Intel's Core i7 970 Reviewed, (Slightly) More Affordable 6-core
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 29, 2010 3:23 AM EST3dsmax 9 - SPECapc 3dsmax CPU Rendering Test
Today's desktop processors are more than fast enough to do professional level 3D rendering at home. To look at performance under 3dsmax we ran the SPECapc 3dsmax 8 benchmark (only the CPU rendering tests) under 3dsmax 9 SP1. The results reported are the rendering composite scores.
You get 9% better performance than a Core i7 975 and 98% of the performance of the 980X. Not too shabby, but then again you're not saving a ton of money by comparison. The Core i7 970 still costs roughly $900.
Cinebench R10
Created by the Cinema 4D folks we have Cinebench, a popular 3D rendering benchmark that gives us both single and multi-threaded 3D rendering results.
Single threaded performance is very competitive, which is due entirely to Intel's well architected turbo modes. You get a 6-core processor that can act like the fastest single-core CPU on the planet if needed.
POV-Ray 3.73 beta 23 Ray Tracing Performance
POV-Ray is a popular, open-source raytracing application that also doubles as a great tool to measure CPU floating point performance.
I ran the SMP benchmark in beta 23 of POV-Ray 3.73. The numbers reported are the final score in pixels per second.
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afkrotch - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Both of which would suck huge donkey nuts, if you plan on using it at home. Unless you just happen to be rendering complex scenes. Which most aren't. You'll benefit more from the 980X or 970, for quick simple renderings, modeling, etc. Course, I'm going to assume that many ppl who buy these procs just want the best on the market and couldn't care less how it actually performs.mavizao2 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Well,For barely $950, you can get an Asus mobo with 2 CPU slots and 2 8-way magnycours 2.0ghz.
That is...you can get 16 real cores, totalling 32 ghz AND the motherboard.
Do you really think Intel can get even CLOSE to the performance yelded?
Anything that uses more then 4 cores will probably use as many as it finds (encoding, crunching etc etc).
So, guess what...no freaking way.
Intel is only a better buy if you're some kind of rich gamer...even then, i suppose a regular core I7 overclocked will do better than a 6 core that can't overclock "as good", as the trend seems to be coding is stuck on using at most 4 cores.
Accord99 - Friday, July 30, 2010 - link
Actually yes, even in highly multi-threaded situations the i7-970 will be comparable to 2x6128s. And for the plenty of things that can't use 16 threads effectively, then it won't even be close.bleucharm28 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
if i'm going to spend that much, i rather spend the extra $100 and buy 980X.tno - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I think that's the point though. It's like Anand said, this is possibly an issue of binning. And before the haters keep on hating, let's consider what the sales numbers for these things are? EE's have never been sales leaders, they exist to show what will trickle down. Intel is so far head in their 32-nm node that they were able to get this thing out ahead of schedule and are probably working very hard to ramp up production at this node so that they can produce chips of this caliber at lower price points. I have the fullest expectation that within six months a nearly equivalent chip (minus AES and such a large L3) will be selling at the $400 price.What I want are features. I want Sandy Bridge to be a media and IO powerhouse, that can share graphics duties with a discrete GPU for huge power savings in the desktop realm. I want to be able to hear my freaking loud 4890 power all the way down when I'm watching a movie and then ramp up when I get my WoW on. I want 8 cores that will power down when not in use. I want IO integrated so that I don't have to slap a loud tiny fan over a Northbridge. And I want to build the whole system for less than $500 (plus that same 4890! ;) it does all I wanted). What do you think Anand? How far out am I from seeing my dream?
Etern205 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
HD4890?Have you been living under a rock?
It's HD5800 for you buddy.
Etern205 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
When I've read the title of a more affordable 6 cores, I was like yay!!!Then when I saw the price...
man this is like uber gay!
boden - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
*with lisp* this is like SUPER HAPPY!!!!!! like wow, spaztastic, rad.../sarcasm
CptTripps - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I have been running the i7 920 since late late 2008, I am extremely happy that it still holds up so well and I see no reason to upgrade for at least another couple years.QChronoD - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Totally agree. The only benchmark on here that I care about is the x264 encoding one. But my OC's 920@3.6 looks to be only a few percent slower than the new 970.Personally I'd like to see a 1080p benchmark, but thats not a big deal.
I do wish that you would add a highly overclocked chip to these benchmarks, like an old 920 @4.0 or something, so that us early adopters would be able to get an idea of how we still hold up to Intel's new hotness.