Computerbase Review: Intel Core i7-3820

[RussianSensation]

Review Link

Feel free to use Google Chrome to translate from German to English.

My thoughts: Other than the ability to use 40 PCIe lanes, I really see no benefits of a quad-core 3820 CPU on the more expensive LGA2011 platform. IVB will launch in the spring and will surely beat this CPU in power consumption, overclocking and performance.

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Source

 

[Ajay]

Hmm, they over clocked it to 4.5GHz, but it doesn't seem like they went out of their way to see how high they could push it. This 'could' be an area of advantage over desktop SB, guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[RussianSensation]

Hmm, they over clocked it to 4.5GHz, but it doesn't seem like they went out of their way to see how high they could push it. This 'could' be an area of advantage over desktop SB, guess we'll have to wait and see.

By the time 3820 launches though, we'll be very close to IVB (at most 1 quarter away). So 3820's proper competitor will be 3770k not 2600k. It's not good enough for 3820 to beat 2600k. IVB will also have native USB 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 and a faster video encoding HD4000 GPU. I honestly see no value in the 3820. Intel should have kept X79 as a 6-core platform only. Perhaps for those running PCIe-based SSDs and 3x Graphics cards, the 40 PCIe lanes provide a real advantage.

 

[thilanliyan]

I'm SOOO confused with all these Intel CPU model numbers!!

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm SOOO confused with all these Intel CPU model numbers!!

At first it at least made some sense. The Nehalem/Lynnfield generation was the original i3-i7s. The 2nd generation SB was designated with a 2 at the start. So we have 2xxx series. But Intel screwed it all up by calling SB-E as 3rd generation. Even IVB shouldn't be called 3rd generation imho and should be left for Haswell. It's only a matter of time before Intel follows AMD and NV and rebadges minor changes as a new generation haha.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I don't see any point in the S2011 x79 platform myself. I think this cycle it's pretty much meaningless to have the "extreme" processors that barely perform better than the mainstream.

Quad channel memory? Not many situations that use triple channel's bandwidth outside of some high end workstation (CAD/MAYA work for example). Hex core? Most applications have issues using 4 cores. It isn't cost effective, it's built on old tech (SB), and was almost outdated at release. It's really sad because I wanted to migrate from 1366 to 2011 this year, but looks like I'll just migrate to 1155 if anything.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Liking that i7 2770k myself the other chips look sorta disappointing,add in the cost of the x79 platform the only chip maybe worth it is the 3960x everything else seems marginal.

i7 3770k ftw!

 

[Ajay]

By the time 3820 launches though, we'll be very close to IVB (at most 1 quarter away). So 3820's proper competitor will be 3770k not 2600k. It's not good enough for 3820 to beat 2600k. IVB will also have native USB 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 and a faster video encoding HD4000 GPU. I honestly see no value in the 3820. Intel should have kept X79 as a 6-core platform only. Perhaps for those running PCIe-based SSDs and 3x Graphics cards, the 40 PCIe lanes provide a real advantage.

Good point, though 3820 would get someone with greater aspirations onto S2011 with less $$s invested initially and perhaps they would move on to IB-E sometime down the road. That would attract me (for F@H) hoping I could get and IB-E when the economy and my wallet were doing better. It would help if I knew that the 3820 clocked higher on air than it's hexacore brothers.

Gulftown didn't offer much of an advantage over Nehalem, except that @ 32nm you could OC them to the same frequency within about the same power budget while still getting 50% more cores. This didn't do much for allot of people performance wise, but the fact that the newer process came to the high end first at least gave bragging rights to those with Gulftowns.

Intel's Extreme CPUs really haven't ever made 'sense' to buy except, perhaps, for those running workstation level apps at a lower cost than Xeon based systems. Other than that, it's more about just having bad-ass system specs (with a matching price tag).

 

[IntelUser2000]

By the time 3820 launches though, we'll be very close to IVB (at most 1 quarter away). So 3820's proper competitor will be 3770k not 2600k.

According to roadmaps, by the time Ivy Bridge launches, there will be something that's faster than 3820, while being quad core. It's also supposed to cost $294, which is slightly cheaper than 3770K chips.

Of course, the platform may cost more but you see my point.

 

[bryanW1995]

I don't see any point in the S2011 x79 platform myself. I think this cycle it's pretty much meaningless to have the "extreme" processors that barely perform better than the mainstream.

Quad channel memory? Not many situations that use triple channel's bandwidth outside of some high end workstation (CAD/MAYA work for example). Hex core? Most applications have issues using 4 cores. It isn't cost effective, it's built on old tech (SB), and was almost outdated at release. It's really sad because I wanted to migrate from 1366 to 2011 this year, but looks like I'll just migrate to 1155 if anything.

Yeah, major disappointment here too. I went from an i7 920 @ 4.0 to a 2500k @ 4.7. Don't get me wrong, this 2500k is a definite improvement, but I was hoping that I would be persuaded to go 2011.

@ Ajay: it looks like gulftown was actually a pretty good investment for a CPU. Almost 2 yrs later it is still very much high end.

 

[Ajay]

According to roadmaps, by the time Ivy Bridge launches, there will be something that's faster than 3820, while being quad core. It's also supposed to cost $294, which is slightly cheaper than 3770K chips.

What are the specs of this new SB-E quad? I must have missed it - thx!

 

[Ajay]

@ Ajay: it looks like gulftown was actually a pretty good investment for a CPU. Almost 2 yrs later it is still very much high end.

Oh, I agree, for those who can make use of the extra cores. I've thought about it sometimes, with the Ci7-970 closing in on $500, it would be less expensive than a new SB/s2011 or upcoming IB/s1555 system.