Intel Core i5, Core i7 800 Processors and P55 Express

Name: Intel Core i5, Core i7 800 Processors and P55 Express - Page 8
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, September 07, 2009, 11:59 PM EDT

Test System Configuration Notes: When configuring our test systems for this article, we first entered their respective system BIOSes and set each board to its "Optimized" or "High performance Defaults". We then saved the settings, re-entered the BIOS and set memory timings for either DDR3-1333 with 8,8,8,24 timings. The hard drives were then formatted, and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 was installed. When the Windows installation was complete, we updated the OS, and installed the drivers necessary for our components. Auto-Updating and Windows Defender were then disabled and we installed all of our benchmarking software, performed a disk clean-up, defragged the hard drives, and ran all of the tests.

HotHardware's Test Systems

Intel and AMD - Head To Head

System 1:
Core i7 870
(2.93GHz - Quad-Core)
Core i5 750
(2.66GHz - Quad-Core)

Intel DP55KB
Asus Maximus III Formula
Gigabyte P55-UD6
(P55 Express Chipset)

2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1600
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)

GeForce GTX 280
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio

WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA

Windows 7 x64
NVIDIA Forceware v190.62

System 2:
Core i7 Extreme 975
(3.33GHz - Quad-Core)
Core i7 920
(2.66GHz - Quad-Core)

Gigabyte EX58-UD5
(X58 Express Chipset)

3x2GB OCZ DDR3-1333
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)

GeForce GTX 280
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio

WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA

Windows 7 x64
NVIDIA Forceware v190.62

System 3:
Core 2 Q9650
(3GHz - Quad-Core)
Core 2 Quad Q9400
(2.66GHz - Quad-Core)

Gigabyte X48T-DQ6
(X48 Express Chipset)

2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1600
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)

GeForce GTX 280
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio

WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA

Windows 7 x64
NVIDIA Forceware v190.62

System 4:
AMD Phenom II X4 965
(3.4GHz Quad-Core)

Asus M4A79T Deluxe
(AMD 790FX Chipset)

2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1600
(@ 1333MHz, CAS 8)

GeForce GTX 280
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio

WD150 "Raptor" HD
10,000 RPM SATA

Windows 7 x64
NVIDIA Forceware v190.62

Preliminary Testing with SiSoft SANDRA 2009 SP4

Synthetic Benchmarks

We began our testing with SiSoftware's SANDRA 2009 SP4, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. We ran four of the built-in subsystem tests that partially comprise the SANDRA 2009 SP4 suite with Intel's new Core i5 and i7 800 series processors (CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Memory Bandwidth, and Cache and Memory). All of the scores reported below were taken with the processors running at its default clock speeds of 2.93GHz and 2.66GHz with 4GB of DDR3-1333 RAM running in dual-channel mode on the Gigabyte P55-UD6 motherboard.

Processor Arithmetic Core i5 750	Multimedia Core *i5 750*	Memory Bandwidth Core *i5 750*	Cache and Memory Core *i5 750*
Processor Arithmetic Core i7 870	Multimedia Core i7 *870*	Memory Bandwidth Core i7 *870*	Cache and Memory Core i7 *870*

The Core i7 870 puts up much stronger scores than the i5 750 in the SiSoft SANDRA CPU Arithmetic and Multimedia benchmarks, not only because the chip is clocked higher by default, but because it supports HyperThreading as well, which allows the chip to process 8 threads simultaneously, as opposed to 4 on the Core i5. Despite the fact that both processors were equipped with the same memory, the Core i7 860 also offered more memory bandwidth 16.8GB/s (Core i5) vs. 17.3GB/s (Core i7).

In light of competing platforms in SANDRA's database, Intel's new mainstream chips perform very well, besting the previous generation and anything from AMD.

Tags: Intel, core i7, memory, CPU, Motherboard, processor, Lynnfield, Core i5, Socket 1156, Coolers

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com