Our first two articles on Intel's Clarkdale CPU were covering the architectural idiosyncrasies of Intel's latest CPU, featuring not only the integrated memory controller but also integrated graphics on the same processor package. We further looked into Intel's strategy of taking unused CPU cycles to augment the iGFX performance, and quite successfully so to gain an edge over the closest competitor, that is AMD's 785G/GX chipset featuring the integrated RADEON 4200 graphics core.

By the end of the day or the first two weeks of usage, though, we still believe that a substantial number of users will decide to bite the sour grapes and upgade to one or the other discrete solution. Regardless of its bravour, the iGFX is still too limited for anything but home theater use when it comes to entertainment. This of course begs the question what can be expected from a Clarkdale sans iGFX, that is, just a plain old dual core Nehalem CPU with TurboBoost Technology and Hypertreading. Out of the box 3.6 GHz are nothing to be ashamed of but how will two physical cores stack up against AMD's quad core competition starting at only about 1/2 of the '661 price tag?

For a quick recap, the test configuration was as follows:

• Motherboard: Intel DH55TC
• Memory: OCZ3ALVE16004GK**
• CPU: Intel Core i5-661
• Cooler: Intel Stock
• Graphics Card: ASUS EAH5850 (discrete graphics)
• HDD: HDD: WD 1500ADFD (Raptor)
• SSD: Intel SSDSA2MH080G15E (80 GB)
• Optical Drive: HP dvd1070i-H01 6 Multiformat DVD writer
• PSU: OCZ Modstream 600ADJ
• Monitor: Acer H233H

** The memory was run at 1066 MHz 8-8-8

Benchmark Overview

• Windows 7 64 Ultimate Edition, Win XP-32 SP3*
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended
• CPU-Z 1.52
• Caligari TrueSpace 5.1
• Caligari TrueSpace 7.5
• Cinebench R10
• Cinebench 9.5
• Crysis
• DIEP Chess
• DVD-Shrink
• FarCry2
• Futuremark 3DMark Vantage
• Race Driver GRID ebay Motors Muscle Series
• MainConcept H.264
• Microsoft Excel 2007
• Unreal Tournament3
• VirtualDub + DivX 6.8.5 CODEC
• World-In-Conflict
• SiSoft Sandra

Some of the benchmarks used do not run on Windows Vista and subsequent Microsoft OS releases because of DRM issues. For this reason, most of the benchmarks were run on a Windows XP OS (which still has a market share of approximately 67%. All high-resolution gaming benchmarks were run on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

A New TurboBoost

Intel's TurboBoost has been discussed in all different flavors but we stand by our opinion that TurboBoost is a smart solution to cope with the different requirements of today's software environments.

All currently announced i5 and i7 Clarkdale and Arrandale models feature turboboost with at least two multiplier steps between the base and the turbo frequency. Needless to say that most tech-savvy users will occasionally check whether all MHz are still there using preferably CPUZ or SiSoft Sandra but software is cheap and nothing endears the heart of the die-hard PC-enthusiast as much as a bar graph displaying how far, out of the box and without user intervention, the CPU is overclocking right here and now. To make a long story short, the last stepping stome amiss from the pathway to Nirvana was an Intel's own monitoring utility, kicking in every time the CPU sheds its chains and rises above the nominal specification of core frequency.

Intel's new TurboBoost monitoring utility fills this void. The utility runs on the desktop and generates a real-time display of the current CPU frequency with the blue bar pushing up as soon as the default multiplier is exceeded.

Time to move on to some real benchmarks.