VR-Zone

Fudzilla confirms that the cheaper Clarkdale-based Core i3 and Pentium G6950 CPUs will also release on January 3rd, the same day as the Core i5 series. The biggest difference between the Core i3 and the Core i5 series is that Core i3 lacks Turbo mode. The two models are Core i3 530 and Core i3 540 respectively, clocking in at 2.93 GHz and 3.06 GHz and priced $113 and $133 ($10 less than previous rumours). This puts it right in the middle of Phenom II X3 and X4 CPUs. It will be interesting to see how the Westmere dual cores compete with AMD's tri/quad cores.

The cheapest Clarkdale CPU will be the Pentium G6950, lacking HT as well as Turbo. Furthermore, it comes with only 3MB L3 cache and a lower GPU frequency of 533 MHz, and officially supports only up to DDR2-1066. It will be priced at $87, which is incidentally the same price point as AMD's new Athlon II X3 435, clocked at 2.9 GHz. The two cores, two thread Pentium G6950 seems destined to fight off Athlon II X3 and X4 CPUs which have the core count advantage. It does have a more efficient architecture though.

Fudzilla reports another CPU based on the 45nm Wolfdale cores - Pentium Dual-Core E6600 3.06 GHz at $84, two weeks after the Pentium G6950. This new CPU, if released, makes very little sense. Perhaps they are simply targeting LGA-775 owners on a budget.

Reference: Fudzilla