Difference between cpus

[phclyde]

I have an Intel I7-920 clocked at 3.5 ghz. Although it is overclocked to this, I was wondering if this cpu would be up to par with another cpu which was made more recently which is clocked at 3.5 ghz. What is the difference? What would make that cpu better than mine if they are clocked at the same speed? If anybody could explain this to me, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Karsten75]

More recent processors have architectural improvements as well as larger cache sizes. ALl of that means that a more recent generation processor will generally outperform an older processor at the same IPC. You can look back how long there have been processors at 3.5 GHz. Compare each of those on a site like Passmark and you will see how much more recent processor are at doing the same workloads.

 

[Hlsgsz]

I have an Intel I7-920 clocked at 3.5 ghz. Although it is overclocked to this, I was wondering if this cpu would be up to par with another cpu which was made more recently which is clocked at 3.5 ghz. What is the difference? What would make that cpu better than mine if they are clocked at the same speed? If anybody could explain this to me, it would be greatly appreciated.

At that speed, your CPU is similar to an i7 975 Extreme, and the i7 6700 has similar base frequencies(but a higher 4 ghz boost). This comparison should abswer your question:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/99?vs=1554

 

[k1114]

The difference is architecture which increases efficiency and if you want to go into more detail, you'll need to read many books on the topic. These articles could at least get you started.

This article tests ipc limiting it to 4c, no ht and 3ghz but only goes back to sb.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/9

This one is a bit older and does a single core at 3ghz but is from sb back to prescott.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/processor-architecture-benchmark,2974.html

 

[phclyde]

Okay, now that I have this info, and it is all very much appreciated, thanks a ton you guys, could someone refer me to a cpu upgrade? I want to get something that is pretty inexpensive but a firm upgrade. Or do you guys think I should just stick with my cpu as of right now. My specs are :

I7-920 @ 3.5 GHz

2x8 Gbs G-Skill Ddr3 Ram

EVGA X58 Motherboard

EVGA 600W PSU

EVGA GTX 980 OEM

 

[Hlsgsz]

Okay, now that I have this info, and it is all very much appreciated, thanks a ton you guys, could someone refer me to a cpu upgrade? I want to get something that is pretty inexpensive but a firm upgrade. Or do you guys think I should just stick with my cpu as of right now. My specs are :

I7-920 @ 3.5 GHz

2x8 Gbs G-Skill Ddr3 Ram

EVGA X58 Motherboard

EVGA 600W PSU

EVGA GTX 980 OEM

As things stand, there is no way to get anything inexpensive that will be a significant upgrade. If you go with an i5, you may see a bit better performance in some games, but you will lose hyperthreading, so, in the long run, as games get better threaded, it would actually be a downgrade.
To be honest, your CPU is capable enough adn i don't think it's actually giving you any trouble, is it?
It would be best to keep it and wait to see what AMD's Zen architecture will bring to the table, regardless of whether you want to go with amd or not, as it's possible that they will force Intel to bring i7 4c/8t performance down to i5 price levels. When that happens, that would be the right moment for you to upgrade. Either to a cost efficient i5 4c/8t or a monstrously powerful i7 with 8c/16t, so then you really feel like you're spending your money right.

 

[k1114]

A skylake i5 already beats his 920 in multithreaded loads. The first gen i series are starting to feeling their age but should still be good for a bit longer. Check your cpu usage (per core) and see. If you still want to upgrade, what is inexpensive to you?

 

[Hlsgsz]

A skylake i5 already beats his 920 in multithreaded loads. The first gen i series are starting to feeling their age but should still be good for a bit longer. Check your cpu usage (per core) and see. If you still want to upgrade, what is inexpensive to you?

I presume that would be in synthetic benchmarcks or raw workloads that saturate the cores. As far as those things go, hyperthreading can only do so much. Games will never be like that, and even the very well threaded ones are prone to take advantage better of SMT by having threads of different load-levels(i3s prove this beautifuly).
Seriously, i would never go from an i7 to an i5, even if they are 5 generations apart. There's a reason Intel can charge so much just for enabling HT. Or am i just poorly informed?

 

[k1114]

Go google some benchmarks? Never look at synthetics.

 

[Hlsgsz]

Go google some benchmarks? Never look at synthetics.

I did. Hard to really find something relevent, but it would seem there are indeed some gains. Would you say that those justify an upgrade, though?

 

[k1114]

Which is why we need a budget.

 

[phclyde]

Wow I am such an idiot. I completely forgot to respond to this. If you guys see this, my budget right now is about $450. I also just posted another thread asking about an upgrade, sorry I took so long to respond.

 

[Hlsgsz]

There you go:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($294.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $418.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-02 13:25 EDT-0400