Comparison of these processors should always take into account the turbo boost profile in addition to the clock speed and L3 cache.
Turbo boost works by stepping up the clock in 133 MHz intervals up to a maximum value for a certain number of active cores; the "turbo profile" is the max turbo multiplier for 2 active cores / 1 active core.
Core i5-520M
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Nominal clock: 2400 MHz
Turbo profile: 2/4
Max dual-core clock: 2667 MHz
Max single-core clock: 2933 MHz
Core i5-540M
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Nominal clock: 2533 MHz
Turbo profile: 2/4
Max dual-core clock: 2800 MHz
Max single-core clock: 3066 MHz
Core i7-620M
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Nominal clock: 2667 MHz
Turbo profile: 3/5
Max dual-core clock: 3066 MHz
Max single-core clock: 3333 MHz
Turbo boost works by stepping up the clock in 133 MHz intervals up to a maximum value for a certain number of active cores; the "turbo profile" is the max turbo multiplier for 2 active cores / 1 active core.
Core i5-520M
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Nominal clock: 2400 MHz
Turbo profile: 2/4
Max dual-core clock: 2667 MHz
Max single-core clock: 2933 MHz
Core i5-540M
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Nominal clock: 2533 MHz
Turbo profile: 2/4
Max dual-core clock: 2800 MHz
Max single-core clock: 3066 MHz
Core i7-620M
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Nominal clock: 2667 MHz
Turbo profile: 3/5
Max dual-core clock: 3066 MHz
Max single-core clock: 3333 MHz
