1

No, an i3 only has 2 Cores, but it has 4 threads, Threads are what is showing up in task manager. Threads are Different to cores, while having 4 threads will give you more performance than just 2 threads, they will not give you more performance than 4 cores.

Read this for a better explanation that I can give you - http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/intel-core-i3-i5-i7-laptop-cpus-explained-i-caramba-49304725/

Answer 2

The i3's have what's called Hyper-Threading. This is where certain sections (but not all) of the processor are duplicated so that it can handle more than one task (aka: thread) at one time.

A single hyper-threaded processor (core) has the ability to deal with two threads at the same time, and it is presented to the system as an additional "Logical" processor.

So a CPU with two physical cores that are hyper-threaded (like the i3) will report the two physical processors and the two logical processors to the OS, making it appear as if the computer has 4 processors so that the OS can properly distribute the task load(s) amongst the processors it sees.