Intel Core i7 Review Thread

[cool_case]

Wanna see some benches on LN2. Can these i-chips get up well beyond 5Ghz like the c2d's? Can they handle the vcore needed to get up there on LN2?

[Drwho?]

I am to be VERY VERY clear, there is not Overspeed Protection, we have a BIOS setting to bypass the PCU control of Current and Power. On smackover, it is call "CPU VR Current Limit Override", and it will allow you to bypass the thermal and courant limites on the Core i7 920 ans 940. Who ever claim the otherway around did not read the specifications enough hehehhe
we have recommanded to the motherboard makers to follow our steps.
So, relax, and don't worry ...

Francois

[villa1n]

I am to be VERY VERY clear, there is not Overspeed Protection, we have a BIOS setting to bypass the PCU control of Current and Power. On smackover, it is call "CPU VR Current Limit Override", and it will allow you to bypass the thermal and courant limites on the Core i7 920 ans 940. Who ever claim the otherway around did not read the specifications enough hehehhe
we have recommanded to the motherboard makers to follow our steps.
So, relax, and don't worry ...

Francois

Much appreciated Francois, as always So thats that And now I m excited to get my hands on one ^^

[BababooeyHTJ]

Wanna see some benches on LN2. Can these i-chips get up well beyond 5Ghz like the c2d's? Can they handle the vcore needed to get up there on LN2?

You might want to check this out. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...94#post3404094 Fugger is the man!

[cool_case]

You might want to check this out. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...94#post3404094 Fugger is the man!

Hey thanks!

Wow - nice run and only 1.536v vcore.

So, I'll definitely get a Nehalem bench set now. Retail hits mid-November, right?

[dinos22]

I am to be VERY VERY clear, there is not Overspeed Protection, we have a BIOS setting to bypass the PCU control of Current and Power. On smackover, it is call "CPU VR Current Limit Override", and it will allow you to bypass the thermal and courant limites on the Core i7 920 ans 940. Who ever claim the otherway around did not read the specifications enough hehehhe
we have recommanded to the motherboard makers to follow our steps.
So, relax, and don't worry ...

Francois

thanks for the confirmation

[rge]

I am to be VERY VERY clear, there is not Overspeed Protection, we have a BIOS setting to bypass the PCU control of Current and Power. On smackover, it is call "CPU VR Current Limit Override", and it will allow you to bypass the thermal and courant limites on the Core i7 920 ans 940. Who ever claim the otherway around did not read the specifications enough hehehhe
we have recommanded to the motherboard makers to follow our steps.
So, relax, and don't worry ...

Francois

That is what i wanted to see! I second the thanks for clearing that up

[[XC] hipno650]

after seeing the Custom PC review it seems that the MSI Eclipse is shaping up to be one heck of a BCLK overclocker. So far thats the fastest stable i have seen and if it remains that way it could mean MSI for my 920 (not really sure if that's a good thing or not) not a big MSI fan but i have yet to see any of the Asus board post benches that high up the BCLK. hopefully new BIOS's will help them.

[GAR]

So how are all the people with the cpu in hand feeling about it for a gaming cpu???

[JumpingJack]

So how are all the people with the cpu in hand feeling about it for a gaming cpu???

For the mere mortal, what you have in your signature is going to be as good as you want for now. From what I have been able to gather, at real world settings most contemporary gaming will not show any benefits of Ci7 over a good C2Q (stock or overclock) or a good Phenom overclock. Most of the games are much more graphics heavy.

For Core i7 to do anything good with gaming you need to throw a lot of GPU muscle to move the FPS bar up.... Guru3D did a 4870X2 xFire (2 cards) and 280/260 SLI/tri-SLI run...

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...rmance-review/

Unless you are planning on re-mortgaging your house for 3 280GTXs or 2 4870X2's, and run multiGPU, the Core i7 will not gain you much today.

[cool_case]

Unless you are planning on re-mortgaging your house for 3 280GTXs or 2 4870X2's, and run multiGPU, the Core i7 will not gain you much today.

But, if you already have 2x 4870x2's ...

[MpG]

Intel Core I7 "Nehalem" 920, 940 & 965 XE Review (Hardware Canucks)

[Classic Satch]

For the mere mortal, what you have in your signature is going to be as good as you want for now. From what I have been able to gather, at real world settings most contemporary gaming will not show any benefits of Ci7 over a good C2Q (stock or overclock) or a good Phenom overclock. Most of the games are much more graphics heavy.

For Core i7 to do anything good with gaming you need to throw a lot of GPU muscle to move the FPS bar up.... Guru3D did a 4870X2 xFire (2 cards) and 280/260 SLI/tri-SLI run...

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...rmance-review/

Unless you are planning on re-mortgaging your house for 3 280GTXs or 2 4870X2's, and run multiGPU, the Core i7 will not gain you much today.

However, you will be future-proofing your rig with a nice i7 right now. That's what I plan to do. I've waited long enough...

