The PC Report

Intel today has released some fairly mainstream processors with unlocked core multipliers, a first for the company who mainly reserve fully unlocked processors for their “Extreme Edition” line. The Intel “Clarkdale” Core i5-655K and Intel “Lynnfield” Core i7-875K are these new processors, both of which come with a fairly reasonable price of US$216 and US$342 respectively. The i7-875K is a particularly good deal as the processor is cheaper than the i7-870, which is essentially the same chip just without the unlocked multiplier.

The Core i5-655K is essentially the same as the US$175 Core i5-650 – it packs a clockspeed of 3.20 GHz, a Turbo Boost clockspeed of up to 3.46 GHZ, support for dual-channel DDR3 memory up to 1,333 MHz, two cores with four threads thanks to HyperThreading and 4 MB of L3 cache with a 73W TDP. The only thing different from the i5-650 is the unlocked core multiplier and unlocked power.

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Intel has quietly added two new processors to their desktop line-up. The Core i5-680 is the fastest Clarkdale processor yet, coming loaded with two cores running at 3.6 GHz each which can be scaled up to 3.86 GHz thanks to Turbo Boost technology. The 32nm chip comes with 4 MB of L3 cache, Hyper-Threading support and a 733 MHz integrated graphics core. The Pentium E5500 is also joining the ranks today for those with an LGA 775 socket – it comes with a 45nm, 2.8 GHz dual-core CPU with 2 MB of cache and no HT or Turbo Boost.

Also, news is coming to us today of a second Intel processor to join the Gulftown six-core line-up. The Intel Core i7-970 will come with a 3.2 GHz core clock (slower than the i7-980X’s 3.33 GHz clock), presumably with Turbo Boost and the same 12 MB of L3 cache and will be compatible with LGA 1366 sockets. Prices for the Core i5-680 will start at US$294, the E5500 will cost you around US$75 and when the i7-970 gets released in the coming weeks it should retail for cheaper than the existing Core i7-980X.

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.

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We’ve seen a few things concerning the upcoming Intel Core i3 and mobile Core i5 processors, and today Intel said they would officially launch them on January 7 next year. In a demonstration today, they showed off the dual-core Arrandale and Clarkdale 32nm chips, both which pack new integrated graphics on the CPU itself, named “Intel HD Graphics.” Both the i3s and i5s also feature HyperThreading, and the mobile i5 also has TurboBoost (a feature also found on the desktop i5 and i7 variants).

On the display models presented at the event, the mobile Core i5 chips were doing a great job of playing Call of Duty 4 on their integrated graphics, and the Core i3s were handling World of Warcraft and Blu-ray movies fine. Of course, these aren’t a solid indication of how powerful they are, but with the imminent launch we should be getting benchmarks pretty soon.