Intel Core i5 2320 Benchmark

Hi there friends, enjoying the blissful morning of winter, huh? Well, I am not! It is too darn cold!

But let us leave that thing for environment enthusiasts, alright? We will talk about the almighty processor from Intel Core I series second generation, i.e. Intel Core i5 2320 3.0 GHz.

Of course it is nothing in comparison to Intel Core i7 series and puny against AMD Bulldozer series. I would still like to believe that the processor certainly packs a punch for being under budget and you get all the perks that you get with Core i7 series, like Turbo Boost 2.0, Hyper Threading, etc.

Intel Core i5 2320 is a mid stream processor and the turbo boost 2.0 actually works when you convert huge amount of videos from one format to another, render high-definition frames from your 3D software like Maya or 3DS Max, play games like Crysis 2, Arkham City, Mass Effect 2, GTA IV, etc.

Now, I have divided this article in few points that will help you getting through this article easily and I guess those points are pretty much what everybody wants to know about the processor.

Boot Time

• With the help of a stop watch, I saw that Windows 7 booted up in exactly 46 seconds, from pressing the power button to the desktop screen.
• I know that it not too good but it is not too bad either.

Windows Experience Index

• WEI is nothing but a grading system that Microsoft thought would be cool to include in Windows 7 so that people can show off their scores and flaunt their machines.

• WEI can easily be changed via Notepad and can be made whatever you want it to be.

• However, when you update the score from the control panel, you get the score back again.

• Alright, so the WEI score for the processor is 7.4 out of 7.9. Pretty great, isn’t it?

3D Mark Vantage Score

• I also ran one of the best benchmarking tools and got great results. 3D Mark Vantage is a great benchmarking tool that is filled with full high definition videos of game, scenery, physics, particles, etc.
• It gives you a precise know-how about your graphics processing unit (gpu) and central processing unit (cpu) that includes your RAM, processor, motherboard, Hard Disk, etc.
• Though, it may rate only CPU (processor) and GPU, the simulations use all the resources that your system can provide.
• 3D Mark Vantage Score for this processor is 40846. I know that it is not too great (again) but it is still very fine for mid-stream gaming and work.

CPU Resource Usage

Video Encoding

• I used Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate to convert few music videos from MKV to AVI for my HD TV.
• All cores were active; Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology Monitor (software) told me that the processor was being over-clocked to 3.2 GHz from 3.0 GHz. That is 200 MHz of additional clock speed.
• All 4 cores were active and working. However, all of them were working at a different speed and Core 1 and Core 3 were contributing most of the power, while Core 2 and Core 4 were showing some spike every now and then.

Gaming

• Gaming on Intel Core i5 2^nd generation is bliss. Yeah, I have to satisfy myself with High settings rather than extra high or medium rather than high (in some games), but I get no lags, no stuttering, no crashes and best of all, the cpu is no longer bottlenecking the performance of my Nvidia GTX+ 9800 graphics card.
• You would think that it is ridiculous. The settings are a matter of graphics card and that is where you are wrong. However, if you don’t think that, then join the club and enjoy all games.
• I used to have Intel Pentium D when I accidently bought this graphics card. It arrived at my doorstep due to some misunderstanding.
• I ordered GT 9800 not GTX+ 9800 and I could not help myself from paying for it when I looked at its specifications online quickly.
• The processor was bottlenecking the performance of this video card and I can vouch for it because now I can play GTA IV on high settings (resolution is set to 1280X1024) and at that time, I could not get decent frame rates (just 10 – 15 FPS) with Pentium D and this card.
• So, yeah, this processor definitely improved gaming experience for me. Also, when you play a game like Mass Effect 2 on highest settings (resolution – 1280X1024) and still get 30+ frame rates at every possible effect (explosions, lightening, debris, main gameplay, etc.), you start to love it and so do I.
• Playing games often use Turbo boost 2.0 and all cores, so yeah, you may not want to encode videos or render frames in the background.
• Just the good old downloading a file or simple browsing can be done without crashing down the whole pc.

Internet Surfing, MS Office Applications, video watching, music, etc.

• Internet surfing and working with office applications doesn’t use a lot of resources and these can be done without any problem even when you are running something heavy in the background.
• It could be anything from playing a game or transcoding videos.

File Transfer

• I know that transferring files from one drive to another is an attribute of Hard-disk but a nice processor plays an important role too.
• The resource usage for copying/cutting and pasting a file from one drive to another is minimal, like working on Word or similar activity.
• The speed has definitely improved and the improvement is quite significant. It is 13 Mb/s right now for a 4 GB of file.
• It varies a lot, but the average speed is now five times better than my old processor (Pentium D).

Virtual Box – Running Windows 8

• Running virtual machine while working on some other project is bliss now. The resource usage is quite high (I agree), but the system still handles the extra load pretty well.
• Also, working in Virtual Box’s virtual machine is now speedier than before. I installed Windows 8 developer edition on my virtual box and it is working great. I get to try out some software (many of them don’t even install) and I am preparing myself for the upcoming upgrade.
• It is actually pretty cool.
• However, bear in mind that several folks are saying that Windows 8 is not going to bring anything new for pc users. The experience is going to be just as same as Windows 7 and unfortunately no upgrade is going to be launched for DirectX 11 (upgrade to DX 11.1) when the retail version of Windows 8 finally hits the shelves.

So friends, this is all I wanted to share with you regarding Intel Core i5 2320 2^nd generation processor. The experience is amazing and now I can vouch for the performance benefits that you would get with the 2^nd generation of core I series. Right now, I am looking forward for an upgrade with Intel Core i7 2600K 3.2 GHz and Nvidia GTX 560 Ti. That is not going to happen anytime soon, but rest assured that when it does, you guys and gals are going to be the first to know.

You know, besides the retailer, my friends, my family, etc. Yeah, you got the point! Till then, have fun friends, ciao.