Intel Core i3 540 with Integrated Clarkdale Graphics Benchmarked

Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the world's leading vendor of computer processors, is expected to announce the launch of its first desktop processors with integrated graphics, codenamed Clarkdale. These new chips are due out sometime in early 2010 and should be part of the company's new line of Core i3 family, aimed at entry-level systems and designed to deliver the necessary performance for powering some of the upcoming mainstream computers. On that note, it looks like we now have the very first benchmark results of these new processors and we can compare them with the performance levels of some of today's other graphics chips.

According to a recent article on the Chinese-language HKEPC.com, the upcoming Clarkdale processors and their integrated graphics core should deliver a performance level comparable to that of today's mainstream solutions. The fellows over at HKEPC have been lucky enough to put the chip through its paces, a few good months ahead of its official release. Reportedly dubbed Core i3 540, this new solution was still an engineering sample and the results could vary when it will be officially released. The chip was clocked at 3.06GHz and came with 4MB of L3 cache, support for Hyper-Threading technology, while the graphics core was set at 700MHz, although the final version should deliver a frequency of 733MHz.

In 3DMark 06, the Clarkdale graphics core managed to score 1602 points, compared to the 1181 points received by Intel's current integrated graphics product, the GMA X4500HD, or the 2014 points received by NVIDIA's current 9400 IGP. In 3DMark Vantage the situation remained the same, with the X4500HD scoring E3508, the Clarkdale processor reaching E3980 and NVIDIA's 9400 IGP reaching E4445 points.

Essentially, the Clarkdale solution with integrated graphics will deliver a graphics performance over the current Intel IGP, but lower than NVIDIA's GeForce 9400, which has been around for some time and is due for a refresh in the near future. The results are still based on an engineering sample and we might see some changes when the chip is officially released, but even so, this should give some users a perspective on what is coming from Intel.