It's pretty common for people who own Intel cpus to say 5th gen or 9th gen or to easily find on the device or in the software the name of cpu like i5-4670k or i9-9900K
I think GP is talking about a branding problem though. Non tech savvy people may not realise that the i7 in that new computer at the store is different from the i7 written on the front of their PC.
For years CPUs had numbers that went up: 286, 386, 486, Pentium.
After that, it was Mhz and Ghz that people used to rate a CPU.
But none of those things are as relevant as they used to be.
So what number goes up? i3, i5, i7, i9. That's what Intel is telling us. That's the number they want us to see.
Except for the Pentium, I can tell the age from the number. The i3 is probably the fastest, but since stuff uses less power these days, there's a small chance the old i5 is faster. I'd look up benchmarks if about to make a purchase.
Is the Pentium equivalent in age to 7th gen core i, or is their numbering different?
These aren't realistic choices unless you are buying a used PC. But even less savy consumers understand generations, if you present a fast 1st gen model versus a not the fastest 11th gen model I think the majority will go with the newer model.
Even on Mac OS, when you go to "About This Mac" -> "System Report", you only see the iBranding and not the generation (I see "6-Core Intel Core i7" on mine for example).
For years CPUs had numbers that went up: 286, 386, 486, Pentium.
After that, it was Mhz and Ghz that people used to rate a CPU.
But none of those things are as relevant as they used to be.
So what number goes up? i3, i5, i7, i9. That's what Intel is telling us. That's the number they want us to see.