Intel Arrandale Core i5 and Core i3 Mobile Unveiled

Name: Intel Arrandale Core i5 and Core i3 Mobile Unveiled - Page 10
Brand: Intel

by Dave Altavilla — Monday, January 04, 2010, 12:01 AM EDT

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

Page 10: Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

Next we delved into some light duty gaming tests with 3DMark Vantage, to see how Intel's new GMA HD graphics core performs.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

Synthetic DirectX Gaming

3DMark Vantage

Futuremark's synthetic 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark Vantage, uses some advanced visual technologies that are only available with DirectX 10. 3DMark Vantage isn't simply a port of 3DMark06 to DirectX 10 though. With this latest version of the benchmark, Futuremark has incorporated two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, in addition to support for the latest PC hardware. We tested the systems here with 3DMark Vantage's Entry preset option, which uses a resolution of 1,280x1,024. As this exceeded the native screen resolution of the Asus Core i5 notebook, we conducted this test with the notebook sending its video out to an external display.

3DMark Vantage "Entry" Preset Test Results

When we tested the Core i5 with the performance preset, 3DMark Vantage offered us a score in the mid 160s but at entry level settings, 3DMark offers a bit more favorable ratings. Regardless, GPU test results were only in the single to low double-digits here.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage - CPU Performance

Synthetic DirectX Gaming

3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage's CPU Test 2 is a multi-threaded test designed for comparing relative game physics processing performance between systems. This test consists of a single scene that features an air race of sorts, with a complex configuration of gates. There are aircraft in the test that trail smoke and collide with various cloth and soft-body obstacles, each other, and the ground. The smoke spreads, and reacts to the planes as they pass through it as well and all of this is calculated on the host CPU. We disabled the benchmark's Nvidia PhysX in order to better isolate the performance of the CPU.

When we look at things from a CPU perspective, the Core i5 540M shines, out-pacing the Core 2 Duo previous generation Penryn architecture by a sizable 31%+ lead.