Intel today introduced new Core i7 and Core i5 chips. The new processors are more affordable versions of Core i7 900 series and comes with dual channel memory interface in place of triple channel setup found on 900 series. The new processors also feature Turbo mode that enables the processor to scale up to 3.6GHz for i7-870, 3.46GHz for Core i7-860 and 3.2GHz for i5-750 by switching off one or more core.

The Core i7-870 has 2.93GHz clock speed, 8MB L3 cache, and 95W TDP. The Core i7-860 has 2.80GHz clock speed and the Core i5-750 has 2.66GHz clock speed. The main difference between the Core i7 and Core i5 processors is that the i7’s support Hyperthreading (four cores support eight threads), whereas Core i5 lacks Hyperthreading. Other features of the three processors are same. Intel Core i7-870 is priced $562, Core i7-860 is priced $284 and Core i5-750 is priced $196.

Along with the new desktop lineup, Intel also launched six new Xeon processors that support Turbo mode and comes with 8MB of L3 cache. The four Xeon processors 2.93GHz X3470 priced $589, 2.80GHz X3460 priced $316, 2.66GHz X3450 priced $241 and 2.53GHz X3440 priced $215 support Hyperthreading and have TDP of 95W. The 2.4GHz X3430 priced $189 has the same TDP, but it doesn’t support Hyperthreading. The last Xeon processor 1.86GHz L3426 priced $284 has 45W TDP and supports Hyperthreading.

As the new desktop processors have dual channel memory setup, Intel also launched P55 Express chipset to support them. The new chipset is very similar to X58 chipset used by Core i7 900 series processors, but it has half the graphics data bandwidth. A single graphics card get full 16x PCI Express support, but when two cards are used the bandwidth is divided in two with two 8x PCI slots compared to two full 16x PCI slots found on X58 chipset. All the processors and chipset are available now and many PC manufacturers have started announcing computers based on the new processors. [Via TG Daily]