Core i5 / P55 Lab Update
by Gary Key on September 11, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Gary's First Looks
This has been an interesting week to say the least for those of us stuck in the labs and not at AMD's DX11 GPU press briefings. Based on feedback from the Lynnfield launch article we have spent the last couple of days running additional benchmarks to address overclocking and clock for clock requests. Yes, we do listen and respond to the comments no matter how outlandish (you know who you are) some may be at times.
I will interject a personal note here, the emails/private messages that outlined a strong case for additional research and testing certainly held a lot more weight than comments like "You are on Intel's payroll...", "Worst review ever...", and the moonshot , "Illegal benchmarking methods..". First off, if we were on Intel's payroll we would not be working here (a logical conclusion, right? ;) ) As for the other comments, everyone is entitled to their opinions. We do our best to keep an open forum and let the comments fall where they may, but offering constructive criticism and facts to back up those comments is what actually causes change, not endless shock posts or attention grabbing statements. I still have hope in people abiding by the rules of Internet Etiquette, but apparently we are still a long ways off from that happening. I will step off the soap box, well, until the next article....
Just to set this up now, our overclock comparisons will be at 3.8GHz for the Core i5/i7 and Phenom II x4 965BE processors. Why 3.8GHz, well it is an easy number for all of our processors to hit on fairly low voltages with retail or mid-range air coolers. It is also an ideal clock range for the "set it and forget crowd" interested in 24/7 overclocking. Certainly we could go higher on air or water cooling and actually ran most of our Core i5/i7 numbers at 4.2GHz for the motherboard roundups. Our Phenom II x4 965BE is the hold up for higher numbers in our clock for clock comparisons.
AMD continues to have serious problems with their Phenom II processor range clocking above 3.8~4GHz on air with a 64-bit operating system. Unfortunately, there is nothing AMD can do to correct this in the current stepping, but they are actively working on improvements with each processor release. In fact, the latest Athlon II x2 processors are the first products we have that allow for 24/7 stable operation at 4GHz under Windows 7 x64. The quad cores are still lagging although our latest retail 965BE is showing promise around 3.92GHz in early testing. I state this now so it does not come as surprise later.
I will post several benchmark results later today based on our motherboard test suite. Anand will provide a more in-depth analysis next week along with an updated look at the Core i7/860. He might even have a surprise announcement from AMD. In the meantime, I have just about completed this additional testing and will return my focus on completing the first (of many) P55 motherboard article(s) that will be up in a couple of days. Our first review will cover the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 among others. We recently received several other micro-ATX P55 motherboards and will look at those shortly. For now, this board is a perfect match for the Core i5/750 for our mainstream audience looking to upgrade an older platform.
Our graph below is an example of the information we will provide late today. Hopefully, this type of information will be useful for your purchasing decision along with our commentary about the results. I know there is not a Core 2 product listed, that will be forthcoming in the near future.
9/11 Update - I am still working on the FarCry 2 and H.A.W.X. benchmarks so the short update will be delayed until tomorrow morning.
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Pneumothorax - Saturday, September 12, 2009 - link
Anyone else notice the extra 0.1V required to o/c the 1156 cpus vs the 920?Nich0 - Saturday, September 12, 2009 - link
It might have something to do with the PCIE. As soon as you raise the BCLK, it overclocks the PCIE too which requires some voltage to stabilize. More than the actual processing cores it seems.CB434 - Friday, September 11, 2009 - link
Very good work Gary, for all of the articles.Clock for clock the i5 is faster. That is why I chose it before i5 was even released. The only advantge Phenom II has is 16x CF (but no SLI). No price advantage either.
If you OC both to 3.6 or 3.8 Ghz, i5 wins. Unless it's a game/program that favours the AMDs in which case, the Phenom will beat the i7 as well.
Stock clocks are most favourable for Phenom since it's 3.2Ghz vs 2.66Ghz. But that's irrelevant for me, because whether I get Phenom/i5/i7 I would OC to 3.6/3.8 with Noctua cooler. When they are both are 3.6Ghz, not only does the i5 consume less power but it's also faster, especially in CPU orientated tasks.
Since turbo is so effecient, I plan to OC to 3.5Ghz with turbo on, and that will give 4Ghz in single core apps, 3.9 in dual core apps etc. While saving power at the same time. Fantastic!
It's a no brainer choice for me, and I'm not an Intel fanboy (I use Athlon currently), I just want best bang for buck.
I'm looking foward to the followup when it is posted to confirm my thoughts.
tajmahal - Friday, September 11, 2009 - link
Actually you can get a 780a or 790a Nvidia motherboard for 16x-16x SLI. Since the PII 955 BE can also hit 3.8GHz when overclocked, there's no reason to pay the extra $50 for the 965.CB434 - Friday, September 11, 2009 - link
Agree about the 955. At the shop I will be buying from online in my country (cheapest in Australia) i5 is $285, 955 is $271. $14 difference. Gigabyte p55 UDP5 board is same price as the 790FX AMD board. For me the extra performance and effeciency (heat/power) is worth the extra few pennies.Unfortunately regarding the AMD SLI mobos's, this shop doesn't carry them. But even if they did, it's the same problem. SLI only. It's either CF only or SLI only. If you are going to go the AMD way, your probably better off with the full Dragon platform with the AMD software to take advantage of it.
Dudlington - Friday, September 11, 2009 - link
What I haven't seen any reviews talk about is this:What if I want to have 2 x Video cards, along with another expansion card that uses PCIe 1x or 4x? Is it just not possible with P55?
MadMan007 - Friday, September 11, 2009 - link
Agreed, although dual graphoics cards don't interest me personally knowing how moterboads assign PCIe lanes depending upon slot population is important. If you have two 1x devices and one happens to be in the secondary graphics slot, does the primary graphics slot get cut down to 8x? It probably wouldn't be a huge performance hit but it's nice to know this type of detailed information.Stradigos - Friday, September 11, 2009 - link
So when's that mobo round up gonna happen? I've been refreshing the page all day! I thought you said Thursday/Friday we were going to see the first article, and then Monday the last? No rush... just can't wait to read it! :DAffectionate-Bed-980 - Monday, September 14, 2009 - link
What about the mobo roundup from X58? We got like 3-4 mobos in a "roundup" when Toms used 3-4 SERIES of roundups each with 8 mobos (over 2 dozen mobos total).What about that i7 overclocking guide that never came? What about SSD stuff? Huh? The DDR3 roundup?
If you go back article by article a lot of them promise MORE content "later this week" or whatever. Nothing EVER comes. I wouldn't get my hopes up about AT articles anymore. They're quality when delivered but if it's a "preview" with "more to come this week" or a "lab update," I wouldn't expect much at all.
dragunover - Friday, September 11, 2009 - link
Is the clock for clock comparison, with an average overclock. This represents a huge deal for me in comparing processors' actual raw speed compared to just wildly varying clock levels.