Only a few weeks after Intel announced their Pine Trail platform we are seeing the new 32nm Intel Arrandale and Clarkdale processors for the latest generation of computers. Like the new Pine Trail Atom processors, the new chips contain both a processing die and an integrated graphics die. As you can see in the picture above, the 32nm processing die is slightly smaller than the 45nm GPU die.
First off we have the Arrandale platform, which are the mobile iterations of the 32nm Nehalem process. Launched today were a total of 11 Arrandale-based processors: five Intel Core i7s ranging from 1.06GHz to 2.66GHz, four Intel Core i5s ranging from 1.06GHz to 2.53GHz and two Intel Core i3s at 2.13 and 2.26GHz. All the processors carry 2 physical cores and 4 threads via Intel’s HyperThreading technology, support DDR3 RAM at speeds of either 800 or 1066 MHz and (except for the Core i3s) can make use of Turbo Boost, which pushes a single core beyond the rated speed to achieve the best performance. The full chart of new CPUs is below.
Tested today from the Arrandale range was the Core i5-540M rated at 2.53GHz, the top chip in the new mobile Core i5 line-up. The 540M managed to dominate all the current dual-core mobile processors available and kept around 20-30% faster than the fastest mobile Core 2 Duo chip, however the 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-920XM still managed to beat it in every test. Battery life was also impressive, staying alive almost to the length of the Core 2 Duo laptop, and beating the Core i7-920XM by 3x.
That said, the Arrandale IGP graphics solution wasn’t as shining. The processor’s inbuilt graphics aren’t especially great for games, failing to play Quake Wars smoothly at the native resolution of the notebook tested on (1366×768). A dual-core Atom processor with Nvidia’s ION chipset proved to be faster while gaming, however the Arrandale chip did a perfect job of decoding a 1080p movie, using only 3% of the CPU power in WMP.
Moving on the next big release are the desktop Clarkdale 32nm chips. Again based off the Nehalem architecture, Intel has launched 6 chips that combine both a 32nm CPU and 45nm GPU: four in the Core i5 range ranging from 3.46GHz to 3.2GHz and two in the Core i3 range with clockspeeds of 2.93 and 3.06 GHz. All processors have 4MB of L3 cache, and like their Arrandale counterparts they all feature 2 cores and 4 threads, with the Core i5s having Turbo Boost technology implemented.
Shipped to the reviewers today was the Intel Core i5-661 chip, which features a clock speed of 3.33GHz (boosted to 3.6GHz via Turbo Boost) and a TDP of 87W thanks to a slightly higher clocked intergrated GPU. For a dual-core processor, the chip holds up very well against the likes of the Intel Core 2 Quads and AMD Phenom II X4s managing to come very close in most tests, however because the i5-661 only has two-cores it is disadvantaged. As expected, the Lynnfield Core i5s and i7s as well as the Bloomfield Core i7s managed to outstrip the Clarkdale chip.
Like the Arrandale mobile processors, the Intel HD Graphics processor included on the Clarkdale CPU isn’t very good at gaming by itself, only managing 33FPS on Crysis at the lowest possible settings. However it did manage to beat the Phenom II X4 with the 785G onboard graphics chipset, and it does a great job at decoding a 1080p stream. Pair up the i5-661 with a discrete graphics card and the chip performs around the same as a Core 2 Quad/Phenom II X4, again with only the higher end Nehalem chips besting it.
Overall, both the new Arrandale and Clarkdale chips look very promising for the lower end of the market, and once prices settle down a bit computers with the new processors should be a fast and affordable solution for a new computer buyer. It has left us wondering though, where is AMD in all this Intel glory?
