Intel launches budget desktop CPUs

Intel Ivy Bridge microarchitecture was available for almost 9 months now, but so far only Core branded families have been transitioned to the new microarchitecture. Up to now, all desktop Celerons were based on older Sandy Bridge architecture, and desktop Pentium lineup had a mix of Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge CPUs. Today Intel added seven new SKUs to Celeron and Pentium families. Celeron family was updated with G1610, G1610T and G1620, that succeeded G400 and G500 series parts. New Pentium G2010, G2020 and G2020T processors replaced G600-series, and introduction of Pentium G2130 will allow Intel to phase out G870 model. Intel also introduced Core i3-3210.

Entry level chips from Celeron family have 2 CPU cores with 2 MB L3 cache, basic set of supported features, and integrated HD graphics.

Features of Pentium Ivy Bridge processors are very similar to Sandy Bridge models. They have 2 CPU cores, 3 MB L3 cache, HD graphics, and support the same technologies and instruction set extensions as Celeron products. Pentium G2010 and G2020 are 55 Watt parts, that run 100 MHz and 200 MHz faster than Celeron G1620. The G2020T is clocked a few hundred MHz lower than non-"T" parts, on the other hand it has the TDP reduced to 35 Watt.

Compared to Pentium G2130, Core i3-3210 adds support for AVX instructions and Hyper-threading technology. Both G2130 and i3-3210 CPUs operate at 3.2 GHz frequency, however additional features make the Core i3 part faster in multi-threading and AVX-enabled applications.

All processors work in existing socket 1155 motherboards. Known specifications of new desktop CPUs are provided below: