Intel’s 32 nm processor generation undoubtedly has a lot of potential. The quad-core models usually reach 4+ GHz, and the dual-cores can go much further. Therefore, we decided to test the cheapest Core i3 offering, the Core i3-530, and see what this entry-level desktop processor has in stock for you.
What’s In a Name?
This is actually a good question. Although Intel's product portfolio appears to be straightforward—the Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 families appear to be laid out logically enough—Intel created a number of caveats you'll need to be able to navigate.
The Core i3 models, for example, are dual-core chips, and they don’t come with all of the features found on more expensive CPUs. This is entry-level hardware to be sure, and there are only two SKUs available, the Core i3-530 at 2.93 GHz and the Core i3-540 at 3.06 GHz.
The Core i5 is available either with two cores (600-series) or four cores (700-series). All Core i5 processors support Turbo Boost functionality, but only the dual-core versions accelerate AES encryption and decryption, and come equipped with Hyper-Threading. Be careful with the mobile Core i5 lineup—not all of these chips support AES-NI. The quad-core Core i5-750 is a 45 nm part, while all dual-core models are manufactured at 32 nm. And beware the Core i5-750S, since this low-power version is less efficient than the regular product.
And then there's Core i7. The 800-series drops into the processor interface as all of the aforementioned CPUs, namely LGA 1156. These support Hyper-Threading, but not AES acceleration. The flagship model i7-980X features six cores and is manufactured at 32 nm, while the rest of the 900-series features four cores and a 45 nm process. All 900-series CPUs employ the LGA 1366 interface.
Back to Basics
Let’s get back to some important facts: Intel processors are almost universally more expensive than AMD’s, but most offer significant overclocking headroom. In fact, many processors, including the Core i5 dual-cores and the i5-750 quad-core, deliver better performance per watt at reasonable overclocked frequencies than at their respective stock speed. Therefore, we decided to purchase the cheapest Core i3 available to see how fast it can go and find its most efficient clock speed.
The Core i3-530 is Intel’s entry-level offering. Although there is a lower-end product, the 2.80 GHz Pentium G6950 with 3MB of shared L3 cache, we decided to buy the i3-530 because it offers faster integrated graphics, higher supported memory clock speeds, and Hyper-Threading technology.
The Core i3-530 has 4MB of cache and runs at 2.93 GHz. That may not sound like a big difference, but we found that overclocking to 4 GHz and higher is a fairly simple affair. A 1.345V peak voltage was all we needed to have it operate stably at 4.0 GHz. We also tried 1.40V at 4.5 GHz, but this setting turned out to be unreliable. We decided to let it go, as we didn’t want to fry the processor.
The most noticeable difference between the Core i3 and Core i5 dual-core models is the i3's absence of Turbo Boost technology and AES-NI. Turbo Boost accelerates the processor in various steps as long as the thermal envelope allows. AES-NI is an additional instruction set that speeds up encryption and decryption on supporting applications that utilize AES.
Trusted Execution Technology and VT-d for Directed I/O were also dropped on the Core i3 CPUs, but these features are somewhat insignificant for the end-user community. Everything else is identical between the two families: the 733 MHz HD Graphics engine, 16 PCI Express 2.0 lanes, dual-channel DDR3-1333 support, and the 73W TDP. The i3 series works on virtually any LGA 1156 motherboard available today. Let’s look at our overclocking results.

