Intel Core i5 And Core i7: Intel’s Mainstream Magnum Opus

[dragonsprayer]

o boy here we go again!
The failure rate on asus mobos, on 100% over clocked systems is less then 3, maybe lower%. obviously use low end mobos or whos know what bs? that includes new out of the box returns, and repairs - we offer lifetime warranty so we see returns.

intel chipset is the start like the engine, drive train and body, asus addes what is needed to compliment the mobo like the stero, tires, seats etc - they can choose for several suppliers for lan or controllers.

marvel, jmicron, nvidia, yukon etc

the reason intel lacks features is same as toyota or GM does not maker tires? does a toyata lack features without toyota tires? ???? or seats? or countless other parts?

failure rate for evga is about 33% - i am guessing we do not count them up. with asus i can estimate those well.


ford is like intel? holden is like amd??????



that makes so little sence i am not goint to add to this endless conversation of stupidity! i have over 15 asus mobos, different types, all have intel chipsets - each is perfect for its app.

p5k or p5q cheap game or biz
p6t any i7 system - you want the sas get a deluxe.

the ROG mobos suck for lack of driver support but not failure. maybe you do not know who to build a system or lack cooling or what ever?

maybe is big daddy lacks cooling?

 

[ibnsina]

Good article, It would have been even more interesting if i7-860 ($284.00 1k unit price) was included in the tests, side by side of i7-870 ($562.00 1k unit).

The AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE is running at 3.4Ghz.............I can remember only a few years ago AMD bragged about getting 'more work done per cycle' where as Intel responded by increasing the clockrate. It now looks like the tables have completely turned and it's AMD that has to keep increasing the CPU frequency to stay competitive.

AMD (global foundries) is investment roughly $4.2B building a new fab in New York, which they claim it will become the “world’s most advanced semiconductor foundry.

AMD(global foundries)has also agreed to buy Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor (one of the world’s top dedicated semiconductor foundries) for $1.8 billion.

Intel is better watch out very carefully, because Abu Dhabi Investment Authority [owner of Advanced Technology Investment Co] has accumulated assets worth between US$ 650 billion and US$ 1 trillion. Don’t be surprised if in 5-7 years times you see AMD becoming the world's largest semiconductor chip maker.

 

[marsax73]

I'm not upgrading a damn thing until Intel can decide on the pin configuration. The beauty of the 775 pin socket was compatibility with the whole line up of Intel cpu's. From a Celeron, to a Core 2 Duo to a Quad core. Same socket! Now they have to mix it up again. I'll wait and keep running my 775 board until they can come up with a new standard.

 

[Guest]

In your power consumption discussion, you claim Windows 7 finishes sooner, but with higher power consumption while the benchmark is running. However, power is a RATE. What actually matters is how much ENERGY was used. Thus, you need to integrate both data sets with respect to time. That which used less energy to complete the task is more efficient.

 

[erdinger]

WoW up to now I would have reccomended a 940 or 955(instead of core 2 quad) to anyone searching a budget quad core but now these times have changed! Core i5 is the bomb Intel now also dominates the midrange clearly. Amd is in trouble I hope they have some new products to bring out.

As a student on low budget seaking for good gaming value (also overclocker), up to this i was an amd buyer but that changed today.

With the core 2 duo (5200...) Intel has great low budget cpu's with big overclockability, and the new I5 just dominates any other quadcore.

Amd does not have many pricepoints where it can outperform intel anymore.

 

[Guest]

wanna buy!

 

[bigdaddycool]

It would be interesting to see how many AMD CPU's are sold compared to Intel.

What I know is generally speaking where I work we curn out about 40-50 new systems a month. We may have like 45 AMD, maybe 4 say Intel (core2 based) maybe 1 i7....

We dont even have people bother asking us for Intel gear...... very few do these days, most people are intested in the package as a whole and for most....... it's about everyday computing, good media centers etc.

You cant look past AMD CPU with a 780/785G based gigabyte board....

You compile the amount of Intel based boards that have say a NVIDIA onboard graphics, compile that with the mass failing of their GPU's which are still flowing in at a reasonable rate........ mostly refering to laptops here.

It just doesn't add upto customer confidence.

AMD now really do seem to have a good standing line of products with the only downfall being "slightly" slower then their competition.

I'll agree on one thing, it would be nice if Intel could decide on a set number of pins. It'd suck if u bought the first run of i7's considering the new batch will be on the newer i5 boards.

