Final Words

Intel's Core i5-3470 is a good base for a system equipped with a discrete GPU. You don't get the heavily threaded performance of the quad-core, eight-thread Core i7 but you're also saving nearly $100. For a gaming machine or anything else that's not going to be doing a lot of thread heavy work (e.g. non-QuickSync video transcode, offline 3D rendering, etc...) the 3470 is definitely good enough. Your overclocking options are significantly limited as the 3470 is a partially unlocked CPU, but you can pretty much count on getting an extra 400MHz across the board, regardless of number of active cores.

Intel's HD 2500 however is less exciting. This is clearly the processor graphics option for users who don't care about processor graphics performance. The 2500's performance is tangibly worse than last year's HD 3000 offering (which makes sense given the 6 EU configuration) and it's not good enough to be considered playable in any of the games we tested. The good news is Quick Sync performance remains unaffected, making HD 2500 just as good as the HD 4000 for video transcoding. In short, if you're going to rely on processor graphics for gaming, you need the HD 4000 at a minimum. Otherwise, the HD 2500 is just fine.

General Performance
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  • Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    Your completely right. We were in a rush and copied that passage from our original IVB review, which is no longer applicable.
  • SteelCity1981 - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    Intel could have at least called it a 3500 and slap 2 more EU's onto it.
  • fic2 - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    Agreed. I don't understand why Intel basically stood pat on the low end HD.
    But then again like everyone else I never understood why the HD3000 was only in the K series and maybe 5% of K series users don't have discreet gpu so the HD3000 isn't being used.
  • CeriseCogburn - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link

    Good point. Lucid logic tried to fix that some, and did a decent job, and don't forget quick sync, plus now with zero core amd cards, and even low idle power 670's and 680's, leaving on SB K chip hd3000 cores looks even better - who isn't trained in low power if they have a video card, after all it's almost all people rail about for the last 4 years.
    So if any of that constant clamor for a few watts power savings has any teeth whatsoever, every person with an amd card before this last gen will be using the SB HD3000 and then switching on the fly to gaming with lucid logic.
  • n9ntje - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    So this must be a midrange desktop chip? Horrendous performance on the graphics side from Intel again.

    Very curious how AMD's trinity dekstop will perform, at the same pricerange it will be obvious it will obliterate Intel's offerings on the graphics side. What's more impressive AMD is still on 32nm..
  • 7Enigma - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    For me this IS the perfect chip. No use for the GPU so cheaper = better. I would need a K model though for OC'ing potential, but I'm glad to see that if I can't have my CPU-only (no GPU) chip, at least I can have a hacked down version that is more in line with a traditional CPU.
  • silverblue - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    What Intel should really be doing here is offering the 4000 on all i3s and some i5s to offset the reduced CPU performance. If you want to give AMD something to think about, HD 4000 on an Ivy Bridge dual core is very much the right way of going about it.
  • CeriseCogburn - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link

    Then Intel has a lame trinity level cpu next to a losing gpu.
    I think Intel will stick with it's own implementations, don't expect to be hired as future product manager.
  • ShieTar - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    Interestingly enough, Intel will also happily sell you what is basically the same chip, without any GPU, 100 MHz slower but with 2MB extra L3-Cache for the same price. They call that offer Xeon E3-1220V2. And it is 69W TDP, not 77W as the i5-3470.

    Who knows, the bigger Cache might even make it the better CPU for a not-overclocking gamer. If normal boards support it.
  • Pazz - Thursday, May 31, 2012 - link

    Anand,

    Following on from your closing statement with regards to the HD 4000 being the miniumum, will you be doing a review of the 3570K? Surely with this model being the lowest budget Ivy HD4000 chip, it'll be a fairly popular option for many system builders and OEM's.

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