The Clarkdale Review: Intel's Core i5 661, i3 540 & i3 530
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 4, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Fallout 3 Game Performance
Bethesda’s latest game uses an updated version of the Gamebryo engine (Oblivion). This benchmark takes place immediately outside Vault 101. The character walks away from the vault through the Springvale ruins. The benchmark is measured manually using FRAPS.
For the price, the gaming performance of these chips is pretty good. The Core i3 540 and 530 are competitive with their similarly priced AMD alternatives.
Left 4 Dead
More of the same. At $133 or less, the Core i3s are good gaming chips - especially when you consider how far you can overclock them. The i5 661 doesn't make a whole lot of sense though.
Far Cry 2 Multithreaded Game Performance
Far Cry 2 ships with the most impressive benchmark tool we’ve ever seen in a PC game. Part of this is due to the fact that Ubisoft actually tapped a number of hardware sites (AnandTech included) from around the world to aid in the planning for the benchmark.
For our purposes we ran the CPU benchmark included in the latest patch:
In games that are better threaded, the old Core 2 Quad Q9400 is a better buy. But you do get more balanced performance out of the new i3s. Compared to the Athlon II X4 these new chips make sense.
Crysis Warhead
Crysis also shows the Clarkdales in a good light: we become mostly GPU limited, and the i3 parts do very well against the AMD Athlon II chips.
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Marcin - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
2D loadAnand Lal Shimpi - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
The Radeon HD 5870 is quite power efficient if it's not running a 3D app. Our load tests were done using our x264 encoding benchmark to stress the CPU. That's why I used the 5870 as a companion in those benchmarks - makes overall system power consumption lower so we can better see differences between CPUs. Good job AMD :)Take care,
Anand
yacoub - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Intel gives us this crap instead of 32nm P55.DrMrLordX - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Can we see results on an i3 530 instead? Some people with ES chips are reporting that i3s are not good for much of anything over 4 ghz. Also, the vcore on your 4.8 ghz is pretty high, even with water cooling. I would not want to run an i3 at that vcore on a daily basis.The phase results are really interesting, but I have to wonder how well this chip scales given the memory speed limitations you run into at higher BCLK.
Spoelie - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
First CPU-Z screenshot on the overclocking page shows CPU @ 1.3GHz, I don't think this is the correct shot?Rajinder Gill - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Speedstep and Turbo enbaled. The full load speed is 26X149 BCLK, so around 3874MHz..Spoelie - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
True, comment on gaming benchmarks:" the Core i3s are good gaming chips - especially when you consider how far you can overclock them. "
But how would you know, not having any in-house?
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
I've heard some very good initial results but I will be able to confirm when I get back from CES :)Take care,
Anand
marc1000 - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Suddenly it all makes sense. Intel would never enable 1080p decoding on Atom D510 not because of technical issues, but simply because it would kill the market for i3 even before it was released. The HTPC market does not need the i3 brute-power, but this is the only platform that will have HDMI and 1080p. If Atom D510 could do 1080p and had HDMI output then the choice for a HTPC would be a no-brainer. And excuse me, but I already have a gaming rig, so all I want right now is a HTPC to play PC content on my TV. And I won't buy a core i3 to do that, but I would buy a decent Atom board if it had the required HDMI and 1080p... so, for me, no HTPC for now...Kjella - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
That is why the old Atom + ION exists, excellent setup with 1080p acceleration and HDMI out. If you don't want it, wait until AMD or VIA/nVidia manages to work something out.