We looked at this motherboard in March when we analyzed the performance impact of different PCI Express implementations, because bandwidth-intensive peripherals like USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s controllers can be bottlenecked on many board designs.
The P55A-UD7 is Gigabyte’s LGA 1156 flagship, and it implements a PCI Express switch capable of distributing bandwidth dynamically across all available 16 PCI Express lanes even if you technically require more bandwidth.
We based our overclocking tests on this motherboard because of its luxurious component lineup that not only includes a long feature list, but also a strong and flexible voltage regulator circuit that can access up to 24 phases. Paired with Gigabyte’s philosophy of using a generous amount of copper (called Ultra Durable 3) and a solid heat pipe solution, this makes one of the best platforms for intense overclocking. We took the board from a 133 MHz base clock all the way past 200 MHz. In earlier overclocking tests, we learned that this board can actually go higher, so we know that the processor is acting as our frequency, not the motherboard.
I’ll quickly summarize this board's most impressive features. Three of the four x16 PCI Express slots can run graphics cards, and both AMD's CrossFireX and Nvidia’s 3-way SLI are supported (Ed.: bear in mind that you probably don't want to use more than two graphics cards; any more than one card requires dividing 16 lanes of PCI Express connectivity between devices). Gigabyte accommodates memory speeds up to DDR3-2600. Not least of all, this motherboard offers future-facing USB 3.0 and two SATA 6Gb/s ports.

Our CPU-Z screenshots show some key overclocking milestones. The images list all of the voltage settings and clock speeds in idle and at load. Keep in mind that while Core i3 doesn't support Turbo Boost, it does support SpeedStep to lower clock speed and core voltage in order to reduce power consumption and heat dissipation. You'll find a comprehensive settings table on the following page.
133 MHz DMI, 2.93 GHz


