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Intel Core i5-7287U

Intel Core i5-7287U: Review of an Outdated but Relevant Processor for Budget Tasks

(Relevant as of April 2025)

The Intel Core i5-7287U processor, released in 2017, is still found in some budget laptops and refurbished models. Despite its age, it remains a viable option for users who need portability and moderate performance without overspending. Let's explore who might benefit from this chip in 2025 and what to pay attention to.

1. Architecture and Process Technology: What’s Inside?

Codename and Process Technology:

The Core i5-7287U belongs to the Kaby Lake generation (7th Intel series), built on a 14nm process. It is the last generation before Intel transitioned to a 10nm process (Cannon Lake), which explains its optimization for thin ultrabooks.

Cores, Threads, and Frequencies:

- 2 cores, 4 threads thanks to Hyper-Threading.

- Base frequency: 3.3 GHz, maximum in turbo mode: 3.7 GHz.

- Integrated graphics Iris Plus 650 with 64MB eDRAM, 48 execution units (EUs), frequency up to 1.1 GHz.

Architectural Features:

- Support for DDR4-2133 and LPDDR3-1866 memory.

- The Iris Plus 650 iGPU exceeded the standard Intel HD graphics at the time of release, providing acceptable performance in low-resolution games (e.g., CS:GO or Dota 2).

- Lack of AVX-512 support limits it in professional tasks (rendering, video encoding).

2. Power Consumption and TDP: A Balance Between Power and Battery Life

The processor's TDP is 28W, which is higher than the typical 15W for ultrabooks. This means:

- More efficient cooling systems in laptops (body thickness from 15–17 mm).

- The ability to maintain higher frequencies for longer in turbo mode.

- Reduced battery life compared to 15W TDP chips.

3. Performance: What Can the i5-7287U Do in 2025?

Office Tasks:

- Working with documents, browsing (20+ tabs), Zoom conferences— the processor handles tasks without lag.

- Running lightweight applications: Excel, Photoshop (basic photo processing)—comfortable, but rendering complex projects will be slow.

Multimedia:

- Viewing 4K video: hardware decoding through iGPU.

- Video editing in 1080p: feasible in DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro, but rendering will take 2-3 times longer than on modern processors (e.g., Apple M1).

Gaming:

- Iris Plus 650 in 2025 serves as a minimum for older games:

- CS:GO: 720p, low settings—40-60 FPS.

- The Witcher 3: 720p, minimal settings—20-25 FPS (playable, but uncomfortable).

- Modern titles (Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring)—not recommended.

Turbo Boost Mode:

The processor can maintain 3.5-3.7 GHz for up to 28 seconds under load. In laptops with good cooling (e.g., Dell XPS 13 9360), the frequency stabilizes at 3.1-3.3 GHz during prolonged use.

4. Use Cases: Who is This Processor Suitable For?

- Students and office workers: working with texts, presentations, online learning.

- Light media consumers: streaming videos, basic photo editing.

- Casual gamers: retro games or indie projects like Stardew Valley.

- Secondary laptop: for travel or as a backup device.

Not Suitable For:

- Programmers working with Docker or virtualization.

- Designers and video engineers.

- Gamers looking for modern AAA titles.

5. Battery Life: How Long Will the Laptop Last?

With a TDP of 28W and a battery capacity of 50 Wh (typical for ultrabooks from 2017-2019):

- Web browsing: 5-6 hours.

- Video playback: 4-5 hours.

- Under load (gaming, rendering): 1.5-2 hours.

Power Saving Technologies:

- Intel SpeedShift: fast switching between processor states.

- Panel Self Refresh: reduces CPU load with static images.

6. Comparison with Competitors

Intel Core i5-8250U (Kaby Lake R, 4 cores/8 threads):

- Advantage in multithreaded tasks (Geekbench 6 Multi Core: ~3200).

- Prices for laptops with the i5-8250U on the secondary market range from $250 to $400.

AMD Ryzen 5 2500U (4 cores/8 threads, Vega 8):

- Better multithreaded performance and graphics (Vega 8 outperforms Iris Plus 650 by 15-20%).

- New laptops with Ryzen 5 2500U are not being produced in 2025, but used models are cheaper ($200-350).

