12-05-2010, 07:41 PM
Core i3 is not intended to be considered a Celeron. If you want a comparison, it's more like the following:
Pentium G6950 = Pentium E5000/E6000 = Pentium E2000
Core i3 500 = Core 2 Duo E7000 / Core 2 Quad Q8000 = Core 2 Duo E4000
Core i5 600 = Core 2 Duo E8000 / Core 2 Quad Q8000 = Core 2 Duo E6000
Core i5 700 = Core 2 Quad Q9000 6MB L2
Core i7 800 / 900 = Core 2 Quad Q9000 12MB L2 = Core 2 Quad Q6000
The Pentium G6950 is a cut down version of the Core i3 (which, itself, is a cut down version of the Core i5 600 missing Turbo Boost and some business-oriented features). Intel did not release a Celeron version for this generation of Nehalems but a Sandy Bridge-based Celeron is due out mid-2011. Also, going for the lowest CPU in the family isn't necessarily the best choice. There are tangible benefits to higher cache and features such as HyperThreading. For a desktop that's not going to see heavy load, we're already past the point where processors are fast enough so even the cheapest CPU will likely be fine. For gaming, Photoshop, etc, going with a lower end processor makes sense but only up to a certain point. For example, you'd be hard-pressed to notice a massive difference between an i5-750 and i7-950 in most applications particularly with both overclocked to the same clockrate. However, the same can not be said of the G6950 and i3-530.
X-bit Labs recently did a massive review round-up of CPUs from both the Intel and AMD camp and here are some results for gaming (HD 5870, 1680x1050, HQ):
Of particular interest are the results of the G6950 and i3-530. The G6950 is basically an i3-530 running at 133 MHz lower with cache reduced from 4MB to 3MB, lower max memory bandwidth and no HyperThreading. There are a couple of other differences but those are the ones that would impact CPU performance. Looking at the performance gap, overclocking just bridges the gap between the G6950 and i3-530. Overclocked to 4 GHz, I estimate the G6950 to just reach i5-660 stock performance at best.
Pentium G6950 = Pentium E5000/E6000 = Pentium E2000
Core i3 500 = Core 2 Duo E7000 / Core 2 Quad Q8000 = Core 2 Duo E4000
Core i5 600 = Core 2 Duo E8000 / Core 2 Quad Q8000 = Core 2 Duo E6000
Core i5 700 = Core 2 Quad Q9000 6MB L2
Core i7 800 / 900 = Core 2 Quad Q9000 12MB L2 = Core 2 Quad Q6000
The Pentium G6950 is a cut down version of the Core i3 (which, itself, is a cut down version of the Core i5 600 missing Turbo Boost and some business-oriented features). Intel did not release a Celeron version for this generation of Nehalems but a Sandy Bridge-based Celeron is due out mid-2011. Also, going for the lowest CPU in the family isn't necessarily the best choice. There are tangible benefits to higher cache and features such as HyperThreading. For a desktop that's not going to see heavy load, we're already past the point where processors are fast enough so even the cheapest CPU will likely be fine. For gaming, Photoshop, etc, going with a lower end processor makes sense but only up to a certain point. For example, you'd be hard-pressed to notice a massive difference between an i5-750 and i7-950 in most applications particularly with both overclocked to the same clockrate. However, the same can not be said of the G6950 and i3-530.
X-bit Labs recently did a massive review round-up of CPUs from both the Intel and AMD camp and here are some results for gaming (HD 5870, 1680x1050, HQ):
Code:
DiRT2
G6950: 47.18
i3-530: 68.11
i5-660: 77.56
i5-750: 107.51
i7-950: 117.60
i7-980X: 121.44
Far Cry 2
G6950: 54.19
i3-530: 77.39
i5-660: 86.86
i5-750: 111.81
i7-950: 112.87
i7-980X: 116.96
Mafia II
G6950: 54.2
i3-530: 72.5
i5-660: 81.8
i5-750: 84.9
i7-950: 89.3
i7-980X: 89.9
Metro 2033
G6950: 14.00
i3-530: 19.57
i5-660: 25.00
i5-750: 26.57
i7-950: 33.43
i7-980X: 38.29
Resident Evil 5
G6950: 42.4
i3-530: 74.5
i5-660: 85.0
i5-750: 103.6
i7-950: 120.0
i7-980X: 126.0Of particular interest are the results of the G6950 and i3-530. The G6950 is basically an i3-530 running at 133 MHz lower with cache reduced from 4MB to 3MB, lower max memory bandwidth and no HyperThreading. There are a couple of other differences but those are the ones that would impact CPU performance. Looking at the performance gap, overclocking just bridges the gap between the G6950 and i3-530. Overclocked to 4 GHz, I estimate the G6950 to just reach i5-660 stock performance at best.