Key Specs
Socket 1156Two (plus Hyper-Threading)
2.93GHz
4MB SmartCache
32 nanometers
ntel's new entry-level chip in the Core series, the Core i3-530, offers much of the processing power of the more expensive Core i5 series at a significantly lower price. But while the Core i3-530 is much faster than the Core 2 Duo chips it replaces in Intel's lineup, stiff price competition from AMD at the low end means that it may not be the best bargain from a price/performance standpoint.
The 2.93GHz Core i3-530 is based on the same 32-nanometer design, codenamed "Clarkdale," as are the newest Core i5 chips. In fact, apart from a lower clock speed, there's only one significant difference between the Core i3 and the Core i5 series: The Core i3 lacks the Intel Turbo Boost technology found on the Core i5 and i7. Turbo Boost automatically speeds up one or more of the processor's cores by a small percentage (when all four cores aren't being used) to eke out a little extra performance.
Otherwise, the processor is fully featured, with a 4MB L3 cache, and support for Hyper-Threading technology, which allows each processor core to run two threads simultaneously, making the dual-core processor look like a quad-core to the operating system. To take advantage of Hyper-Threading, you'll need to use software that's written to support it, but outside of content-creation and -editing apps like Adobe CS4 and Sony Vegas, most programs the average PC user runs every day don't qualify. (This fact, especially, makes us regret the lack of Turbo Boost in this CPU line.)
If you're interested in HD-video playback and light gaming, however, the Core i3-530's built-in graphics core is an enticing feature. It accelerates both 2D and 3D graphics when used with the H55, H57, or Q57 chipsets. And for those worrying about their carbon footprint (or electric bill), the Core i3-530's maximum power draw is 73 watts, a touch less than the 87 watts of the faster Intel Core i5-661.
We tested a retail-packaged Core i3-530 chip, which came bundled with a whisper-quiet, easy-to-install cooling assembly. As the base of our test rig, we used an Intel Desktop Board DH55TC, a MicroATX motherboard equipped with the H55 Express chipset, allowing us to test the chip's integrated video performance in addition to the processing power. The chip itself will work with older P55-chipset-based Socket 1156 motherboards if they have the proper BIOS update, but you'll have to forgo the chip's built-in graphics capabilities with these boards.
In our tests, the Core i3-530 turned in impressive numbers compared with the Core 2 Duo chips that used to occupy its price point, but the numbers were behind those of similarly priced quad-core Athlon II X4 chips from AMD. Yes, we're comparing a dual-core chip to a quad-core here, but their street prices are nearly identical (around $120, at the time we wrote this). And while the AMD chip lacks an integrated graphics core, you can get AMD 790GX-chipset-based motherboards that have integrated graphics for about what Intel H55-chipset motherboards cost.
We started our tests by stressing the chip's multicore-processing capabilities, using the video editor Sony Vegas. The Core i3-530 took 4 minutes and 41 seconds to complete our Sony Vegas MPEG-2 rendering test; while this is much faster than the 6 minutes and 23 seconds it took last year's Core 2 Duo E8400 chip, it's nearly a minute longer than AMD's similarly priced Athlon II X4 635, which completed the test in 3 minutes and 45 seconds. In another content-creation test we run, our Windows Media Encoder test, the difference between the Intel Core i3 and AMD processors was smaller, but the Core i3-530 still finished behind, taking 3 minutes and 41 seconds to convert our test file, compared to 3 minutes and 25 seconds for the Athlon II X4 635.
