Benchmark Analysis
When looking at our benchmarking results there is no doubt that the entire Core i7 family of processors literally trounces the previous Core 2 generation of processors. Even though we didn't have Intel's fastest Core 2 Extreme processor, the QX9770 to compare these behemoths against we emulated a comparable processor by overclocking our X3350 45nm processor to 3.2 GHz. In every test excluding the gaming benchmarks we anywhere from a 40% to greater than 50% improvement from the Core i7 family of processors. In our gaming benchmarks we intentionally used two games that are not overly CPU dependant just to see what the added performance would bring to the table. All of our test were within a few FPS of each other. To be fair had we used a Game such as Far Cry 2 which actually utilizes the quad core capabilities of all our processors tested, we would have probably gotten a better idea of what the gaming arena can expect from this literally smoking family of products.
Remembering that this is a review specific to the Intel Core i7-920 we next need to look at the differences between it and its siblings. The Core i7-920 is unquestionably the slowest of its elder, higher clocked kin. On all tests aside from gaming we see an average performance decrease in the 10% - 15% range when comparing the i7-920 to the i7-965XE at stock speeds. The gap narrows to about roughly half that variance when comparing the i7-920 to the i7-940, again at stock speeds. When we compare the i7-920 overclocked to 3.6 GHz to the i7-965 overclocked to 4.035 GHz to we see very nice scalability on the part of both processors. Along with that scalability we see the gap between the two narrowed considerably with only a 2% - 4% performance improvement noted for the Core i7-965XE.
TM i7-965 Extreme Edition" src="http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/articles/Intel_Core-i7_OC/Core%20i7%20image_new.jpg" width=600>
Other Thoughts
There is no doubt that Intel did their homework before bringing the Core i7 family of processors to the consumer market. The runt of the pack, the Core i7-920 is truly one of the three fastest processor currently on the planet, and brings a huge amount of new features that should be very enticing to virtually any potential consumer. Before making a scoring this processor we would certainly be remiss if we didn't cover all of the potential considerations a budding consumer should consider:
The Intel Core i7-920 does not have and unlocked multiplier and will only improve the multiplier with turbo boost enabled. Standard overclocking can only be achieved by raising the system's core clock and adjusting the VCore accordingly.
The MSRP of the Core i7-920 is $284.00 makes the purchase of this processor much more palatable
The Core i7-920 is only currently supported by Intel X58 based motherboards so that expense needs to be added into consideration as well
Unless you have a minimum of three sticks of DDR-3 that are fully functional at <>
When looking at our benchmarking results there is no doubt that the entire Core i7 family of processors literally trounces the previous Core 2 generation of processors. Even though we didn't have Intel's fastest Core 2 Extreme processor, the QX9770 to compare these behemoths against we emulated a comparable processor by overclocking our X3350 45nm processor to 3.2 GHz. In every test excluding the gaming benchmarks we anywhere from a 40% to greater than 50% improvement from the Core i7 family of processors. In our gaming benchmarks we intentionally used two games that are not overly CPU dependant just to see what the added performance would bring to the table. All of our test were within a few FPS of each other. To be fair had we used a Game such as Far Cry 2 which actually utilizes the quad core capabilities of all our processors tested, we would have probably gotten a better idea of what the gaming arena can expect from this literally smoking family of products.
Remembering that this is a review specific to the Intel Core i7-920 we next need to look at the differences between it and its siblings. The Core i7-920 is unquestionably the slowest of its elder, higher clocked kin. On all tests aside from gaming we see an average performance decrease in the 10% - 15% range when comparing the i7-920 to the i7-965XE at stock speeds. The gap narrows to about roughly half that variance when comparing the i7-920 to the i7-940, again at stock speeds. When we compare the i7-920 overclocked to 3.6 GHz to the i7-965 overclocked to 4.035 GHz to we see very nice scalability on the part of both processors. Along with that scalability we see the gap between the two narrowed considerably with only a 2% - 4% performance improvement noted for the Core i7-965XE.
TM i7-965 Extreme Edition" src="http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/articles/Intel_Core-i7_OC/Core%20i7%20image_new.jpg" width=600>
Other Thoughts
There is no doubt that Intel did their homework before bringing the Core i7 family of processors to the consumer market. The runt of the pack, the Core i7-920 is truly one of the three fastest processor currently on the planet, and brings a huge amount of new features that should be very enticing to virtually any potential consumer. Before making a scoring this processor we would certainly be remiss if we didn't cover all of the potential considerations a budding consumer should consider:
The Intel Core i7-920 does not have and unlocked multiplier and will only improve the multiplier with turbo boost enabled. Standard overclocking can only be achieved by raising the system's core clock and adjusting the VCore accordingly.
The MSRP of the Core i7-920 is $284.00 makes the purchase of this processor much more palatable
The Core i7-920 is only currently supported by Intel X58 based motherboards so that expense needs to be added into consideration as well
Unless you have a minimum of three sticks of DDR-3 that are fully functional at <>
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