The Rest of Clarkdale: Intel's Pentium G6950 & Core i5 650/660/670 Reviewed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 24, 2010 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Two months ago AMD released a bunch of new CPUs priced between $70 - $120. For the past couple of years AMD has been enjoying the fact that Intel's newest architectures start out at the higher price points, and take their sweet time to trickle down to the common man's socket. With Clarkdale, everything changed.
The cheapest Core i3 is the 530, selling for $113 in 1K unit quantities and around $120 on the street (keepin it real). To paraphrase a short, wise, green man - there is another, even cheaper Clarkdale that you can buy though - the Pentium G6950:
This is a LGA-1156 part based on the Clarkdale core, just like the rest of the Core i3 and dual-core Core i5 line. The chip runs at 2.80GHz, has no turbo support, no AES-NI, no VT-d, no Intel TXT and no Hyper Threading.
| Processor | Core | Un-core | GPU | Max Mem Clock | Cores / Threads | L3 Cache | Max Turbo | TDP | Price |
| Intel Core i5-670 | 3.46GHz | 2.40GHz | 733MHz | 1333MHz | 2 / 4 | 4MB | 3.76GHz | 73W | $284 |
| Intel Core i5-661 | 3.33GHz | 2.40GHz | 900MHz | 1333MHz | 2 / 4 | 4MB | 3.60GHz | 87W | $196 |
| Intel Core i5-660 | 3.33GHz | 2.40GHz | 733MHz | 1333MHz | 2 / 4 | 4MB | 3.60GHz | 73W | $196 |
| Intel Core i5-650 | 3.20GHz | 2.40GHz | 733MHz | 1333MHz | 2 / 4 | 4MB | 3.46GHz | 73W | $176 |
| Intel Core i3-540 | 3.06GHz | 2.13GHz | 733MHz | 1333MHz | 2 / 4 | 4MB | N/A | 73W | $133 |
| Intel Core i3-530 | 2.93GHz | 2.13GHz | 733MHz | 1333MHz | 2 / 4 | 4MB | N/A | 73W | $113 |
| Intel Pentium G9650 | 2.80GHz | 2.00GHz | 533MHz | 1066MHz | 2 / 2 | 3MB | N/A | 73W | $87 |
Intel also disables a portion of the L3 cache, there's only 3MB active on the G6950. The on-package memory controller is also limited to only 1066MHz, while the Core i3s and i5s support up to 1333MHz. Finally its on-package GPU only runs at 533MHz. At a high level, the Pentium G6950 doesn't look too good.
Then again, it lists for $87. Newegg sells it for $96.
The Rest of the Story
To date we’ve only looked at the Core i3 530, 540 and Core i5 661. Since we’re tying up loose ends today we’ll also include results from the rest of the Clarkdale lineup: the Core i5 670, 660 and 650.
The Core i5 660 is just like the 661 we reviewed in January but with a 733MHz GPU clock instead of 900MHz. The 650 is the cheapest i5 Intel offers at $176.
The Core i5 670 is the highest native clocked CPU that Intel ships today at 3.46GHz. It's GPU still only runs at 733MHz though, only the 661 has a 900MHz GPU clock. It's also the most expensive dual core i5 Intel makes at $284. You can get a Core i5 750 for less or a Core i7 860 for the same price. This is clearly a chip for a very specific niche market that needs excellent performance out of two cores and integrated graphics.
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
Fixed and fixed :)hyvonen - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
Anand,Looks like i5-670 was dropped from idle power plot... Care to add it? :)
FlameDeer - Thursday, March 25, 2010 - link
Yes, i5-670 idle power is missing at http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">page 8.We can find the results as 73.1W at CPU Bench here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=51&a...">http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=51&a...
But the results of i5-660 & Atom D510 are really missing at CPU Bench.
Example of Atom D510 vs Athlon II X2 255, which showing no results:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=110&...">http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=110&...
Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, March 25, 2010 - link
Fixed and fixed :)Intel's Atom D510 is now included in Bench :)
Do you believe there's a need for the i5-660 in Bench even though we have a 661 in there? They provide the same application performance and we have no integrated graphics tests in Bench.
Take care,
Anand
FlameDeer - Thursday, March 25, 2010 - link
Hi Anand, thanks for all the fixed. :)I agree with you about i5-660 & i5-661 both having same application performance (because no integrated graphics tests), they also having same price too.
Only power consumption will have some different, but i5-660 & i5-661 are using different OS & GPU here:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">i5-660 Power Consumption - Windows Vista + GeForce GTX 280
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">i5-661 Power Consumption - Windows 7 + Radeon HD 5870
If not taking much time, adding i5-660 data will make Bench even more complete & will definitely benefits readers who specifically choose 660 for some reasons.
You have really done a great job by building up this Bench function for all readers, with so much of hard works & efforts in running all the tests! Please help me remove my first reply at above which contain link code error to save the precious comments space here. Thanks & take care. :)
hyvonen - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
Thanks for adding the i5-670 idle power here!This may be a bit too much to ask, but I would really like to see the i5-6xx series idle powers measured without the high-power graphics card.
Many HTPC rigs use in-package graphics to reduce heat generation and noise, and might get left on for extended periods of time... So idle power with integrated graphics only would be a useful metric.
FlameDeer - Thursday, March 25, 2010 - link
Yes, i5-670 idle power is missing at http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">page 8.We can find the results as 73.1W at CPU Bench here:
[L]http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=51&a...[/L]
But the results of i5-660 & Atom D510 are really missing at CPU Bench.
Example of Atom D510 vs Athlon II X2 255, which showing no results:
[L]http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=110&...[/L]
Kibbles - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
"To paragraph a short, wise, green man"I think you meant paraphrase :)
Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
haha woops! fixed :)Take care,
Anand
bombacan - Monday, April 5, 2010 - link
these cpus has vtd support, diffent from i3a and i5 750, i5 661.as far as i know vtd needs also mobo support. so youll need a Q chipset.
for general use i dont think these cpus are preferable to any 4 core att similar price
gpu on the cpu is bullshit (not the idea, but the gpus are and will be), get a i3 or i5 750 and a standalone cheap card. it is obvious that these cpus are made for companies etc.