Intel Core i3/i5 processors are indeed fast enough for daily light-applications.

Meet the Contenders

Before getting to know your weapons, let me introduce you some of our contenders in this article. To make things easy enough and give you an example of what can be done, I've chose 3 different CPUs falling on different categories. Our first contender is the Intel Core i7 860 processor. This little demon is a 4-cores/8-threads CPU, running at 2,8GHz (3.46GHz with Turbo) each. It supports DDR3 and works best in a P55 platform with 4GB of RAM (at least). This CPU performs similar (or faster) than the Intel Core i7 930 from the high-end LGA1366 socket, so it's a very good match for the tests.

Second, I chose the Core i5 655K. This CPU runs at 3.2GHz (3.46GHz with turbo mode) and packages 2-cores/4-threads along with Intel GMA HD Graphics. This little baby should be the most overclocker of my choices today, and before you start complaining about this being an unlocked processor, I overclocked this CPU raising BCLK. That means, no multiplier was involved in our tests, and so, it has no advantages over any other CPU. In fact, try thinking of it more like a Core i5 650 because that's how it will act today.

Last but not least, we have the "little" Intel Core i3 530 processor. This CPU works at 2.93GHz and has no turbo technology. Despite of that, Intel gives it a 2-cores/4-threads architecture thanks to Hyper Threading technology and it consumes 73 watts, which is great because it means we have a big breach before arriving to it's limits. Have a look at the chart for extra information about our stars: