Intel’s Mobile Core i5 And Core i3: Arrandale Is For The Rest Of Us

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Benchmark Results: Productivity

Our threaded Photoshop benchmark demonstrates an advantage in favor of Intel's Hyper-Threading technology, as Asus' K42F beats out the competing HP Penryn-based machine.

The difference between a dual-core processor and a dual-core processor with Hyper-Threading is staggering in AVG 9. We’ve seen this same behavior in past performance evaluations, where the anti-virus suite uses very little resources, but rewards the shift to more logical cores with a halved completion time.

We know that this one is threaded, so the massive speed-up in going with the Arrandale platform is attributable mostly to Hyper-Threading (though we also know a Turbo-equipped CPU under its TDP will still add a 133 MHz bin of acceleration, even when both cores are being utilized).

Considering that WinRAR is threaded, it’s interesting to see Hyper-Threading having little effect on this test’s overall standing. For the most part, both of these mobile platforms are even.

In a big contrast to WinRAR, 7-Zip shows a massive gain in favor of Hyper-Threading. The speed (KB/s) and rating (MIPS) components of our compression routine really accelerate Intel's Arrandale processor.

Previous Next
Summary
  1. Introduction
  2. The Arrandale Lineup: Something For (Almost) Everyone
  3. On-Package Graphics: Arrandale Versus Clarkdale
  4. Mobile Chipsets, Refreshed
  5. Asus' K42F Calpella-Based Notebook
  6. Test Setups And Software
  7. Benchmark Results: Synthetics
  8. Benchmark Results: Gaming And 3DMark Vantage
  9. Benchmark Results: Media/Transcoding Apps
  10. Benchmark Results: Productivity
  11. Power Consumption
  12. MobileMark 2007
  13. Conclusion
About the author
Chris Angelini

Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.

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  • burnley14
    Well played, Intel. You've been knocking it out of the park lately, keep up the good work.
  • Anonymous
    I'm looking forward to getting an HP laptop with the Arrandale Core i5 processor in the near future.
  • Anonymous
    It's going to be interesting to see the performance/battery time of the LM and UM processors as I'm in the market for a thin-and-light myself.

    Performance is good but I'm hoping for a viable update to the CULV offerings of yesterday.
  • Computer_Lots
    Looks like there are finally some replacements for the Atom, at least in efficiency anyway. Too bad the price is currently too high for the UM versions of these processors to make their way into netbooks. I would guess that even the i5-520UM would destroy the Atom in every benchmark, except maybe power consumption.
  • HansVonOhain
    C2D was one of the longest living platforms. But newer tech will replace slower processors.

    Keep it up intel. I do hope that AMD will release some new chips that will be able to compete with intel offerings.
  • jasperjones
    ^^^ true that. arrandale will further diminish AMD's role in the mobile processor market. and there's nothing coming up before may.
  • Luscious
    Chris, the dv4 series from HP has a 12-cell extended battery available as well rated for 94Wh 2.2A. Once HP makes the transition to Arrandale, all else being same, you can expect the dv4 to hit 8-10 hours easy.
  • cangelini
    Thanks for the tip Lucious. I didn't have the higher-capacity battery available to test, but I'd absolutely love to see 8-10 hrs. real-world from an Arrandale-based machine.
  • Reynod
    Good bye NVidia ...

    That chops them completely out of the mobile graphics market for the masses ... Intel will pay the RIGHT OEM's some "adjustment" just to make sure their "Strategy" is right to ensure AMD's mobile market is thin and restricted to the backwaters of Bejjing.
  • spydercanopus
    Wish you would have compared it to Intel Extreme Graphics 2 or something.
  • spydercanopus
    These comparisons aren't very useful. Was really curious how it stacks up against other competing integrated graphics.
  • spydercanopus
    Like... what is the Vista / 7 Aero and Gaming graphics score?
  • cangelini
    spydercanopusThese comparisons aren't very useful. Was really curious how it stacks up against other competing integrated graphics.


    Have a look at Page 8, where HD Graphics is compared to the previous-generation GMA in Vantage and WoW. You're not going to get much else out of this, to be honest...
  • Anonymous
    Ok so we get 20% improvement over a 2.53GHz C2D but what about the fact that C2D goes to 3.06 GHz and 3.33GHz in extreme edition, but the best arrandale is only 2.66Ghz?

    Also the integrated graphics can barely match the 9400m that is 1-2 years old.

    The battery life is the same or worse...

    What is so great about this chip?

    Personally I'm not at all impressed and find it a step side ways or even backwards.
  • xanxaz
    ASUS EFI? can it load the apple one?
  • Anonymous
    Just because the older C2D's have higher clocks doesn't necessarily mean they are better. Advances in the micro-architecture sometimes leave clock freqs irrelevant. An i7 920 @ 2.66 will beat a Core 2 Extreme QX9770 @ 3.2. But to be sure I guess we will have to see the highest end Arrendale vs highest end C2D.

    The integrated graphics do suck, but at least now we have a choice in some laptops where we can switch from the integrated to dedicated, saving battery life when needed and boosting performance where needed. It adds flexibility basically, I'm sure Intel was aiming more for that rather than performance in 3D games.

    What I really want to see is the ULV versions of this chip. I'm hoping whenever they start coming out, it'll push down the prices of older Ultra-Portable laptops around the 12-14" sizes. Certain ones with the C2D SU7300 and 4GB of RAM can be found for around $550 today. If these prices go down far enough, netbookks will be obsolete in my mind.
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  • Anonymous
    Interesting that no mention was made of how Apple has been building Core 2 Duo notebooks that will play 4 movies on a single battery charge, while the i5's and i7's are great, I don't think Intel's Duos can be blamed for your notebook's barely being able to play a single movie. (note Apple is now making notebooks with the i5 and i7 processors which also can run all major operating systems)
  • Anonymous
    Hey, Did you know these Arrandale CPUs are starting to pop-up already? I've noticed this review for the Core i5-520UM today, google says it's new: http://www.netbooklive.net/intel-core-i5-520um-benchmarked-on-asus-ul30jt-3493/ . Hopefully It's ok to post links in here, as they are related and help the readers of this post.
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