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Intel Core I7 Launched, Nehalem and X58 Tested

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the time-to-go-shopping-again dept.

MojoKid writes "Today marks the official launch of Intel's new Core i7 processor, the most major overhaul of Intel's core processor architecture since the release of their Core 2 design. As has been reported, the Core i7 is a major departure from Intel's aging Front Side Bus architecture of old, now replaced by Intel's QPI (Quick Path Interconnect) serial links. This 20 lane bi-directional (40 lanes total) point-to-point connection provides 6.4 GT/s of bandwidth and scalability for future multi-socket designs as well. In addition, the Core i7 now has an integrated triple channel memory controller offering over 3X the bandwidth of the previous Core 2 architecture with DDR3 system memory. Though the product is set to ship in volume later this month, the early benchmark numbers show Intel's new chip is markedly faster clock-for-clock versus their previous generation CPU and much faster than anything AMD has out currently."

6 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet! by symbolset · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A little hot, but on time, in time for Christmas and slamming the benchmarks. Hey, there is a system that can run Crysis with all the features turned on!

    Maybe a price break on the LGA775 quad lineup now please?

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
    1. Re:Sweet! by ThePhilips · · Score: 4, Interesting

      But it doesn't magically increases RAM bandwidth.

      i7 memory interconnect would help applications which are not hand-crafted to maximize performance. And I expect that games like Crysis already optimized through the nose to utilize all bandwidths to max.

      Or to put it in other words: unoptimized code would gain from i7 more than highly optimized code, since in former case CPU would have more opportunities to optimize memory accesses on its own and better fill up the data bus.

      But I also can be wrong and hand crafted code of Crysis/etc is simply cannot take advantage of i7 features.

      --
      All hope abandon ye who enter here.
  2. We're all serialists now? by jcr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This trend towards serial links reminds me of the INMOS Transputer. Of course, those links were a hell of a lot slower than modern LVDS communications, but it's funny to see these ideas come back around.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  3. Re:Being an innovator not always smart? by jcr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The innovator took all the costs,

    Not hardly. There were a lot of other companies involved in developing Hypertransport, and Intel spent their own money to develop their alternative.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  4. Another great /. post. by Ecuador · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Link to the middle of an ad-laden article and to the Cinebench of all pages - because, you know, that is what the average /. reader is running...

    Also, add a nice touch: forget to mention that while the i7 is faster clock for clock with the Core 2, it currently tops out at 3.2GHz and has some sort of overclock protection (lowers clock when it goes over 110A or 130w).

    My cheap Core 2 is running at 4GHz on just the stock fan, I don't see myself upgrading to the i7 anytime soon.

    What did you say? ... What do you mean Cinebench would still run faster?

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  5. Real world performance??? by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And I was *just* about to retire my "old" socket 940 dual-core opteron box for a quad core Intel system. I think I'll just wait another month or two and jump to the i7 platform instead. 8-)

    Would be nice to see some video and audio encoding benchmarks and some real world application performance numbers instead of teenmarks (gaming performance).

    Cheers,