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Core i5 and i3 CPUs With On-Chip GPUs Launched
MojoKid writes "Intel has officially launched their new Core i5 and Core i3 lineup of Arrandale and Clarkdale processors today, for mobile and desktop platforms respectively. Like Intel's recent release of the Pinetrail platform for netbooks, new Arrandale and Clarkdale processors combine both an integrated memory controller (DDR3) and GPU (graphics processor) on the same package as the main processor. Though it's not a monolithic device, but is built upon multi-chip module packaging, it does allow these primary functional blocks to coexist in a single chip footprint or socket. In addition, Intel beefed up their graphics core and it appears that the new Intel GMA HD integrated graphics engine offers solid HD video performance and even a bit of light gaming capability."
That is not the only problem nowadays, even processors within a given family may or may not have specific features (VT, for example) disabled. You'd think that there is a conspiracy going on...
DESKTOP PROCESSORS
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18216/1
"As a CPU technology, Clarkdale is excellent. I can't get over how the Core i5-661 kept nearly matching the Core 2 Quad Q9400 in things like video encoding and rendering with just two cores. We've known for a while how potent the Nehalem microarchitecture can be, but seeing a dual-core processor take on a quad-core from the immediately preceding generation is, as I said, pretty mind-blowing. Clarkdale's power consumption is admirably low at peak
(...)
The integrated graphics processor on Clarkdale has, to some extent, managed to exceed my rather low expectations."
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704
"For a HTPC there's simply none better than these new Clarkies. The on-package GPU keeps power consumption nice and low, enabling some pretty cool mini-ITX designs that we'll see this year. Then there's the feature holy-grail: Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD-MA bitstreaming over HDMI. If you're serious about building an HTPC in 2010, you'll want one of Intel's new Core i3s or i5s."
NOTEBOOK PROCESSORS
http://anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3705
"From the balanced notebook perspective, Arrandale is awesome. Battery life doesn't improve, but performance goes up tremendously. The end result is better performance for hopefully the same power consumption. If you're stuck with an aging laptop it's worth the wait. If you can wait even longer we expect to see a second rev of Arrandale silicon towards the middle of the year with better power characteristics. Let's look at some other mobile markets, though.
(...)
If what you're after is raw, unadulterated performance, there are still faster options.
(...)
We are also missing something to replace the ultra-long battery life offered by the Core 2 Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) parts. "
Not sure about Intel. But Nvidia has VDPAU which is very nice. Feature Set C even added MPEG4 decoding and SD content upscaling, all in GPU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU#NVIDIA_VDPAU_Feature_Sets)
Broadcom finally released Crystal HD drivers for Linux, which means if you have a mini PCI-E slot, you can get HD content. (http://xbmc.org/davilla/2009/12/29/broadcom-crystal-hd-its-magic/)
If you want to know what is available for what GPU/Platform, keep an eye out on the XBMC guys are doing. They seem to be at the forefront of getting hardware acceleration working on different setups
http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Hardware_Accelerated_Video_Decoding
The average consumer doesn't give a shit what socket their CPU is in either, so it's all okay.
Even worse than that, at least one model, the Q8300 Core2Quad both does and does not have VT, depending on the sSPEC code; SLB5W doesn't, SLGUR does. Good luck trying to buy one of those online and being sure of what you're gonna get!
Intel also has three lines that more or less directly correspond to AMDs: Core/Phenom (good), Pentium/Athlon (ok) and Celeron/Sempron (cheap), plus the server Xeon/Opteron. The real pain is the amount of different model numbers and numbering schemes. The secret decoder ring for Intel models is:
A) old three number codes ...
E.g. Pentium 965, Celeron 450,
First digit is the model, second digit corresponds to the speed
These are usually old crap and should be avoided. Celeron 743 and Celeron 900 fairly recent low-end chips that you can still buy.
B) Letter plus four numbers codes, e.g. SU7300:
* S = small form factor
* U = ultra-low voltage (5-10W), L = low-voltage (17W), P = medium voltage (25W), T = desktop replacement (35W), E = Desktop (65W), Q = quad-core (65-130W), X = extreme edition
* 7 = model line, tells you about amount of cache, VT capability etc. Scale goes from 1 (crap) to 9 (can't afford).
* 3 = clock frequency, relative performance within the line. Scale from 0 to 9.
* 00 = random features disabled or enabled, have to look up for specific details.
C) New Core i3-XYZa
Similar to scheme B, with the added dash and more confusing
* i3 = Line within Core brand, can be i3 (cheap, but better than Celeron or Pentium), i5 (decent) or i7 (high-end)
* X = the actual model, tells you the amount of cache and number of cores, but only together with the processor line (i3-5xx is very different from i5-5xx)
* Y = corresponds to clock speed, higher is better
* Z = modifier, currently 0, 1 or 5 for specific features
* a = type of processor: X = extreme, M = mobile, QM = quad-core mobile, LM = low-voltage mobile, UM = ultra-low-voltage mobile
The article is awful. There is only one game benchmark and that compared to an integrated AMD GPU that hardly anybody has heard of. There is also no way of telling from the article whether the integrated intel graphics actually has HD video decode acceleration or not. The modern core i5 chips are pretty capable of decoding 1080p content by themselves without any gpu assistance.
I think the article writer misunderstands how hardware video decode assist actually works. It isn't magically engaged when you play any HD movie in any media player (usually it has to be turned on in an option somewhere with a media player app that supports it) and it isn't a sliding scale of cpu usage. Modern decoding chips either decode EVERYTHING on the card, reducing cpu usage to 1% or 2%, or the app decodes EVERYTHING in software, resulting in fairly high cpu usage.
I still have no idea if the new intel graphics chip actually offers any HD video acceleration at all. If it did, it would make it a nice choice for low power and HTPC solutions. If it doesn't, it's just another crappy integrated graphics card.
This is how the loudness war is killing music.
1080p is quite a bit less than the 2560x1600 that the poster was talking about. In consumer terms, its comparing 2 megapixels vs 4 megapixels.
Also, last I checked, the largest PC gaming segment still runs at 1280x1024 (presumably on commodity 5:4 aspect LCD's which stormed the market several years ago.) Only 12% run at 1080p or higher resolution. (source)
The 512MB NVIDIA 8800GT is probably still the best bang-for-your-buck card on the market given the resolutions people are gaming at. The 8800GT handles every game you can throw at it just fine at 1280x1024.
"His name was James Damore."
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No sig today...