Intel Core i7 Review Thread

[JumpingJack]

so the cpu doesnt communicate with it's own memory through the FSB?
common jack

it goes like this cpu --> FSB --> NB --> memory

It does but not nearly as much as you are alluding to ... 500 MHz over 400 Mhz FSB is not going make up 60% performance delta.... what you are seeing in the guru3D data is pure CPU power over CPU power. This is an easy test.... FSB and mem BW through the FSB is not nearly as critical as you think... if it were, then the superiour BW of the Phenom should be mopping up ... and truth is ... mem BW thorugh the interconnect is one of 100 different components that work together to produce the result.

Go to the benchmarking section, look at the Phenom vs C2Q thread that is massive, I show 200 Mhz, 400 Mhz FSB gaming on C2Q at 3.0 Ghz -- guess what, no difference.

Do you have a C2Q?? It is an easy experiment to do ... you won't affect your gaming benches by much more than 5 -8 %. (EDIT: revised this after I pulled up my FSB scaling table).

Here is an example:
QX9650 with 200 Mhz FSB using a 4870 X2


QX9650 with 400 Mhz FSB using a 4870 X2


Snow is 0% difference, cave is 80.1 in the 200 Mhz case, 85.7 in the 400 Mhz case (that is a 7% difference) ...

500 Mhz is not gonna amount to a hill of beans.