Intel's Core i7 870 & i5 750, Lynnfield: Harder, Better, Faster Stronger
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 8, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
The Best Gaming CPU?
When I first previewed Lynnfield I theorized that its aggressive turbo modes would make it the best gaming CPU on the market. Most games these days use between two and four threads, not enough for Hyper Threading to be truly beneficial. As a result, Nehalem never really did all that well in games. It was generally faster than the competition, but not much and not on a performance-per-dollar basis.
I ran a few new game tests under Windows 7 to accompany our usual game benchmarks. The competitors here are limited to Lynnfield (of course), Bloomfield, Penryn and AMD's Phenom II.
Dawn of War II doesn't actually shatter any expectations. While turbo clearly benefits Lynnfield, it isn't enough to dethrone Bloomfield. The Core i7 920 is marginally faster than the new i5 750. Here's where things get interesting though: look at minimum frame rates. In both Lynnfield platforms, the minimum frame rates are higher than the competing Bloomfield system. That appears to be Lynnfield's aggressive turbo modes at work. While they're not constantly pushing Lynnfield to a higher clock speed, they do apparently help out when it matters the most.
The other thing to notice is the lowest Lynnfield is a faster gaming CPU than Intel's fastest dual-core: the E8600.
Sacred 2 is an example of performance standings in a more normal manner. Lynnfield can't seem to outperform Bloomfield, and the Core i5 750 actually falls slightly behind AMD's Phenom II X4 965 BE.
With World of Warcraft we're back to turbo mode having a very positive impact. The Core i7 870 is nearly as fast as the i7 975, while the i5 750 is a bit slower than the i7 920. Both are faster than the Phenom II X4 965 BE, which is in turn faster than the Q9650.
These three benchmarks seem to outline the three most realistic options for Lynnfield's gaming performance. In situations where its turbo modes can work, Lynnfield can be equal to if not faster than Bloomfield. In those situations where it doesn't kick in, Lynnfield is at least competitive with Phenom II and Bloomfield. In all situations the old Core 2 Quad Q9650 is at the bottom of the charts.
I'll throw in one more option just to complicate things. Have a look at this:
Not exactly the norm, but here we have the Phenom II X4 965 BE faster than everything - including the Core i7 975. Unfortunately there's no one benchmark that will sum up how these things perform, but overall it looks like Lynnfield is going to be one capable gaming CPU.
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erple2 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
[quoting]Not only did the feature that provided the least benefit (triple vs. dual channel) drive the reason for the socket/pin count difference, they gimp the platform with superior tech by cutting PCIE lanes in half[/quoting]
I thought that the X58 has the PCIe controller on the mobo, and the P55 doesn't? That the Lynnfield CPU's had a built-in PCIe controller, whereas the Bloomfields lacked the built-in PCIe controller? That appears to be another reason why intel had to make 2 separate sockets/platforms.
Now, whether that was made intentionally to force this issue with multiple platforms is a side issue (IMO). I don't necessarily think that it's a problem.
JonnyDough - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
"Personally, from a consumer standpoint, I feel Intel botched the whole X58/P55 design and launch starting with the decision to go with 2 sockets. Not only did the feature that provided the least benefit (triple vs. dual channel) drive the reason for the socket/pin count difference, they gimp the platform with superior tech by cutting PCIE lanes in half."I believe it was intentional and not a botch. Intel was trying to separate a high and low end and to sell more chipsets. It's Intel being boss. It's what they do. Confuse the consumer, sell more crap, and hope that AMD stays a step behind. This is why we need AMD.
Intel is good at marketing and getting consumers to jump on the latest trend. Remember the Pentium 4? Why buy a lower ghz chip when the P4 clocks higher right?
The educated consumer waits and pounces when the price is right, not when the tech is new and seems "thrilling". This review is great but no offense it still almost seems to come with a "buy this" spin - which may be the only way a tech journalist can stay privy to getting new information ahead of the curve.
Comdrpopnfresh - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
You purposefully placing the possibility of overclocking solely in the hands of the lower chip, while completely disregarding the history and facts. This-or-that logical fallacy. Third option: You can overclock the higher-clocked chip too.Granted, I see your point about the hardware being of the same generation of the architecture; that lynnnfield is not the tock to bloomfield's tick (or the other way around if how you hear clocks starts mid-cycle) and therefore the silicon has the same ceiling for OC.
But bloomfield is a like a D.I.N.K. household; dual-income-no-kids. When you overclock bloomfield, not only do you have the physical advantage of lower heat-density due to a large die, but you also don't have the whiny pci-e controller complaining how timmy at school doesn't have to be forced into overclocking. The on-die pci-e controller will hinder overclocking- period.
Just like trying to overclock cpu's in nearly identical s775 motherboards/systems. The system with the igp keeps the fsb from overclocking too much. So then what- you buy a dedicated gpu, negate your igp you spent good money on, just to have your cpu scream?
Except in this case, if one were able to disable the on-die pci-e controller and plop a gpu in a chipset-appointed slot (sticking with the igp mobo situation in s775) you'd be throwing away the money on the on-die goodies, and also throwing away the reduced latency it provides.
Has it occured to anyone that this is going to open an avenue for artificial price inflation of ddr-3. Now the same products will be sold in packages of 3's and 2's? Sorry- just figured I'd change the subject from your broken heard still stick on overclocking.
chizow - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Actually in the real world, overclockers are finding the 920 D0s clock as well and often better than the 965s for sure (being C0), and even the 975s D0. You're certainly not going to see a 5x proportionate return in MHz on the difference spent between a $200 920 and a $1000 975. There is no third option because their maximum clock thresholds are similar and limited by uarch and process. The only advantage the XE versions enjoy is multiplier flexibility, a completely artificial restriction imposed by Intel to justify a higher price tag.
philosofool - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Not seeing it dude. A little overvoltage and LGA 1156 overclocks with 1366.chizow - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Yes and early reports indicate they will overclock to equivalent clockspeeds, negating any Turbo benefit Lynnfield enjoys in the review. That leaves less subtle differences like multi-GPU performance where the X58 clearly shines and clearly outperfoms P55.puffpio - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
In the article you refer to x264 as an alternative to h264in fact, h264 is just the standard (like jpeg or png) and x264 is an encoder that implements the standard. i wouldn't call it an alternative.
that would be like saying photoshop is an alternative to jpeg, becuase it can save in jpeg format
puffpio - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
"You'd think that Intel was about to enter the graphics market or something with a design like this."dun dun dun! foreshadowing?
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and since these parts consume less power yet are built on the same process, I assume they run at lower voltage? If so, since they ARE built on the same process, I'd assume they can survive the voltages of the original Bloomfield and beyond? eg for overclocking...
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Yes, Lynnfield shouldn't have a problem running at the same voltages as Bloomfield. The only unknown is the PCIe circuitry. I suspect that over time we'll figure out the tricks to properly overclocking Lynnfield.As far as Larrabee goes, I wouldn't expect much from the first generation. If Intel is *at all* competitive in gaming performance it'll be a win as far as they're concerned. It's Larrabee II and ultimately Larrabee III that you should be most interested in.
The on-die PCIe controller is a huge step forward though. CPU/GPU integration cometh.
Take care,
Anand
Comdrpopnfresh - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Have you seen bios implementations allowing for the controller to be disabled? Know if anyone intends to do this?