Intel Clarkdale Core i5 Desktop Processor Debuts

For our next set of tests, we moved on to some in-game benchmarking with Crysis and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. When testing processors with Crysis or ET:QW, we drop the resolution to 800x600, and reduce all of the in-game graphical options to their minimum values to isolate CPU and memory performance as much as possible.  However, the in-game effects, which control the level of detail for the games' physics engines and particle systems, are left at their maximum values, since these actually do place some load on the CPU rather than GPU.

You'll notice, that even though the in-game graphics options are set to their minimums and the games are running at a low-resolution, the Intel HD Graphics processor incorporated onto the Core i5 661, and the AMD 785G for that matter, severely limits performance. When using a discreet graphics card, however, the Core i5 661 performs very well, hanging with or besting the Phenom II X4 and finishing about on par with the Core 2 Quad Q9650.