Intel Officially Launches 32nm Core i3, i5, i7
Nehalem for everyone!
We've been talking about the new Intel Nehalem CPU architecture for a couple of years now, and finally it’s made its way through the mainstream portions of the chip giant's lineup.
Today at CES, Intel officially unveiled all details regarding its Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 offerings. The introduction of new chips coincides with the arrival of Intel's new 32 nm manufacturing process and integration high-definition graphics inside the processor.
Intel is unveiling several platform products, including more than 25 processors, wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Core i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel 5 Series Chipsets, and Centrino Wi-Fi and WiMAX adapters that include new My WiFi features. More than 400 laptop and desktop PC platform designs are expected from computer makers based on these products, with another 200 expected for embedded devices.
"For the first time, there's a new family of Intel processors with the industry's most advanced technology available immediately at virtually every PC price point," said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group. "These smart processors adapt to an individual's needs, automatically providing a ‘boost' of performance for everyday applications. They become energy efficient to the point of shutting down processing cores or reducing power consumption to provide performance when people need it, and energy efficient when they don't."
Check out the charts below for a full makeup of what Intel's got going on, or Intel's page for more information.

Can you feel it, slowly creeping behind you?
4.5 year old Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 939, with an upgraded 8800GTX. This thing has only recently started to show its age. Dragon Age @ 1920x1200 with everything turned up was stuttering a bit (okay, more then a bit).
Perhaps 2010 is the year to upgrade. I got my tax return burning a hole in my pocket and I don't even have it yet. I sure would like to see Fermi come out before I make some decisions though.
Found a review that compares the new Intel cpus with quite a few core 2 and phenom II/athlon II processors.
Even though that review doesn't have Core i3 530, it has Core i3 540, Core i5 661, Pentium G6950, Athlon II X3 435, Athlon II X4 630, Phenom II X2 550, Phenom II X4 925 and quite a few more.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/clarkdale-review_8.html
At every price point from $200 to $1000 that is.
Granted, I spotted three processors in that list that were priced lower than ~$200 but I feel the point makes itself.
Much as they are great processors, in all but price, I'd rather buy an AMD 965 BE or an Intel i5 750 for far less than these glorified dual-cores. 32nm or not, despte the on-package IGP, Intel has to realize that there's no such thing as a high-end dual-core anymore.
The S1156, 32nm 2.8GHz Pentium G6950 seems to be the only winner at ~$90 from local e-tailers. No idea what the MSRP is though.
at first sight the 661 seems better as the graphics frequency is at 900 vs the 660 has the Gfreq at 700.
I wonder for application if the CPU on the 661 would be slower than the 660 or not in turbo boost, since the graphics chip is clocked higher and therefor probably is emitting more heat!
Also, where are the i9s?
Quite usual tactics, work in a brand as high end then slowly push it to the budget sector fooling customers on the way thinking they bought the ferrari. Then the next generation products show up with a new name and cycle repeats... Tic-Toc anyone ? =)
I was wondering the same thing...
Todays prices on powerful CPUs is very nice. Things will happen faster (loading, windows, scans). A $100 CPU with $100 AMD CPU of 4GB DDR3 memory, a new SATA drive, maybe a $150 SSD just for Windows7 OS along with an ATI 5700 or 5800 video card... should last you a while