Intel Core i3 Ivy Bridge CPUs Detailed, Will Sell Starting Q3

As we draw near to the official launch of Intel's first 22nm Ivy Bridge central processing units, the web is starting to look into those CPUs that won't actually appear then.

This time, VR-Zone has provided info on the Core i3 chips that will be utilized in desktop computers later in the year.

And by later in the year we mean the third quarter of 2012, or the July-September three-month period.

Five models have been mentioned so far, called Core i3-3220T, Core i3-3220, Core i3-3225, Core i3-3240T and Core i3-3240.

That is essentially the bottom-up order, which means that the Core i3-3220T is the lowest-end and the Core i3-3240 the strongest.

The clock speeds aren't the only traits that earn them those spots though. After all, the clock speeds are of 2.8 GHz, 3.3 GHz, 3.3 GHz, 3 GHz and 3.4 GHz, not an exact decreasing trend.

Some may have assumed that the T models have something to do with this and, lo and behold, they are right.

The normal chips are the regular, desktop processors, while the T Core i3 CPUs are intended for all-in-one systems and have a lower power draw.

Thus, the Core i3-3240, Core i3-3225 and Core i3-3220 have a TDP (thermal design power) of 55W, while the Core i3-3240T and Core i3-3220T only need 35W.

Moving on, all CPUs will sport AES hardware-accelerated encryption, 3 MB shared L3 cache, two cores and hyper threading.

As for graphics, only the Core i3-3225 has the Intel GMA HD 4000, while the rest make do with GMA HD 2500. Too bad, really. We have only just seen how good the former is going to be.

The report did not have any pricing information, but the tags shouldn't be too different from those of the Sandy Bridge that will be replaced.

Posted in: Hardware, Preview