Intel Core i3 530 Clarkdale On Linux

In this article we are providing the pure CPU-focused benchmarks while coming out in a few days will be our Linux graphics benchmarks from the Core i3 530 with its integrated graphics processor. We have already briefly commented on the Clarkdale IGP on Linux not being so pleasant right at this time due to a few driver issues.

Our Core i3 test system consisted of the Intel Core i3 530 (obviously), an ECS H55H-M v1.0 motherboard (a Linux review is coming soon), 2GB of OCZ DDR3-1333MHz memory, a 64GB OCZ Vertex SSD, and the Intel integrated graphics. We compared the performance of the Clarkdale to an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor that was clocked at its stock 3.00GHz frequency and then overclocked to 3.86GHz. The hardware was the same as with the Core i3 530 system except for using a Gigabyte EP45T-DS3R motherboard and an ATI Radeon HD 4850 (but graphics tests are not to be found in this article anyways so it is irrelevant). We also threw in an AMD Phenom II X3 710 triple-core processor clocked at 2.60GHz with an ECS A785GM-M motherboard.

In regards to overclocking the Intel Core i3 530, we were able to quickly and easily overclock this Clarkdale processor with its stock heatsink to 3.60GHz by increasing the CPU voltage slightly and upping the frequency while maintaining the same multiplier. Spending more time tweaking the BIOS settings could result in a higher overclock, but again, we are focused on delivering Linux test results rather than seeing how far the Core i3 530 can be overclocked.

During this testing process we were using an Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" development snapshot with the Linux 2.6.32 kernel, GNOME 2.29.4, X Server 1.7.4 RC2, GCC 4.4.3, and an EXT4 file-system. Testing was done through the Phoronix Test Suite and our tests included GraphicsMagick, John The Ripper, Parallel BZIP2 Compression, 7-Zip Compression, LAME MP3 encoding, FLAC audio encoding, x264, FFmpeg, OpenSSL, Gcrypt, Himeno, Apache, C-Ray, POV-Ray, Tachyon, Crafty, MAFFT, and NAS Parallel Benchmarks.

Below is the /proc/cpuinfo output for this processor.

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 37
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93GHz
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2925.418
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm arat tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 5850.83
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 37
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93GHz
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2925.418
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 2
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 4
initial apicid : 4
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm arat tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 5851.56
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 2
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 37
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93GHz
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2925.418
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm arat tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 5851.53
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 3
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 37
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93GHz
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2925.418
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 2
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 5
initial apicid : 5
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm arat tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 5851.54
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: