CPU Reviews

Intel's Pentium G6950 & Core i5 650/660/670 Reviewed

Final Words

The rest of the Clarkdale lineup performs quite well, but our issue has never been with its performance - rather its price. The closer you get to spending $200 on a CPU the better off you'll be buying a Core i5 750 instead. It's also a shame that Intel offers such a wide range of integrated graphics performance. It would do a lot more for its image as a supplier of mediocre graphics if all Clarkdale chips offered 900MHz+ graphics.

The Pentium G6950 is a dangerously good competitor to AMD's dual-core CPUs. It outperforms AMD's Athlon II X2 255 and Phenom II X2 555 in pretty much all applications, however it lags behind in gaming performance. Intel's 32nm process gives it the edge in power consumption as the Pentium G6950 draws less power than any competing part from AMD.

The problem is the Athlon II X3 440. It's pretty much faster than the Pentium G6950 across the board and is even a little cheaper to boot. You lose out on the integrated graphics, but you get an extra core and better performance in most applications. Honestly the only reasons you'd pick the G6950 over the Athlon II X3 440 are if you need lower power consumption, better performance in single threaded applications or want to build a HTPC (note that TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstreaming is not supported on the Pentium G6950, only on the Core i3/i5). They are valid reasons but if pure performance is all you care about, then AMD offers more bang for your buck. MORE DETAIL...