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

[mapesdhs]

Indeed!

Cangelini, any news on what the max possible on-air overclocks are
for these CPUs? ie. 750 vs 860 vs 920? Because so many sites run
each CPU at the same clock ("to be fair"), typically 3.8, I still
can't work out whether there's any real benefit with the 920 for
the task I had in mind (video encoding).

I've no doubt the 750 wouldn't be as fast, even if it was running
at 4.1, but given the same _good_ cooler (eg. TRUE), is there a
difference in max oc's for 860 vs. 920, and thus any significant
difference in performance? What about power consumption? Reading
numerous 860 reviews, I've been inferring that even if a 920 was
usefully faster, the nature of the platform might mean the extra
power consumption was not worth the extra speed.

Some speculation purely as an example: suppose with a TRUE and
all other parts the same where applicable, an 860 reaches 4.0GHz
while a 920 reaches 4.2GHz. How do they compare? What about power
consumption?

Lastly, with respect to 6-core upgrades for X58 boards, I'm
beginning to wonder whether, by the time such upgrades become
available, it would be cheaper to buy an entire extra P55 system,
which would offer greater overall throughput, ie. two separate
systems, video crunch running on each one, faster than a 6-core
X58. Is there any sold info yet as to the 6-core price points?
Also occurs to me that if video encoding apps are designed to
use no more than 4 cores, the 6-core chip wouldn't really help
that much.

Thanks!

Ian.

 

[mcgoo4444]

[citation][nom]agawtrip[/nom]for me, i find this review is misleading if you are not a gamer - for i5-750 and PII x4 965.[/citation]

If your not a gamer then you should just stick to what you already have. I have 3.4Ghz P4 which is still quite usable for videos, internet, and some old games.

 

[pearl298]

Why are all the comparisons Microsoft OS to Microsoft OS?


I for one would love to see how Mac Leopard ro Linux Ubuntu handled these same issues!

It is NOT a Microsoft world out there any more!

 

[Guest]

my full system i7 920+9800GT at full power I get only 300W
how you get +500W

how?

 

[Guest]

Would you possibly add Maxon Cinebench scores? It's 64-bit and well threaded.

 

[Nexus52085]

[citation][nom]JeanLuc[/nom]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.[/citation]
Yeah, and it sucks, because I hate intel right now. They're a really dirty business, and I hope AMD can step up the game in 2010.

 

[tester24]

Alright I'm confused so the Processor has 16x PCIe 2.0 lanes or 8x + 8x if you have two graphics cards.

And the southbridge has an 8x PCIe 2.0 lanes? or is it PCIe 1.0? from the diagram it seems like only 1.0 but Chris says 2.0.

 

[nauty_nerd]

This article definitely answers my upgrade quandary !!! (i7, i5, rinse, repeat) that I have been dealing with since 1156 launched.

I upgrade about once a year, so whenever I upgrade it has to blow my socks off. I don't have any attachment to Intel or Amd, its all about price and performance.

To that end Intel is currently on top (no flames plz, I was rocking the socket A FOREVER), and if you want the big honking power sucking rig that later on can be 6 core go with a entry 1366 and upgrade that bad beast when the new hotness comes out.

But most users (including me) upgrading from the LGA775 Platform will still be missing the socks just without paying that extra 30 bucks to the electric company every mo if they go with a 1156 system.

Cool

 

[nauty_nerd]

[citation][nom]tester24[/nom]Alright I'm confused so the Processor has 16x PCIe 2.0 lanes or 8x + 8x if you have two graphics cards.And the southbridge has an 8x PCIe 2.0 lanes? or is it PCIe 1.0? from the diagram it seems like only 1.0 but Chris says 2.0.[/citation]
There is a 16 PCI Express lanes from the CPU to the Video card (or 2 8x links, ect), then there is a DMI link *max 2gb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Media_Interface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_Controller_Hub

 

[Guest]

As a general comment it would be cool if you included one benchmark for the science/finance community such as monte carlo simulation of option prices in Matlab ( www.mathworks.com ) or Gauss( www.aptech.com ).

 

[elgefe]

For those lucky enough to live near one, Micro Center has the i5 at 149.99, it has been at that price almost since release http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0317379
I managed to get mine in a combo deal at Fry's Electronics for $285 with an EVGA P55 FTW.
I love the CPU, everything I needed, and CPU+MoBo cost less than most i7 CPUs. I slapped 4G of Corsair Dominator RAM on it, enabled XMP and it runs very nice.

 

[kckrich]

What do they mean by max. memory? For the i5 it's listed as DDR3-1333, does this mean that ram with over 1333ghz will not provide increased performance?

 

[neiroatopelcc]

No it merely means that faster memory requires overclocking to work. Most bios systems will let you do this without needing any knowledge of computers though. Simply select the speed, and it'll work. Sometimes it requires manually changing a voltage as well though.

Speeds over 1333 aren't 'supported' because there is no official standard for faster memory. Not because it can't work or doesn't improve speeds.

 

[mapesdhs]

For reference, the P55 setup I've just finished building is using
DDR3/2000 memory, currently running at 1910 speed, though I might
be able to run it as 2280, not sure yet. The RAM is a GSkill
Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) kit. I'm also going to compare to a Kingston
HyperX DDR3/2000 4GB kit, see which is better. CPU is an i7 860
(currently at 191 x 21), Asrock P55 Deluxe mbd, 8800GT SLI:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=14062980

I really did not expect to be able to find DDR3/2K within my
budget, but the GSkill RAM is surprisingly well priced. The
4GB kit was 115 UKP + shipping from overclock.co.uk. Very
pleased with the results so far.

Ian.

PS. The Kingston kit was an accident, got it by sending back
RMA three faulty 256MB kits for SGI O2. 😀

 

[neiroatopelcc]

I went for 1600c7 for my i7-920 setup instead - but I kinda prefer to run them at lower speeds with even lower latencies instead of pushing mhz. The cpu won't go must past 3.9 stable anyway, so what's the point of faster memory.

And now don't say performance of memory - cause you can't actually tell unless the difference is very very big .... and with only 4gb I'd wager any memory intensive program runs out of room before it suffers from bandwidth issues anyway.

ps. kingston memory isn't nessecarily bad. They won't go like crucial ballistix, but they'll still do a decent job.

 

[mapesdhs]

neiroatopelcc writes:
> ... but I kinda prefer to run them at lower speeds with even lower latencies instead of pushing mhz.

Interesting point, I've not examined that option yet.


> ... and with only 4gb I'd wager any memory intensive program runs out of room before it suffers from bandwidth issues anyway.

Indeed, quite likely, though I won't know for sure until I start
running my main application tests (converting large video files).


> ps. kingston memory isn't nessecarily bad. They won't go like crucial ballistix, but they'll still do a decent job.

I'd originally been hoping/expecting to obtain OCZ or Crucial; I hadn't heard of GSkill much
until I kept seeing the name on forum posts from people running with quite decent oc levels.
Quick Google revealed unexpectedly low pricing for a 2K kit, so O figured what the heck, give
them a go. No problems so far, the kit running ok at DDR3/2140, but like you say I've not
yet tested lower speeds + lowe latencies. Should be interesting. Thanks!!

Ian.