Apple M1 (2020):

- Absolute superiority in performance and energy efficiency.

- New MacBook Air M1s start at $799, used from $500.

Conclusion: The Core i5-7287U falls short compared to modern chips but may be a good deal when buying a refurbished laptop for $300-400.

7. Pros and Cons

Strengths:

- High single-threaded performance for everyday tasks.

- Iris Plus 650 graphics—better than Intel's HD series.

- Affordable price in the secondary market.

Weaknesses:

- Only 2 cores—limited multitasking capabilities.

- 14nm process technology—high power consumption for its category.

- No support for modern standards (Wi-Fi 6, Thunderbolt 4).

8. Recommendations for Laptop Selection

Type of Device:

- Ultrabooks from 2017-2019. (Examples: Dell XPS 13 9360, HP Spectre x360 13).

- Budget laptops (Acer Swift 3, Lenovo IdeaPad 720s).

What to Look For:

- Cooling: dual-heat pipe system or fan with larger blades.

- Battery: at least 50 Wh for 5+ hours of autonomy.

- Screen: Full HD IPS—less load on CPU than 4K.

Prices:

- New laptops with the i5-7287U are not being produced in 2025, but refurbished models can be found for $300-500.

9. Final Conclusions

The Intel Core i5-7287U is a processor for those seeking an affordable laptop for basic tasks. It is suitable for:

- Users who do not need high multithreaded performance.

- Those willing to sacrifice battery life for moderate power.

- Fans of compact devices with a metal case (XPS, Spectre).

Key Benefits:

- Low cost in the secondary market.

- Sufficient performance for office and media tasks.

- Portability and stylish design of laptops from the Kaby Lake era.

If your budget is limited to $300–400 and your tasks do not require modern technologies, the i5-7287U is a sensible choice. However, for long-term use (5+ years), consider models with quad-core processors (Intel 8th generation or newer, Apple M1, AMD Ryzen 4000).

Basic

Label Name

Intel

Platform

Mobile

Launch Date

January 2017

Model Name

The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.

i5-7287U

Code Name

Kaby Lake

CPU Specifications

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Basic Frequency

3.30 GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second.

3.70 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency

3.70 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology dynamically increases the processor's frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom to give you a burst of speed when you need it, and increased energy efficiency when you don’t.

2.0

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.

Yes

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

14 nm

TDP

28 W

Max. Operating Temperature

Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

100°C

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

3.0

Number of PCI Express Lanes

A PCI Express (PCIe) lane consists of two differential signaling pairs, one for receiving data, one for transmitting data, and is the basic unit of the PCIe bus. Max # of PCI Express Lanes is the total number of supported lanes.

Intel 64

Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Yes

Instruction Set

The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.

64-bit

PCI Express Configurations

PCI Express (PCIe) Configurations describe the available PCIe lane configurations that can be used to link to PCIe devices.

1x4 | 2x2 | 1x2+2x1 and 4x1

Memory Specifications

Memory Type

Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.

DDR4-2133 | LPDDR3-1866 | DDR3L-1600

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

32 GB

Memory Channels

The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.

Bus Speed

4 GT/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

34.1 GB/s

ECC Memory Supported

ECC Memory Supported indicates processor support for Error-Correcting Code memory. ECC memory is a type of system memory that can detect and correct common kinds of internal data corruption. Note that ECC memory support requires both processor and chipset support.

GPU Specifications

GPU Name

Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 650

Graphics Base Frequency

Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.

300 MHz

Graphics Frequency

Graphics max dynamic frequency refers to the maximum opportunistic graphics render clock frequency (in MHz) that can be supported using Intel® HD Graphics with Dynamic Frequency feature.

1.10 GHz

Graphics Video Max Memory

32 GB

4K Support

Yes | at 60Hz

DirectX Support

DirectX* Support indicates support for a specific version of Microsoft’s collection of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for handling multimedia compute tasks.

Max Resolution (HDMI)

Max Resolution (HDMI) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the HDMI interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096x2304@30Hz

Max Resolution (DP)

Max Resolution (DP) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the DP interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096x2304@60Hz

Max Resolution (eDP - Integrated Flat Panel)

Max Resolution (Integrated Flat Panel) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor for a device with an integrated flat panel (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your device.

