Intel Core i5-661: Clarkdale Rings The Death Knell Of Core 2

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eklipz330

eklipz330

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can i ask why you teased us at the end with the 4.5ghz OC but didn't include them in the benchmarks? =[ i'm guessing most of use at tom's like to OC... it could be the difference that gets us to buy the i5 661 over the phenom II
 
cangelini

cangelini

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[citation][nom]xc0mmiex[/nom]Video on page 1 not working ... "This is a private video..."[/citation]

Fixed! Had to keep it private pre-launch :)
 
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I really like the improvements Larrabee brought about....not! I do like the fact they are making progress but they really need to skip ahead a few generations or buy out some other company to design a GPU for themselves.
 
gkay09

gkay09

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^ Many more reasons to buy AMD Phenoms II X4 in the mid-range segment...
Only drawback with the AMD CPUs is the power consumption, that I feel can be brought down with slight undervolting...
 
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dtemple

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I'm looking to upgrade from my Athlon X2 @ 2.7GHz because I do more with the computer now than I did before - sometimes I'll play a game while my TV tuner is recording from my cable signal, and having more cores would help these multiple tasks run more smoothly.
I was waiting until the Clarkdale-based i5 launched, thinking it would be a quad-core that was more competitively priced against the Phenom II X4, but it looks like a Phenom II X4 is my only option to get more cores for less money.
The only good news coming out of this launch is that LGA1156 is not changing for the Clarkdale chips, so it looks to be the most future-proof platform to upgrade to, if one was so inclined. I'm personally going with a Phenom II since I can get one without changing motherboards. This is one of the more disappointing launches in the last year or so.
 
cangelini

cangelini

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[citation][nom]eklipz330[/nom]can i ask why you teased us at the end with the 4.5ghz OC but didn't include them in the benchmarks? =[ i'm guessing most of use at tom's like to OC... it could be the difference that gets us to buy the i5 661 over the phenom II[/citation]

We have another overclocking piece planned--I wanted to get a Core i3, at least, to include :)
 
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I would love to see what GTA IV would do do the dual cores in gaming! I do know that its a bear of a game on the CPU and it would truly show off if hyperthreading could actually make a major difference.
 
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noob2222

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Would be nice to know if this thing can handle blue ray playback, as some of these would probably be sold as a HTPC. Ya, they put features for it, but does it play or not?

Last preview I read showed it doing fine in windowed mode, but blowing chunks at full screen playback, dropping to 15fps and lower.
 
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dupaman

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Idle power in the 70s for an IGP-based system is a huge failure not a win, though using an 1100W PSU probably deserves a lot of the blame. Systems built on the 780G, 730i, G4x, etc. (similar to this test platform, but use a more appropriate PSU) idle in the 40s.
 
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thejerk

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Where are the H55 and H57 motherboards priced? So what if the processor is $200 if the motherboard is going to be another $200 on top of it, like P55. I'm not an AMD fanboi, but for less than $300, you can get excellent computing power. Platform cost is where AMD rules, currently.
 
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Stardude82

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Very meh at their price points with disappointing idle consumption. Intel is just biding time until AMD's 32 nm process is ready. No reason why they couldn't have a 4 GHz stock chip, load power proves it.

If you use a E8600 with integrated G45 graphics, I bet you that power consumption will be lower that the 661 (integrated). This GPU-on-package is all just a marketing ploy.

I really wish you had benchmarks for the low end chips though I doubt IT managers will be running out to replace their fleets of E7500's.
 
liquidsnake718

liquidsnake718

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same as the p55 but less room for Gpu's.... and newer h55,h57 onboard gpu.... well I guess if you really want to get over all the unneeded jargon and you dont really have a budget just skip this and go X58..... regardless.... even if you have a little extra money to spare and you ARE on a budget, save on the 2nd GPU,monitor, or RAM and get an X58 now!

 
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mau1wurf1977

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I think there is a big mistake in the gaming benchmarks...

Wolfdale is a awesome gaming chip. Its a first to me that the Core 2 Quad is faster in Crysis and all the other games vs. Wolfdale...

Are you sure it was running at full speed?
 
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mau1wurf1977

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I think there is a big mistake in the gaming benchmarks...

Wolfdale is a awesome gaming chip. Its a first to me that the Core 2 Quad is faster in Crysis and all the other games vs. Wolfdale...

Are you sure it was running at full speed?
 
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mau1wurf1977

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That Yorkfield is 2.66 GHz! No chance in hell it beats the E8500 in gaming...

I hope this is just a mistake...

E.g. in Crysis 1920 x 1200 with (breace yourself) 8x AA! No way in hell are these scores correct.

Did you test the E8500 with a slower video card?
 
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HalfHuman

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1100w... why not a 2000w psu or better 5000w. thanks again for making a mockery of the power consumption measurements! i think that the new i5 would do something like 50w idle and below 100w in load if you used the righ psu. i cannot understand why you use these grossly over sized psus are used when doing power measurements.
above from that i believe the new i5 is doing ok. it would make for a a very nice desktop or httpc. it has the performance and the power consumption. the vid part is not too potent but this was not a goal. the price is a little high. the mobos are a bit on the expensive side. i guess the amd lineup is very good and as somebody suggesed you can undervolt the amd cpus quite a lot. i'm using a antiquated :) x2 4200+. at stock it's 1.1/1.35v (idle/load). i managed to bring it to 0.825/1.15 (idle/load) without much experiments. my point is that you can bring the amd cpus power consumption down quite a lot if you have the knowledge.
 
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timbo

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"...Core 2 Quad: sure—it still shows fairly well, and might make a reasonable upgrade..."

Reasonable? It performs almost identicallly well to the i5 750 in most benchmarks, add in the savings of not having to buy a new mobo & new ram & it is more than a reasonable decision to upgrade the cpu to a core2 quad. The negligible gaming perfomance increase doesn't justify the expenditure to move to lga 1156 with no 6-core upgrade path. 1336 with an eye to six cores maybe.
 
cangelini

cangelini

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Thought the E8500 numbers were low as well so we re-run a number of the gaming tests to make sure--the scores checked out. I'll rebuild that system right now and double-check.

Update2: Fixed!
 
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HalfHuman

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link to proper power measurements
the link points to another review that used a proper 400w power supply and did some measurements. 31w/79w (idle load) versus 77w/115w measured by thg. they did use a intel motherboard. guess this is enough of a difference to backup what i said about the 1100w psu. hope you will fix this in the reviews to come.
other than that i find the thg reviews very useful. keep up the good work!
 
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