Intel Core i5-3470 Quad-Core CPU Review

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, May 31, 2012, 12:03 AM EDT

Last month, Intel unleashed its highly anticipated Ivy Bridge microarchitecture. We had been hearing about Ivy Bridge for what seemed like an eternity leading up to the launch, and although not based a totally new design, Ivy Bridge would offer a number of enticing enhancements, like a faster Quick Sync engine, significantly improved integrated graphics, and lower power, thanks to architectural improvements and an advanced 22nm manufacturing process.

We initially took a look at Intel’s flagship Ivy Bridge-based processor, the Core i7-3770K. The Core i7-3770K is an unlocked quad-core processor with 8MB of L3 cache; integrated Intel HD 4000 series graphics; and Hyper-Threading, PCI Express 3.0 and Turbo Boost 2.0 support. The processor we’ll be showing you today, although also based on Ivy Bridge, is somewhat different. The new Core i5-3470 is based on the same quad-core die as the Core i7-3770, but it’s outfitted with less cache, a lower-end graphics core, and lacks support for Hyper-Threading, among other things...

Intel Core i5-3470 Quad-Core CPU Review

Tags: Intel, CPU, processor, Ivy-Bridge, Core-i5

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com