My mate at work bought a i7 2.66Ghz, clocked it to 3.2? .... anyways due to the pin chance on the intel line...... he sold his i7 gear quick smart...... ended up getting a AMD Phenom II 965?

He often winged at lack of USB ports across intel boards. So he went a 785G Gigabyte board and is happy. He said he recons it's a little slower but there's not much diff then a ego hit if u want bench numbers.

For him and like most, they want FEATURES. You can argue all you want, I am right......

It's only talking **** if you dont have the stats to back it up..... Customers right now arnt interested in Intel as much as they were say 1 year ago.

 

[bigdaddycool]

Just to prompt my point ....... we have alot of customers come in and specifically ask for a AMD Phenom II Quad Core.

Times are changing.......

PS. The i5's should be good, I know the Core2's while they seem fast were really crap cpu's. They would do one thing at full pace, but then nothing else, they suffered epic cache lag especially on the dual cores..... their revisions were all over the place, some chips ran like dogs, some didn't........ all diff fsb speeds etc.

Intel need to tone it down, get it right and maybe it'll be worth looking at. It'd be helpful if they'd get along with other companies as well..... such as NVIDIA which generally speaking most get a NVIDIA based GFX card with a Intel based system.

 

[Ciuy]

i wait for the day the CPUs will be no more, i want GPU POWER !!!......
CPUs advance to fast but with little progress. I can still run todays games with my amd 4400+ and a 4850, if i used my old 6600gt with a corei5 things wouldnt be so good.

Death to the CPU, Long Live the GPU !!!

 

[WR2]

A good read. Thanks for the review.

 

[sunny27]

please ban BIGDADDY-UN-COOL!!!
You are a Fanatic fanboy!
look,the people who test cpus and boards aren't fools to use asus boards! i have been using my asus a8n-e board since 2005 running an AMD Dual core Opteron-Overclocked and running 24x7 for the last 4 years now--no complains till date.
i don't care what you sell @ ur workplace in australia----one shop doesn't change the scales in AMD's favour.
this new intel cpu is very good and very fast and better priced than AMD's offerings.
true amd boards have better chipsets and graphics but when you can pay a bit more you do get something that performs better--i was looking at the 955/965 BE now i would go for the new core i7 with a p55 board.
And since you are terribly uninformed--intel outsells amd anywhere in the world in any city and any country---get your facts right!(i am not a fan and i use amd---i use whatever gives me the best value for my hard earned money!)
though i wish intel had a stable socket like AMD.

 

[sunny27]

[citation][nom]sunny27[/nom]please ban BIGDADDY-UN-COOL!!!You are a Fanatic fanboy!look,the people who test cpus and boards aren't fools to use asus boards! i have been using my asus a8n-e board since 2005 running an AMD Dual core Opteron-Overclocked and running 24x7 for the last 4 years now--no complaints till date.i don't care what you sell @ ur workplace in australia----one shop doesn't change the scales in AMD's favour.this new intel cpu is very good and very fast and better priced than AMD's offerings.true amd boards have better chipsets and graphics but when you can pay a bit more you do get something that performs better--i was looking at the 955/965 BE now i would go for the new core i7 with a p55 board.And since you are terribly uninformed--intel outsells amd anywhere in the world in any city and any country---get your facts right!(i am not a fan and i use amd---i use whatever gives me the best value for my hard earned money!)though i wish intel had a stable socket like AMD.[/citation]

 

[Area51]

bigdaddycool,
You sir are an Idiot.
AMD better be paying you for the B.S. that you are spreading. If you are not being paid by AMD then you are even a bigger idiot than I originally claimed.

 

[Area51]

bigdaddycool,
You sir are an Idiot.
AMD better be paying you for the B.S. that you are spreading. If you are not being paid by AMD then you are even a bigger idiot than I originally claimed.

 

[redgarl]

Well, there is no point in getting a Core i7 anymore... if there was even one...

What was really disturbing with the LGA1366 was the price of the motherboard. 300$ was really a luxury. Now AMD is in a bad position.

 

[iquark]

Tons of great info on the 1156 platform, but more importantly...

I loved the video review! Has there always been video reviews around and I'm just blind, or is this something new?

