Review We published an in-depth look at Intel’s 45nm ‘Lynnfield’ processors – aka the quad-core Core i7-870 and Core i5-750 – last week. Unfortunately, the chip giant’s non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prevented us from including full performance figures.
Intel officially launched the new chips yesterday morning, so we’re now free to present the results of our benchmark tests in full.
he LGA1156 Core i5-750 was tested on an Asus P7P55D Deluxe
motherboard, while the Core i7-870 was plugged into both the Asus board and a Gigabyte P55M-UD4. In the charts, the figures derived from the Asus tests are the two top-most Core i7-870 bars – the next two down are the Gigabyte numbers.
We’ve also included figures for the LGA1366 Core i7-940 ‘Bloomfield’ processor, which was tested on an EVGA X58 SLI motherboard. The Core 2 Extreme QX9650 figures come from tests made on an Asus Maximus II Gene board. Read the rest of this entry »
Preview When Intel launched the ‘Nehalem’ architecture-based Core i7 – codenamed ‘Bloomfield’ – and the X58 chipset in November 2008, we assumed that the anticipated mid-range follow up would be called Core i5.
LGA1156 vs LGA1366: on top…
This mid-range processor – codenamed ‘Lynnfield’ – was flagged as a replacement for Core 2. It will use a new, LGA1156 processor socket and feature an integrated PCI Express graphics controller (1 x 16 or 2 x 8). Like Bloomfield, it will have an integrated DDR 3 memory controller, but it will be a dual-channel job rather than the triple-channel unit found in Bloomfield.
But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.
Lynnfield is Core i7 and Core i5. Specifically, it appears as the Core i7 800 series and Core i5 700 range. Officially, Bloomfield is the Core i7 900 line.
The differences between the two new families of processor are quite slight despite the apparent gulf between the Core i7 and i5 names. The memory controller on the i7 800 has been cut down from the i7 900 and the QPI link has been replaced with DMI (Direct Media Interface). If you read our feature on DDR 3 performance on Core i7, the prospect of losing the triple-channel controller is unlikely to cause you any concern. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Intel launched its new Core i7 975 Extreme on the first day of Computex and now it’s time to put this über processor through its paces.
The old Core i7 965 Extreme has a clock speed of 3.2GHz (24 x 133MHz) and the new 975 Extreme runs a tad faster, 3.33GHz (25 x 133MHz), so we’re looking at a four per cent increase in performance. The rest of the features remain unchanged, including the 130W TDP, so the 975 is a drop-in replacement for the 965 if you’re prepared to spend £800 to get an extra 133MHz.
Intel’s Core i7s: stepping up from the first release
We ran the 965 and 975 back-to-back on an Asus P6T SE motherboard with 3GB of Kingston DDR 3-2000 memory, an AMD ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card and an Intel X25-M SSD, all operating under Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.
The short version of the review is that the 975 does indeed deliver four per cent more performance than the 965 but with a slightly higher power draw. We are all in favour of higher performance but in this case the extra grunt is just about the least interesting thing about the new chip. Read the rest of this entry »
