Overclocking: Get The Performance Of A Core i5 From Core i3

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Intel’s $115 Core i3-530 doesn't include Turbo Boost technology and it doesn't boast hardware-based AES-NI, but it overclocks like a fiend. We benchmarked this dual-core, HT-equipped chip at 4.4 GHz and determined the most power-efficient overclock.

Benchmark Results: Power Consumption

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.

Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos