Intel Core i3-2312M vs Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 vs Intel Core 2 Duo SL9300

Sandy Bridge is the evolutionary successor of the Arrandale architecture. The most noteable improvements are the new 256Bit AVX instructions, the improved Turbo 2.0 and the integration of the graphics card into the 32nm CPU core. 

Der i3-2310M offers an integrated graphics card ( Intel HD Graphics 3000) which is clearly faster then the older Intel HD Graphics in the Arrandale CPUs. As the new GPU is included in the CPU, it is also manufactured in 32nm and shares the fast level 3 cache with the CPU cores (using a new ring bus). In the 2310M it is clocked from  650-1100MHz (with Turbo Boost). The faster Sandy Bridge CPUs are clocked up to 1300 MHz (like the i5-2520M). 

Furthermore, an improved dual-channel DDR3 memory controller is included on the CPU die that is used by the CPU and GPU part.

Due to the improved architecture, the average performance of the Core i3-2310M is higher than a similar clocked Arrandale Core i3 without Turbo Boost. In synthetic benchmarks, the performance was about on par with the faster clocked Core i5-430M (2.3-2.5 GHz) and therefore adequate for most applications. The performance of the 2312M is similar to the Core i3-2310M (see for benchmarks). After the upgrade to the 2393M the performance should be slightly better than the Core i3-2370M.