When did the i7 series come out?
Core i7 was introduced in 2008, followed by i5 in 2009, and i3 in 2010. The first core i9 models were released in 2017. In june 2023, intel announced that the processor branding core, with the letter i (or moniker) would be dropped, making it core 3/5/7/9. intel core i7. In november 2008, intel released their most recent family of processors, the core i7 line, codenamed nehalem.
Is the i7 high end?
The Core i7 and i9 processors are the best that Intel offers as the highest-performing, technologically advanced processors. Each new generation builds on the previous one but generally manages to be higher on performance, lower on power drain, and offer more feature options. There are also generally cache-size differences. So an i7 will usually have more (or faster) cache than the closest i5. So in general, you do get a more powerful CPU by going with a bigger i-number.