164 MHz DMI, 3.6 GHz


182 MHz DMI, 4.0 GHz


200 MHz DMI, 4.4 GHz


| System Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Details |
| Performance Benchmarks | |
| Motherboard (Socket LGA 1156) | Gigabyte P55A-UD7 (Rev. 1.0); Chipset: P55; BIOS: F4 |
| CPU Intel | Intel Core i3-530 (32 nm, 2.93 GHz, 4 x 256KB L2 and 4MB L3 Cache, TDP 73W) |
| CPU Intel II | Intel Core i5-750 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 4 x 256KB L2 and 8MB L3 Cache, TDP 95W, Rev. B1) |
| CPU Intel III | Intel Core i5-661 (32 nm, 3.33 GHz, 2 x 256KB L2 and 4MB L3 Cache, TDP 87W, Rev. B1) |
| RAM DDR3 | 2 x 2GB DDR3-1333 (OCZ3G2000LV4GK 8-8-8-24) |
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 GPU: Cypress (725 MHz), Graphics RAM: 1,024MB GDDR5 (2,000 MHz), Stream Processors: 1,440 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital VelociRaptor, 300GB (WD3000HLFS), 10,000 RPM, SATA 3Gb/s, 16MB Cache |
| Power Supply | Enermax Pro 82+, EPR425AWT |
| System Software & Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Updated on 2010-03-03 |
| Drivers and Settings | |
| Intel Chipset Drivers | Chipset Installation Utility Ver. 9.1.1.1025 |
| Intel Storage Drivers | Matrix Storage Drivers Ver. 8.9.0.1023 |
| Audio Benchmarks and Settings | |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | Details |
| iTunes | Version: 9.0.3.15 Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min. Convert to AAC audio format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.98.3 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min. convert WAV to MP3 audio format Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kbps) |
| Video Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| Handbrake CLI | Version: 0.94 Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, 6-Channel, English to Video: AVC1 Audio1: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| Mainconcept Reference v2 | Version: 2.0.0.1555 MPEG-2 to H.264 MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec 28 sec. HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2) Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2-Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kbps) Codec: H.264 Pro Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS) Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Application Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.1 beta LZMA2 Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| WinRAR | Version 3.92 RAR Syntax "winrar a -r -m3" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| WinZip 14 | Version 14.0 Pro (8652) WinZIP Commandline Version 3 ZIPX Syntax "-a -ez -p -r" Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 | Version: 10 x64 Rendering Space Flyby Mentalray (SPECapc_3dsmax9) Frame: 248 Resolution: 1440 x 1080 |
| Cinebench 11.5 | Version 11.5 Build CB25720DEMO CPU Test single and multi threaded |
| Adobe Photoshop CS 4 (64-Bit) | Version: 11 Filtering a 16MB TIF (15000x7266) Filters: Radial Blur (Amount: 10; Method: zoom; Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar) |
| Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional | Version: 9.0.0 (Extended) == Printing Preferenced Menu == Default Settings: Standard == Adobe PDF Security - Edit Menu == Encrypt all documents (128-bit RC4) Open Password: 123 Permissions Password: 321 |
| Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 | Version: 2007 SP2 PPT to PDF PowerPoint Document (115 Pages) Adobe PDF-Printer |
| Fritz | Fritz Chess Benchmark Version 4.3.2 |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.02 Patch 1901 Options: Performance Graphics Test 1 Graphics Test 2 CPU Test 1 CPU Test 2 |
| PCMark Vantage | Version: 1.0.2.0 Patch 1901 PCMark Benchmark Memories Benchmark |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2010 | Version: 2010.1.16.10 Processor Arithmetic, Cryptography, Memory Bandwith |
Overclocking Table
| Core i3-530 | 2,933 MHz | 3,300 MHz | 3,608 MHz | 3,806 MHz | 4,004 MHz | 4,202 MHz | 4,400 MHz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiplier | 22x | 22x | 22x | 22x | 22x | 22x | 22x |
| Base Frequency | 133 MHz | 150 MHz | 164 MHz | 173 MHz | 182 MHz | 191 MHz | 200 MHz |
| RAM | 10x | 8x | 8x | 8x | 6x | 6x | 6x |
| RAM | 1,333 MHz | 1,200 MHz | 1,312 MHz | 1,384 MHz | 1,092 MHz | 1,146 MHz | 1,200 MHz |
| System Idle Power | 80W | 80W | 80W | 82W | 82W | 83W | 84W |
| System Peak Power | 127W | 129W | 135W | 138W | 145W | 155W | 170W |
| BIOS Vcore | 0 mV | 0 mV | 0 mV | 25 mV | 50 mV | 100 mV | 175 mV |
| VTT | 1.1V | 1.1V | 1.1V | 1.12V | 1.14V | 1.16V | 1.2V |
| CPU-Z VT idle | 0.944V | 0.944V | 0.944V | 0.976V | 1.008V | 1.056V | 1.120V |
| CPU-Z VT load | 1.168V | 1.168V | 1.184V | 1.200V | 1.232V | 1.280V | 1.344V |
| PCH | 1.8V | 1.8V | 1.8V | 1.8V | 1.8V | 1.8V | 1.8V |
| RAM | 1.5V | 1.5V | 1.5V | 1.5V | 1.5V | 1.5V | 1.5V |
| Fritz chess benchmark | 5363 | 5985 | 6529 | 6907 | 7201 | 7551 | 7916 |
| Stable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| QPI | 44 | 36 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 28 | 28 |
We decided to compare the Core i3-530's results with a Core i5-661 dual-core (one of the fastest i5 models) and a Core i5-750. The latter is Intel’s entry-level quad-core model, and one of the SKUs we most commonly recommend to power users on a budget.



It's impressive to see how much faster AES data encryption can be when the processor supports AES-NI. Even our 4.4 GHz overclock didn’t make too much of a difference compared of the impact of hardware-based encryption acceleration.

The overall encryption score favors the AES-NI-enabled Core i5 dual-core. But the Core i5-750 quad-core also delivers sufficient computing power to be faster than the highly overclocked Core i3-530.


Memory bandwidth most significantly depends on DDR3 memory speeds. These vary depending on the selected DMI speed and memory multiplier selection. We intentionally did not overclock the memory at this time, as this involves much higher costs for premium, high-speed DDR3 DIMMs.


Clearly, the high overclocks show their effects. Keep in mind that graphics performance is also included, which explains the Core i5-661's relative strength.




