Integrated Graphics and Integrated Memory Controller Testing
Testing the Intel HD Graphics

Let’s not beat around the bush here – for gaming we all know that the Intel HD Graphics isn’t going to cut it.  What I thought I would do to create a “real-world” upgrade scenario was to install a $50 GPU in the system and see how it compares to the IGP on the new Clarkdale parts. 

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 95

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 96

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 97

Clearly you can see there is just no comparison here.  While the Intel HD Graphics is meant for games like Sims 3 and Spore, it isn’t up to dealing with WiC or Left 4 Dead even at low image quality settings.

Testing the move of the memory controller

While we have already shown SOME of the differences between the IMC on Lynnfield and the offset IMC on the new Clarkdale parts, I wanted to make it a more apples-to-apples comparison.  To do that I clocked both parts to 2.8 GHz fixed and then disabled two cores on the Lynnfield CPU to essentially make them on par.

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 98

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 99

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 100

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 101

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 102

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 103

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review - Westmere debuts - Processors 104

The only places where a noticeable difference reveals itself is in the memory bandwidth and memory latency results.  Despite how bad those differences look to be though, it doesn’t seem to have transpired in other benchmarks and tests.

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