Is This Even Fair? Budget Ivy Bridge Takes On Core 2 Duo And Quad

[InvalidError]

While I agree that they are nice processors, a 4.0-4.5ghz i5 or i7 would smoke your C2Q. 3570k's, for instance, hit 4.0-4.3, consistently, without any real effort.

Since the 3570k already turbo-boosts to 3.9GHz without overclocking, 4.3GHz is barely a 10% overclock which is hardly worth mentioning IMO: 10% is hardly noticeable outside of benchmarks and unlikely to ever make or break performance in any game or application - if your computer is starting to feel slow at stock clock, 10% is unlikely change that in any meaningful way.

That said, the i5-3570 is about twice as fast as the Q9550 which is usually my minimum threshold to start considering upgrades if other factors do not prompt me to do so first.

 

[eddieroolz]

I love seeing old technology compared to new one, and I must say, the 45nm line of Intel processors really stood the test of time.

 

[InvalidError]

I love seeing old technology compared to new one, and I must say, the 45nm line of Intel processors really stood the test of time.

Core iX's integrated memory controller gave it around a 30% advantage over equivalent Core2 CPUs but improvement beyond that is almost flat for a given number of cores. This does help old CPUs continue to look relatively good... or new CPUs look relatively bad.

A dozen years ago, nobody would have believed that CPU performance would drop to doubling every ~6 years so soon.

 

[f-14]

i have a core2 board evga 790iFTW where the memory wasn't the bottleneck i am chuckling as the ddr3 1600 makes those poor i5s sweat, the board supports ddr3 2000.

granted you have to over clock the 9550 and burn more watts, but it's out of warranty anyways.

 

[LolwatMan]

Yay! Yorkfield ftw 😛

 

[bassbeast]

This article is great, thanks. It just proves what many of us has been saying, that CPUs passed "good enough" several revs back. This is why i have no problem recommending and selling Phenom IIs and AMD FX systems because they get great bang for the buck and even for gaming a Phenom II quad will play just about any game out there with a budget HD7750.That said I still keep a C2D as a nettop at the shop, for basic tasks like downloading drivers and looking up parts its whisper quiet and paired with an old HD2600 it even plays video quite nicely. if it ain't broke?