The 4.4 GHz Core i3 dual-core is fast enough to compete with the Core i5-750 quad-core. Once again, the Core i5-661 delivers greater performance than the Core i3-530 at the same nominal clock speed. This stems from the Turbo Boost feature not supported on Core i3 CPUs.

Cinebench on one thread scales nicely with every megahertz of clock speed.

Once Cinebench is switched to multiple threads, the Core i5-750 comes out on top. The other results scale with their clock speed.

Photoshop users clearly need a multi-core processor. The image editor benefits more from additional execution cores than from increased clock speeds.

The chess software Fritz scales best with additional processing cores, but the clock speed increases lead to linear performance gains, as well.

7-Zip is very computing-intensive if you run LZMA2 and medium or higher compression.



First of all, it is great to see that system idle power doesn’t change very much. Even the fastest 4.4 GHz setting only caused a small increase from 80W to 84W. This is more than acceptable.

Peak power consumption increases with clock speed, and the increase is larger at the fastest settings because of the necessary voltage tweaks. However, the fastest 4.4 GHz setting at 1.345V actually requires the same system peak power as if a Core i5-750 at 2.66 GHz and stock voltage were used. We found this interesting mainly because 4.4 GHz dual-core chip and 2.66 GHz quad-core processor deliver roughly the same performance at roughly the same power consumption.
Single-Threaded Efficiency



Runtime measurements and the total power used to complete this workload are intriguing. The 4.4 GHz overclock produced the shortest processing time and almost the same total power draw.
Multi-Threaded Efficiency



A look at the multi-threaded applications used in our efficiency run shows that the Core i5-750 quad-core CPU is faster than our highly overclocked Core i3. However, the latter still beats the Core i5-661 by a considerable margin.
Now we’ll look at the full efficiency workload, which includes most of the benchmarks presented above.

The total runtime is shortest on the two fastest overclocks. Core i5-750 gets beaten here.


The total power used is lowest at 4.0 and 4.2 GHz on the Core i3-530. Interestingly, the stock speed for this processor also produced the highest total power requirement.

Runtime related to total power used yields our efficiency score. The winner is the Core i3-530 at 4.2 GHz, which delivers the best performance per watt, and hence represents the most reasonable overclock. The 3.8 and 4.0 GHz clocks are similar, but both 3.6 and 4.4 GHz reduce power efficiency. Our Core i3-530 processor actually gains a lot of efficiency with the first overclocking setting (2.93 to 3.33 GHz).
We purchased a retail Core i3-530 processor and used it on all of the overclocking tests detailed earlier. Slight voltage tweaks were unavoidable to ensure system stability at 3.8 GHz and up. The combination of Gigabyte’s P55A-UD7 and the Core i3-530 was amazingly stable at all times, except when we tried to cross the 4.5 GHz line. This was just too fast for this particular processor. A 4.2 or 4.4 GHz clock delivers vast performance improvements that set the Core i3-530 at performance levels beyond the Core i5-600-series and into performance levels typically reached by quad-core products.
As you can see in the diagram above, the Core i3-530 overclocked to 4.2 GHz delivers the highest power efficiency, expressed in performance per watt-hour. The score is a synthetic number resulting from the division of our performance results with the power consumption readings. Unfortunately, the 2.93 GHz stock speed delivers the worst power efficiency, so it makes a lot of sense to overclock the CPU at least a bit. This won’t jeopardize reliability or impact idle power, but it provides more horsepower to work on intensive workloads. This is the key to delivering great efficiency.
Going beyond 4.2 GHz requires significant voltage tweaks that negatively impact efficiency. You should only do this if you really know that the remaining speed upgrade delivers real benefits. In any case, a Core i5-750 quad-core might be the better investment for power users if budget allows. It results in similar system idle power and peak power at the same level as a Core i3 overclocked to 4.4 GHz. Then again, it’s important to mention that such a quad-core chip could still be overclocked on its own, yielding even more speed.












