Intel Core i7-970 Processor Review, Lower Cost 6-Core

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

Next up, we ran a number of different test systems through Futuremark’s latest system performance metric built especially for Windows Vista, PCMark Vantage. PCMark Vantage runs through a host of different usage scenarios to simulate different types of workloads including High Definition TV and movie playback and manipulation, gaming, image editing and manipulation, music compression, communications, and productivity.  Most of the tests are multi-threaded as well, so the tests can exploit the additional resources offered by a quad-core CPU.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage
Simulated Application Performance

The new Core i7-970 finished well ahead of the other systems in terms of overall PCMarks, but in most of the other individual tests it was only marginally faster than the quad-core Core i7 975 and just shy of it in the Productivity test. I the Communications test however, the Core i7 970 flies past the Core i7 975 and keeps close pace with the Core i7 980X Extreme. PCMark Vantage's Communications benchmark benefits from the Core i7-970's new AES-NI (Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions) which accelerate encryption and decryption algos in hardware, and as such, it's decidedly fastest than the previous generation 45nm quad-core Core i7 processors.


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