Intel Core i5-661 & Core i3-530

Intel introduceret i slutningen af 2009 deres nyeste CPU generation med Corei5 klassen og allerede dengang blev der nævnt en kommende Core i3 generation som i dag er blevet testet for første gang, samtidig med at der bliver kigget på den nyeste Corei5 processor.

Det betyder også at tiden for den “gamle” Core 2 processor er ved at være ved vejs ende, men det har også været en stor succes for Intel der trak dem tilbage i føre position efter at AMD en lang tid havde haft den bedste desktop CPU på markedet.

Core 2 klassen bliver erstattet af de 2 nye Corei3 og Corei5 generationer, hvor der tilbydes en lang række features som netop distancerer dem fra hinanden.

Men Core 2 er dog ikke helt slut på markedet, da man næsten kan forvente at de vil blive brugt til budget klassen i en periode for at genere AMD på dette område.

Bit-tech har haft muligheden for at kigge på de nye CPUer, fra henholdsvis den nye Corei3 generation og Corei5 generationen og det er første gang vi nogensinde kommer til at se sammensmeltningen mellem CPU og GPU enheden i en såkaldt hybrid generation.

Det er samme teknik som Intel har introduceret med deres ATOM processorer, så det skal blive spændende at se hvordan det løber af stablen sammen med det nye Intel P55 chipset.

As soon as Intel announced Core i7, its amazingly successful range of Core 2 processors was living on borrowed time. With Core i5 and now Core i3, Core 2′s number is finally up. The new Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs have a lot to live up but it’s a measure of how far Intel has come in the past couple of years that the direct replacements of the Core 2 lines are pitched as being Intel’s mainstream and budget-orientated parts.

As we’ve become used to since the Core i5 launch, the new Core i3 and i5 CPUs are intended to be slower than Core i7 – and considerably cheaper. That doesn’t mean they’re technologically uninteresting, though; they’re built using a 32nm manufacturing process rather than the 45nm process previous Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs used, and they also have GPUs built in. This is the first time we’ve seen a hybrid CPU/GPU processor.

These new Core i3 and i5 processors represent the fourth generation of the Nehalem architecture, and share the same codename: Clarkdale. The Clarkdale CPU is very similar to the Lynnfield design of the first LGA1156 processors. It has an integrated PCI-E controller and an integrated, dual-channel DDR3 memory controller. But while the memory controller is rated at 1,333MHz, the PCI-E controller isn’t officially compatible with SLI or CrossFire. It still offers 16 lanes of PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth however, so it’s fine for a single graphics card, and we’ve heard about Clarkdale boards that claim to support SLI and CrossFire.

The new Core i5 processors are equipped with Turbo Boost (rev 2), so can increase their maximum frequency in certain situations. Turbo Boost works by shutting down unused execution cores and raising the CPU multiplier of those cores in use. By shutting down unused cores, the CPU doesn’t exceed its TDP or maximum power draw from the motherboard’s VRMs, so it’s a safe and power-efficient overclock that’s applied on the fly. The new range of Core i3 processors do not have Turbo Boost enabled, but the Core i5s do.

Clarkdale CPUs have the usual 32+32KB of Level 1 cache (for data and instructions) and 256KB of Level 2 cache per core. However, while the earlier Core i5-750 has 8MB of Level 3 cache, Clarkdale CPUs have only 4MB of Level 3 cache.

Læs mere: bit-tech.net

Kategori: Nyheder

Tags: corei3, corei5, cpu, intel, review