Intel Core i5-520M Mobile SLBU3 2.40GHz 2 Kern 3MB L3 PGA988A

The Intel Core i5-520M is a two-core processor and clocks at 2.4 - 2.93 GHz thanks to Turbo. The two cores are based on the Nehalem (Westmere) micro-architecture and can process 4 threads simultaneously thanks to hyperthreading. The performance of the 520M is positioned in the mid-range, but compared to the old Core 2 Duo processors it is already in the high-end range.

A special feature of the new dual-core CPUs from Intel is the integration of the memory controller and an integrated graphics card (GMA HD) into the package. The CPU is already manufactured in 32nm, but the die for the memory controller and the graphics card is still manufactured in 45nm.

Thanks to Turbo Boost technology, the 520M can overclock the computing cores and also the graphics card depending on the load (CPU cores in 133 MHz steps). However, this depends on the type of load and the cooling. The graphics card and CPU cores probably cannot be overclocked at the same time. However, since practical applications and games usually do not fully utilise the cores, the turbo proves to be extremely effective in practice. However, the CPU runs much more often at the TDP limit under load, so e.g. the Core 2 Duo predecessor.

Thanks to the integrated memory controller, Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost, the Core i5 can clearly outperform the equally clocked Core 2 Duo processors on average. On average, the performance corresponds to a 2.8GHZ clocked Core 2 Duo T9600. Therefore, the i5-520M is a very fast dual-core processor that provides sufficient computing power for practically all current games and applications.

The 32 nm processor cores of the Westmere generation also process some new instructions that are supposed to accelerate AES encryption.

According to initial reports, the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD (GMA HD) graphics card should be clocked at up to 500-766 MHz (with Turbo Boost) and become significantly faster than the old GMA 4500MHD (at the level of an HD 4200). However, a GeForce 9400M (ION) will remain minimally faster (with better driver support for games).

With a TDP of 35 watts, the power consumption is just as high as with the T models of the Core 2 Duo series, but with the Core i5 the TDP also includes the graphics card and the memory controller (with the Core 2 Duo these were still in the chipset). As a result, the power consumption of the entire system is probably lower.