4096x2304@60Hz

Max Resolution (VGA)

N/A

Number of Displays Supported

Graphics Output

Graphics Output defines the interfaces available to communicate with display devices.

eDP/DP/HDMI/DVI

Miscellaneous

Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) allows one hardware platform to function as multiple “virtual” platforms. It offers improved manageability by limiting downtime and maintaining productivity by isolating computing activities into separate partitions.

Yes

Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environments.

Yes

Intel Standard Manageability (ISM)

Intel® Standard Manageability is the manageability solution for Intel vPro® Essentials platforms and is a subset of Intel® AMT with out-of-band management over Ethernet and Wi-Fi, but no KVM or new life cycle management features.

Intel® SSE4.1 | Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® AVX2

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling high performance while meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep® Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.

Yes

Execute Disable Bit

Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network.

Yes

Cache

CPU Cache is an area of fast memory located on the processor. Intel® Smart Cache refers to the architecture that allows all cores to dynamically share access to the last level cache.

4 MB

Intel AES New Instructions

Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) are a set of instructions that enable fast and secure data encryption and decryption. AES-NI are valuable for a wide range of cryptographic applications, for example: applications that perform bulk encryption/decryption, authentication, random number generation, and authenticated encryption.

Yes

Intel Boot Guard

Intel® Device Protection Technology with Boot Guard helps protect the system’s pre-OS environment from viruses and malicious software attacks.

Yes

Intel Clear Video HD Technology

Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, like its predecessor, Intel® Clear Video Technology, is a suite of image decode and processing technologies built into the integrated processor graphics that improve video playback, delivering cleaner, sharper images, more natural, accurate, and vivid colors, and a clear and stable video picture. Intel® Clear Video HD Technology adds video quality enhancements for richer color and more realistic skin tones.

Yes

Intel Clear Video Technology

Yes

Intel VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT)

Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT), also known as Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), provides acceleration for memory intensive virtualized applications. Extended Page Tables in Intel® Virtualization Technology platforms reduces the memory and power overhead costs and increases battery life through hardware optimization of page table management.

Yes

Intel InTru 3D Technology

Yes

Intel Flex Memory Access

Yes

Intel OS Guard

Yes

OpenGL Support

OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics.

4.5

Intel Quick Sync Video

Intel® Quick Sync Video delivers fast conversion of video for portable media players, online sharing, and video editing and authoring.

Yes

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6

Single Core Score

1147

Geekbench 6

Multi Core Score

2402

Geekbench 5

Single Core Score

793

Geekbench 5

Multi Core Score

1875

Passmark CPU

Single Core Score

2145

Passmark CPU

Multi Core Score

3794

Compared to Other CPU

Geekbench 6 Single Core

Core i7-4810MQ

1209 +5.4%

Celeron G6900TE

1174 +2.4%

Core i5-7287U

1147

Ryzen 3 3200G

1106 -3.6%

Xeon E5-2697 v4

1074 -6.4%

Geekbench 6 Multi Core

Xeon E5-2618L v3

2908 +21.1%

Xeon E3-1505L v6

2613 +8.8%

Core i5-7287U

2402

Core i5-6267U

2155 -10.3%

Athlon Silver PRO 3125GE

1974 -17.8%

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Core i3-6300

826 +4.2%

Core i3-4150

810 +2.1%

Core i5-7287U

793

Celeron G4930

776 -2.1%

Core i3-6100E

754 -4.9%

Geekbench 5 Multi Core

Xeon E5-2670

2141 +14.2%

Athlon 300GE

1996 +6.5%

Core i5-7287U

1875

EPYC 7642

1722 -8.2%

Pentium Silver J5005

1619 -13.7%

Passmark CPU Single Core

Xeon E5-1660

2202 +2.7%

Core 3 N355

2169 +1.1%

Core i5-7287U

2145

Xeon Gold 6132

2120 -1.2%

Ryzen 5 2600H

2094 -2.4%

Passmark CPU Multi Core

Core i5-3340

4246 +11.9%

Celeron G6900T

4003 +5.5%

Core i5-7287U

3794

Core i7-6650U

3600 -5.1%

A10-7850K

3427 -9.7%