Sandy Bridge i7 & i5 Reviews

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yea, knowing this makes me a lot more reluctant of buying a 1155 setup, if prices on 2600K is somewhat acceptable and people seem to be able to reach at least 50x cpu multi without prob (ofc high vcore might still be needed for some samples but not the way explained here that it wouldn't do it even when feed sth like 1.5V+ to it).

I can understand if the bclk limitations were just a limitation of the design and then they offer these 2500K and 2600K CPUs for overclockers to satisfy those (even if it's not as good as all CPUs incl the very cheapest ones would be overclockable but yea it's perfectly understandable why there's no 2300K from a business standpoint but that doesn't mean I like it ofc) but the varying usable max cpu multi differences between the samples of even the same model regardless of vcore feed to it something I have very very difficult to understand.

[zalbard]

They definitely have to allow at least 5GHz, otherwise it's a bit meh. Stable or not, but the chips have to get there.

[Etihtsarom]

Well even if it did average 5Ghz on air, isn't the difference roughly negligible between ~4.3G and 5G in normal applications?

[DarthShader]

i tested 8 2500K CPUs (1 retail and 7 ES) and all had a limit that doesn´t depend on voltage or cooling..

for example, one sample can do 4800MHz (48x100) but can´t boot 4809MHz (48x100,2). And this can also not boot at x49 multiplier etc...

i don´t know if it is a bios or cpu bug, but all cpus have a limit. ask the other guys that test the ES CPUs, they´re tell you the same.

Btw i tested also one with LN2 @ 1.6v VCore but no difference, reached same clock as on air!

Thank you for the explanation. I guess, it's all nice and stable at 48x100 too, right?

Xtreme overclockers will be dissapointed. But inexperienced ones should have it easier - just raise multi till windows doesn't boot, substract one, check stability.... erm... dunno...

[Etihtsarom]

And where is the 3 sec UEFI Bios boots?

[Hornet331]

Thank you for the explanation. I guess, it's all nice and stable at 48x100 too, right?

Xtreme overclockers will be dissapointed. But inexperienced ones should have it easier - just raise multi till windows doesn't boot, substract one, check stability.... erm... dunno...

Enthusiasts wait for S2011 anyway.

[[XC] hipno650]

Well even if it did average 5Ghz on air, isn't the difference roughly negligible between ~4.3G and 5G in normal applications?

you obviously need to find some more demanding apps to use anyone who Edits any sort of media, photos, videos and music will see a huge gain, most RTS games will see a big gain once allot of units get going, and perhaps most importantly anyone who crunches will see a large gain as performance scales directly with clock speed

for me being able to hit 5GHZ over 4.2GHZ on a current i7 is a really big deal

[clayton]

i7 2600k review
http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcon...44&pageid=7687

[god_43]

its what many here thought it would be, on average its 15% faster than the previous generation....not bad, not earth shattering; but its still a good achievement.

[-=DVS=-]

I don't know about you guys but for CPU intense games this new CPU is crazy good. A stock 2.8 GHz i5 2300 lowest end performing on same level as 3.4 GHz i7 . That's unreal can only imagine i7 2600K OC to over 4.5 ghz or close to 5ghz

[Johnny87au]

its what many here thought it would be, on average its 15% faster than the previous generation....not bad, not earth shattering; but its still a good achievement.

People have been mentioning it since the start when it was all rumours, no blck clocking only dmi clocking, well as long as we can get xtreme overclocks using the multi then i dont mind, just hope later in 2011 they change it a bit as multi overclocking is boring and defeats the purpose of having a xtreme rig, thats my opinion and im sure many others would agree///

I don't know about you guys but for CPU intense games this new CPU is crazy good. A stock 2.8 GHz i5 2300 lowest end performing on same level as 3.4 GHz i7 . That's unreal can only imagine i7 2600K OC to over 4.5 ghz or close to 5ghz

I totally agree, its equivalent to a i7 930 well the 2600k is ..

[rusty]

where is i7 review?

[highoctane]

where is i7 review?

A few posts up: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...0&postcount=63

[saaya]

What's the point of i5-2500 if the K version is only $11 more? lol

sounds to me like an intel poll to figure out how many people want unlocked multipliers on a mainstream cpu

this review makes sb look pretty good... but isnt it cause its comparing it to a 2.8ghz i5? lol
im looking forward to some reviews comparing it to similarly and even higher clocked 1156 chips like an i3 560 (3.33), an i5 680 (3.6) and an overclocked G6950

[trn]

Big OEM's like Dell and HP will buy i5-2500's; plus the non p67 mobo's will be cheaper. The non K version's won't be very popular among the minority of us who build our own computers though.

[Johnny87au]

Big OEM's like Dell and HP will buy i5-2500's; plus the non p67 mobo's will be cheaper. The non K version's won't be very popular among the minority of us who build our own computers though.

I think the opposite rule applys, this is xtreme forums meaning u go to xtreme lengths to get every bit of MHZ out of ur chip... buying the non K u cant do this..

[koc]

Plz, help me to understand , why Sandy Bridge have high multiplier and only 100 bus speed ?
is all sandy bridges looked at 100 MHz ?

[-=DVS=-]

Plz, help me to understand , why Sandy Bridge have high multiplier and only 100 bus speed ?
is all sandy bridges looked at 100 MHz ?

Yes locked bus at 100, you overclock via multiplier. To my understanding K version has unlocked multiplier. Its new thing Intel is trying.

[saaya]

its 100mhz bclock cause intel is saving some few cents and using the same clock signal for bclock and pciE and some other clocks as well

[koc]

but higher bus speed makes the cpu faster ? right ?
also if i OC via mutiplier only , i need higher Vcore than normal ?

[RPGWiZaRD]

but higher bus speed makes the cpu faster ? right ?
also if i OC via mutiplier only , i need higher Vcore than normal ?

Yea usually higher bus speed results in better efficiency per clock but it depends on the architecture and how much the gain really is in that case. On Core 2 it gave a rather huge increase, Core i7 slightly less, yet noticable. Regarding vcore though that's not the case, it's rather the opposite, the vcore requirement will be as low as possible as there's one less factor to take into account but on Core i7 it's mostly when getting close or entering the realm of BCLK 200+ that the bclk started to up the vcore requirements a bit.

[R101]

They make these tests little confusing.. Testing i5s clock for clock, but 2500 has turbo which wasnt enabled? So this is not real performance difference between the two?

[koc]

thank you guys for replies

I think i want to see more (X58 vs Sandy B) specially in games before i buy SB system .

[RPGWiZaRD]

They make these tests little confusing.. Testing i5s clock for clock, but 2500 has turbo which wasnt enabled? So this is not real performance difference between the two?

Yea but for us the clock for clock performance is far more interesting but yea for non-overclockers this test isn't that useful. Obviously for non-overclockers these chips will grant more benefit with the nice turbo speeds.

EDIT: On a second thought for overclockers they grant higher stable max overclock frequency though so it's pretty much even.

[amdsempron_xs]

Any rumour on the platform replacing LGA1366? Hope that doesn't come up on the new platform