intel i3 vs i5 what is the differences?

Many differences between these Core i3 processors and previous Core i5 and Core i7 processors. However, Intel also released new Core i5 processors alongside the Core i3. This confuses the situation somewhat, but I will explain the differences as clearly as possible so that you'll know who to side with in the battle of Core i3 vs. Core i5. Intel's name for the latest processor architecture with 32 nanometer technology is Westmere. The new CPUs will at first be added to the existing Nehalem product array and replace the old structure later. All in all three chip families have been based on the new architecture: Gulftown (high-end desktop/server), Clarkdale (middle-class desktop) and Arrandale (notebooks). While it will take some more months until Gulftown is released, the market introduction of Clarkdale and Arrandale is taking place in January. Clarkdale will be marketed as Core i3 and Core i5-600 and is intended for the section slightly below the current Lynnfield products. Arrandale is coming as (mobile) Core i3, i5 and i7 with an "M” tag.

Name	Core i3-5x0	Core i5-6x0	Core i7-7x0	Core i7-8x0	Core i7-9x0
Codename	Clarkdale	Clarkdale	Lynnfield	Lynnfield	Bloomfield
Architecture	Westmere (32 nm)	Westmere (32 nm)	Nehalem (45 nm)	Nehalem (45 nm)	Nehalem (45 nm)
Cores physical/logical	2/4	2/4	4/4	4/8	4/8
Hyper-Threading (SMT)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Turbo Mode	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GPU	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
L2-Cache	2 x 256 KiByte	2 x 256 KiByte	4 x 256 KiByte	4 x 256 KiByte	4 x 256 KiByte
L3-Cache	4 MiByte	4 MiByte	8 MiByte	8 MiByte	8 MiByte
TDP	73 Watt	73-87 Watt	95 Watt	95 Watt	130 Watt
Socket	LGA 1156	LGA 1156	LGA 1156	LGA 1156	LGA 1366

Core i5 models with Clarkdale core, from the small Core i3-530 to the i5-670 will probably be the most interesting processors for gamers. They all fit into the socket LGA 1156 and are going to be released with frequencies ranging from 2.93 to 3.46 GHz, the Turbo Mode can increase it up to 3.73 GHz.

Only processors of the Core i5 series have the Turbo Mode feature while the Core i3 Clarkdales don't have the automatic overclocking ability.

Name	Core i3-530	Core i3-540	Core i5-650	Core i5-660	Core i5-661	Core i5-670
Codename	Clarkdale	Clarkdale	Clarkdale	Clarkdale	Clarkdale	Clarkdale
Architecture	Westmere (32 nm)	Westmere (32 nm)	Westmere (32 nm)	Westmere (32 nm)	Westmere (32 nm)	Westmere (32 nm)
Cores physical/logical	2/4	2/4	2/4	2/4	2/4	2/4
Frequency	2.93 GHz	3.06 GHz	3.20 GHz	3.33 GHz	3.33 GHz	3.46 GHz
Max frequency (Turbo Mode)	not available	not available	3.46 GHz	3.60 GHz	3.60 GHz	3.73 GHz
GPU frequency	733 MHz	733 MHz	733 MHz	733 MHz	900 MHz	733 MHz
L2-Cache	2 x 256 KiByte	2 x 256 KiByte	2 x 256 KiByte	2 x 256 KiByte	2 x 256 KiByte	2 x 256 KiByte
L3-Cache	4 MiByte	4 MiByte	4 MiByte	4 MiByte	4 MiByte	4 MiByte
TDP	73 Watt	73 Watt	73 Watt	73 Watt	87 Watt	73 Watt
Price	113 USD	133 USD	176 USD	196 USD	196 USD	284 USD

Intel Clarkdale reviewed: CPU test

Since most gamers have a dedicated graphics card we ran most tests without the on-chip graphics unit. Thus the new dual-core Westmere with 4 MiByte L3 cache (with Hyper-Threading) competes with the quad-core Lynnfield with eight MiByte L3 cache (without Hyper-Threading), its predecessors from the Core 2 series as well as the products from AMD. The Clarkdale tests were run with Windows 7 because this operating system is able to work correctly with Hyper-threading cores - please note that the comparative results were made on Windows Vista SP2.

Since most of the current games are optimized for multi-core systems the Clarkdale processors are beat by CPUs with four cores although they run at noticeably higher frequencies. Even on windows 7 Hyper-Threading can't deliver a noticeable advantage in games and furthermore the L3 cache has been halved. Thus in most games the i5-660 running at 3.33 GHz is beat by an i5-750 (Lynnfield) which is running at only 2.66 GHz - the gap between the processors is quite small though. The Clarkdale also looses against AMD's top CPUs X4 965 and X4 975. Only if overclocked to 3.8 to 4.0 GHz the new Core i5 processor reaches the level of a Core i5-750 or even the performance of a Core i7-920 in Far Cry 2.

The results of the application tests confirm the performance development: In Paint.Net even the fastest Clarkdale is slower than an older Core 2 Quad Q6600. In Cinebench the Core i5-661 is about as fast as a Phenom X4 9950.

On the positive side the first Westmere processors have low power consumption, combined with low temperatures. If the graphics core is used, the TDP reaches only 87 watt. In case of the i5-660 this is only 22 watt higher than the E8600 which is running at the same frequency but doesn't include the energy needs by the graphics card or an onboard graphics unit. The CPU temperature is, given the high core frequency, very low. The same applies to the power consumption. Under workload the i5-661 - without its graphics unit - needed almost 40 watt less than the i5-750 although it has of course two physical cores only.