Intel Core i5-3550 CPU

The Intel Core i5-3550 quad-core processor is suitable to be used with a desktop PC, providing compatibility with socket 1155 connections. This Intel Core i5 processor comes with the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture and is manufactured with 0.022 microns along with an integrated floating point unit. This quad-core processor is a multi-featured product that incorporates four CPU cores and threads, three levels of cache memory, 32 GB of physical memory, and both DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 memory controller support, as well as uniprocessor multiprocessing and enhanced SpeedStep technology. Moreover, this Intel Core i5 processor comes with MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, and AES instruction sets. In addition, it offers advanced vector extensions, Extended Memory 64, Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, virtualization technology, and execute disable bit. The Intel Core i5-3550 is designed for 77-watt thermal power with direct media and a PCI Express 3.0 interface, as well as an HD 2500 graphics controller. This 3.3 GHz Intel Core i5 processor delivers a bus speed of 5 GTps DMI, a clock multiplier of 33, a frequency of 3300 MHz, and a turbo frequency of 3700 MHz. The processor measures 3.75 cm wide by 3.75 cm high (1.48 inches by 1.48 inches) and weighs 26.8 g (0.9 oz).

The integrated graphics core is the Intel HD Graphics 3000core, and Intel promises about twice the performance of the graphics core in the Clarksdale-architecture Core i5-661 processor. Like the CPU cores, the GPU core uses Intel's Turbo Boost technology to increase its power draw and performance when thermal and power headroom permit. Since the Cougar Point motherboards I had available for this test were all based on the P67 Express chipset, which doesn't support the integrated graphics of the Sandy Bridge processors, I wasn't able to test the graphics features of this CPU.

Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Product Name:Desktop Processor Core i5-3550
Model Number: BX80637I53550