 

[redgarl]

[citation][nom]ibnsina[/nom]Good article, It would have been even more interesting if i7-860 ($284.00 1k unit price) was included in the tests, side by side of i7-870 ($562.00 1k unit).AMD (global foundries) is investment roughly $4.2B building a new fab in New York, which they claim it will become the “world’s most advanced semiconductor foundry. AMD(global foundries)has also agreed to buy Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor (one of the world’s top dedicated semiconductor foundries) for $1.8 billion. Intel is better watch out very carefully, because Abu Dhabi Investment Authority [owner of Advanced Technology Investment Co] has accumulated assets worth between US$ 650 billion and US$ 1 trillion. Don’t be surprised if in 5-7 years times you see AMD becoming the world's largest semiconductor chip maker.[/citation]

That proves that we don't know a damn about Intel and AMD business strategies. For my part, I really do hope that AMD get back on their feet and show us some real treats. Well, DX11 card are around the corner...

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]iquark[/nom]Tons of great info on the 1156 platform, but more importantly...I loved the video review! Has there always been video reviews around and I'm just blind, or is this something new?[/citation]

Thanks quark--was trying something new on this one. IMO, there was some confusion in the stack that lent itself well to video, and this was a large enough topic that it was worth tackling. Glad to know you liked it!

 

[iquark]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Thanks quark--was trying something new on this one. IMO, there was some confusion in the stack that lent itself well to video, and this was a large enough topic that it was worth tackling. Glad to know you liked it![/citation]

Video reviews for some of the more in-depth topics would work quite well from my point of view. Even though I stay up to date on most of the topics Tom's covers, some articles could definitely benefit from just a little extra information that can be conveyed from a visual medium easier.

For example, the new batch of SSD reviews have a lot of information about the differences in controllers, MLC vs SLC, and various flash chip makers. Even after reading many many articles sometimes it's still daunting to remember the little intricacies.

 

[megamanx00]

Well, that just about knocks AMD out of the $200 + segment. The PII 955 is a pretty good deal now at the egg for online 189, but the 965 is overpriced at 239 when you consider the i5. AMD needs a new stepping with that 4th instruction decoder like yesterday.

 

[jeffredo]

Just checked prices on an i5 750 and motherboard from the mailer Newegg sent me. I still beat it by $50 with my X4 955 set up I just built and real world gaming is most likely going to be a wash between the two. Plus the prices of the two hardware pieces will only drop further very soon.

I don't do synthetic benchmarks or media apps. I game. Take the $50 saved (and over $135 difference with an i7 920 when I built mine) and apply it towards a new gen video card this fall. And should I ever go multiple GPU at least both with run at X 16 in X-Fire or SLI. Yeah, the i5 is technically a better CPU. But I still don't spend more money unnecessarily.

 

[Supertrek32]

Judging from the results here, the i7 860 is a steal! The only difference between it and the 870 is the clock speed, and a small one at that. A (tiny) 5% overclock and you're looking at the same power. And from the results, the 870 beats the 920 in almost all real-world situations. It might be $20 more than the 920, but you'll easily save $40 or more on the motherboard.

Faster and cheaper - can't wait to see how well it overclocks.

 

[CookYouAll]

Nice conclusion

 

[blackbyron]

I'm pretty impressed on the Core i5 because of better performance and power consumption, and even price compare to Core 2 Quad.

 

[Guest]

Intel marketing should get fired. The current system is:

Intel Core i7 - High end
Intel Core i5 - Mid range
Intel Core i3 - Low end

The problem is that they don't differentiate the processor generations. This is problematic for expert users trying to explain the difference between Nehalem and Lynnfield to their bosses. Also problematic for users purchasing Intel Core i7 as different processor generations use different sockets. Pity the poor engineer trying to figure out the differences between all the processor types when searching for documentation. Intel may be trying to take a cue out of Apple's marketing, but they forgot that they are selling microprocessors, not end products! And i3, i5 and i7 are hardly intuitive.

I feel that there should be a modifier which includes the generation. Previously, Intel used Core and Core 2. But that wasn't sufficient as there was no way to differentiate a Penryn based system from a Conroe based system.

A better system would be as follows - considering their "tick-tock" roadmap:

Nehalem
Intel Core 3 Pro - High end
Intel Core 3 - Mid range
Intel Core 3 Basic - Low end

Lynnfield
Intel Core 3+ Pro - High end
Intel Core 3+ - Mid range
Intel Core 3+ Basic - Low end