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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tajmahal - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
You fail to mention that Microcenter prices are for IN STORE PURCHASE ONLY. If you live about 6 driving hours away from a Microcenter like i do, then you're screwed.Chlorus - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Shhh! Don't spoil his self-righteous post with your troublesome facts!strikeback03 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Does Microcenter have a limit on how many processors people can buy? If not, why isn't anyone buying these things and reselling them for less than the ~$280 that Newegg (and every other online retailer) do?Solema - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Anand,I know those prices you quoted are per-unit prices from Intel, but they are much more expensive than actual CPU costs. Given that I can get the following from Micro Center, and that I plan to overclock and run two 8800GTS 512's in SLI, what would you recommend?
i5 750 - $179
i7 920 - $199
i7 860 - $229
It still seems to me that the additional overclocking flexibility of the 920 (especially on stock voltage), coupled with the better multi-GPU performance would make that the best CPU to purchase, no? Given that P55 motherboards currently only retail for about $50 cheaper than many x58 boards, wouldn't the extra $70 cost for x58+i7 920 over a P55+i5 750 be worth it? You get better multi-GPU performance, better overclocking, better RAM performance, and future upgradeability to 6-core CPU's. What am I missing that would tip the scales in favor of the i5?
Pneumothorax - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
the 920 for sure as you get a HT CPU for even cheaper than the 860. Both should overclock the same.dman - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
So, do they support Hardware Virtualization? And don't give slack about not targeted at that market, specifically, does this support Windows 7 virtualization mode?I searched and didn't see it covered. I've read that the i5 and lower do not support vt-d, but, I'm not sure how that translates to Windows 7 "XP mode" support... I do need to review a bit more, would be nice if this was covered in the review.
I do know that this IS something that the Phenom family does support.
http://www.virtualization.info/2009/07/intel-core-...">http://www.virtualization.info/2009/07/...core-i3-...
ash9 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
No Virtalization!! That maybe huge for corporate setups,how did I miss that.
It should have been reported
has407 - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - link
VT-x != VT-d. You want, and may need, VT-x. Most people don't need VT-d, much less know what to do with it or have a system that can make use of it--if you do, you're very unlikely to be using one of these CPUs.VT-x is Intel's name for processor virtualization features; it is part of the processor. All Core iX CPUs support it. VT-x is required for some hypervisors, (e.g., MSFT HYperV), but not all, although most (all?) require it for running 64-bit guests.
VT-d is Intels name for for IO virtualization (specifically "directed IO"); it is, or has been, part of the northbridge. For VT-d to be useful, you need a chipset that supports it; a MB/BIOS that supports it; and a hypervisor that knows how to use it. VT-d is primarily of interest to VM's that want to dedicate direct access to hardware by guests, and avoid the overhead of the hypervisor for that IO.
When you see "CPU X supports vT-d", it means the chipset for CPU X supports VT-d (the P55 supports VT-d). Whether MB/BIOS vendors choose to support it is another matter. Moreover, support for VT-d isn't simply yes or no; support varies by chipset (e.g., the P55, like the rest, support virtualizating a subset of interfaces).
In short:
1. Based on Core iX chipset capabilities (e.g., P55, X58), VT-d support is an MB vendor decision--not a function of the CPU model.
2. Which vendors support VT-d, and to what extent, is more often than not clear as mud, and the topic of much discussion in some threads.
3. If VT-d is important to you, you're probably running a heavy virtualized workload on an MP system with 10Gbe or very fast DAS--certainly not a Core iX. (Only exception of interest to others might be for access to GPU's by VMs)
What the new processors throw into the mix is an integrated PCIe controller, which also means an integrated DMA controller (at least I hope it does). Whether that supports VT-d is unknown (I haven't been able to find a definitive answer).
Gary Key - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
VT-d is enabled on the i7/870-860. It is not enabled on the i5/750, just VT-x is available on it. I am working on Windows 7 XP mode as we speak.Jakall78 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link
Reading this site for years, but there is something wrong going on here. Besides some slideshow pictures from Intel and 2-3 tests... there is nothing. That is not the way reviews are done. Look at the SSD reviews, THAT is a review(both of them actually). Now please look at this reviewhttp://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&...">http://translate.google.com/translate?p...mp;sl=ro...
and say it`s not better...
* I`m not making any false advertising here, I just found a better review.