Earlier this month Intel had introduced their new Core i3 and Core i5 (and even Pentium) processors in the Clarkdale family. Clarkdale and Arrandale (the mobile version of the former) is more unique than some of the other recent Intel Core processors as it introduces a graphics processor on the CPU die itself. Unlike the Lynnfield launch where we were provided with Core i5 750 and Core i7 870 processors to provide Linux-based benchmarks on launch day, this was not the case with Clarkdale. As a result, while Intel's Clarkdale Core i3/i5 processors have been around for a week, there haven't been any real Linux benchmarks of these new processors published on the web.

This week though we ended up ordering an Intel Core i3 530 processor (also available at Amazon.com). The Core i3 530 "Clarkdale" is a dual-core processor clocked at 2.93GHz, uses the LGA-1156 socket, has 4MB of L3 cache, 73 Watt TDP, and is built on a 32nm process. The Core i3 530 also has Hyper-Threading so the logical core count is at four. The integrated GPU found on the Clarkdale CPU has a 733MHz clock.

CPU and GPU benchmarks of this Intel Core i3 processor under Linux will be published in a week or two. In regards to the on-die GPU, the Clarkdale IGP is supported by the Linux 2.6.33 kernel DRM and is also supported by the xf86-video-intel DDX driver and Mesa after being previously known as the IGDNG with there being initial support for this new Intel graphics processor more than six months ago. Subsequent updates to the Intel IGDNG support delivered a new shader compiler and other improvements.

If you end up purchasing a new Intel Core i3/i5 Clarkdale processor or any other hardware on the Internet, please use our shopping links to help support our Linux hardware operations and the recent Core i5 530 purchase to provide the Linux community with test results.