[Bellisimo]

However, you will be future-proofing your rig with a nice i7 right now. That's what I plan to do. I've waited long enough...

for that kind of money, it better be

btw, i would wait one more month for deneb, maybe deneb can surprise us

[Chri$ch]

I am to be VERY VERY clear, there is not Overspeed Protection, we have a BIOS setting to bypass the PCU control of Current and Power. On smackover, it is call "CPU VR Current Limit Override", and it will allow you to bypass the thermal and courant limites on the Core i7 920 ans 940. Who ever claim the otherway around did not read the specifications enough hehehhe
we have recommanded to the motherboard makers to follow our steps.
So, relax, and don't worry ...

Francois

Hello Francois,

now where the nda is lifted, can you say something about the memory multipliers on retail i7-920/940?

are they locked or unlocked?

Thanks
Chris

[Gorguls]

guru3d Core 2 Quad QX 9770 versus Core i7 965

So once we posted our article, initially our target was to show you the difference between an everyday yet very fast Core 2 Duo based system and Core i7. Last years high-end PC against this new one.

There were however numerous requests from readers who would have loved to see a fast Core based Quad Core processor in our test. I figured that was a valid request, and therefore I quickly assembled a high-end 3-way SLI ready system.

Now, before we begin, some rules: we will only use 3-way SLI (GeForce GTX 280 x3) here. Would we have used two-way SLI GeForce GTX 260 for example, this would limit the results for Core i7. See, the 260 GTX in SLI would be GPU bottlenecked. It's a state where the GPUs can't render any faster, yet the CPU still has plenty of headroom to compute. And a GPU bottleneck is exactly what we are not trying to show.

So I took a 1300 USD Intel Core 2 Quad Q9770 Extreme processor. And the 300 USD nForce 790 SLI Ultra. We put some snazzy DDR3 memory on there with fast timings clocked at 1333 MHz.

This is the very best you can buy in the blue colored Intel Core 2 Quad land, really. So we again equip the motherboard with the three GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards in 3-way SLI with exactly the same conditions and drivers as on the Core i7 / X58 platform. What's also nice is that this is a clock for clock comparison as the Intel QX 9770 processor, just like the Core i7 965, runs at 3200 MHz.

Have a look....

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...ance-review/19

[Drwho?]

Hello Francois,

now where the nda is lifted, can you say something about the momory mulitpliers on retail i7-920/940?

are they locked or unlocked?

Thanks
Chris

Actually, this is something new ... they are unlocked!!!!! on Core 2(non extreme), that was lock ... nice, no?
so, you can run 1066,1333, 1600 or what ever you can found working

[takamishanoku]

This reminds me of when the X2 came out with amd. Many ppl were still recommending an FX (single core). The thing is as someone has already said this cpu is for the future. Prob better just to wait it out until mid next year, but make no mistake, why would anyone want to buy the older gen? In teh long run (upgrade wise) you'll be better off to buy this if you plan to upgrade.

[Clairvoyant129]

guru3d Core 2 Quad QX 9770 versus Core i7 965









http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...ance-review/19

Nice!!!

[Bellisimo]

guru3d Core 2 Quad QX 9770 versus Core i7 965









http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...ance-review/19

crank your fsb upto 500 and you will have better results for the core2
this is just because of the qpi link, and few people use 3-way sli, even SLI isnt used a lot

[JumpingJack]

crank your fsb upto 500 and you will have better results for the core2
this is just because of the qpi link, and few people use 3-way sli, even SLI isnt used a lot

Nope.... won't happen. FSB is not a bottleneck ...

[Drwho?]

crank your fsb upto 500 and you will have better results for the core2
this is just because of the qpi link, and few people use 3-way sli, even SLI isnt used a lot

Feel free to overclock QPI (at your own risk ... may be addictive)

(Speaking for myself, not taking for my employer)

[pajaa]

Actually, this is something new ... they are unlocked!!!!! on Core 2(non extreme), that was lock ... nice, no?
so, you can run 1066,1333, 1600 or what ever you can found working

Hello Francois,
This is good news, actually, but in a german review can we see screens, where only DDR3-800 and DDR3-1066 is available für 920, while the 965XE can be set to DDR3-1333, DDR3-1600, DDR3-1866 and DDR3-2133.

Core i7 965

Source: computerbase.de

Core i7 920

Source: computerbase.de

This confused us a bit.
Can you clear it up for us?

[Clairvoyant129]

crank your fsb upto 500 and you will have better results for the core2
this is just because of the qpi link, and few people use 3-way sli, even SLI isnt used a lot

333MHz FSB is more than enough for desktop apps.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=3012&p=2

we have a feeling that the overall performance impact will be similarly unimpressive given the relatively limited number of desktop applications that can take full advantage of four cores.

There is hardly any difference between 1066MHz FSB and 1333MHz FSB, according to Anand, 1.9% difference, what makes you think it's just sorely the QPI link that is allowing SLI to perform so well?

I wonder why SLI/Crossfire with an AMD platform under performs compared to an Intel platform. According to you, it's just the hyper transport, right?

[villa1n]

Nope.... won't happen. FSB is not a bottleneck ...

What do you think accounts for such a huge performance advantage, what is the nehalem "un-bottlenecking" ? As those are some pretty numbers, and how we would have hoped sli/xfire would scale like...?