Core i7 or C2Q?

[Nemesis 1]

If one has an old AMD 64. or a P4 . The smart money buys X58 and IC7 920. Nehalem is more of a gamer than has been shown, Its a platiform designed to work with Larrabee.

So you say big deal. Right. I agree its a hugh deal. IC7 along with X58 is the most future proof Cpu ever released. Along with Intels game API. Using Neoptica tech . Along with Project offsets tech and Havak tech. From what I have been told well see it in action @ spring IDF.


I have heard alot said about the 3 differant sockets. for IC7 . How stupid it was for intel to do this.

You guys haven't a clue of what smart is . It was a brillant move. I here you guys say all the time we need more choices. Intel offers it and ya start whinning. You have a choice. Buy one of the three sockets from Intel or AMD . No one cares what you do . Not one person other than people who get paid to work the forums cares.

$1000 for a mid performance IC7 is a good deal. When you see it in use with larrabee you will change your tunes. But I will remind all of everthing said. After nda removed. So anyone who bought Merom when it was released what did ya pay for the complete setup?

My wife paid $500 for the complete Kent. setup. But that was from her brother inlaw. I had a little over $1300 in mine but that was case and power supply. I thought I was going to get to keep this setup X58. But he wants it back . But he said he is sending me something I will really like.

Software rendering is 1 year away . it will change everthing. If the game offset is as good as whats being claimed . I can get by for along time on 1 game . IF I like it . Thats a big if tho. Intel has poured billions into Larrabee. You can bet project offset is getting all the $$$ they need and talent. Check out the website . See the new team members impressive.

For you guys to be saying IC7 isn't a hugh step forward is laughable and bias. When sandy is released the same things will not be said. because of Larrabee Sandy will almost double the gaming performance of an old larrabee card. Because of AVX . The core itself will pretty much remain the same as Westmere. Westmere the 32nm shrink is more than a shrink . It was formerly known as Gesher and Nethalem C .

Now when Sandy is released it will double floating point of westmere. which will show up in games big time . Not todays games. But games like Project offset. If Intel gets to do the next Xbox. It will be a major shift to fully programmable games. With out the 1 way render path. But again the guys holding out for westmere will complain about Sandy .

How much faster is Penryn than Merom . How much better O/C is Penryn than merom . BO vs. EO . I see all the comparisons made against penryn Vs IC7. How much more efficient is Penryn than Merom /

Ya if I had penryn I keep it till westmere. But I have Merom . and IC7 bitch slaps merom bigtime. So IC7 it is. But I can wait to see what the hydra chip can do befor I buy. Can't wait till next week to open my new box from brother inlaw. I am hoping . Its X58 with hydra. Pretty sure thats what it is. I get to keep this system but wife already laid claim.

3 years ago it was AMD 64 bitch slapping Intel . The forums were full of BS . Not about the pressy tho. They just plain sucked. But northwood was a very good cpu. But to say so was fighting words.

2 years ago . Merom appears. Everyone goes APE shit except the guys that were playing with dothans. We new. Now read about IC7 and what people say about its gaming. Back when Dothan was killing AMD 64 in games than the story changed once again. It was about media encoding all of the sudden. Gaming didn't matter. That was FUN for us Dothans. I was even banned for saying Merom would be 30% faster than AMD 64. So it pissed some off here. . So i got banned for being a snick in . Already banned . LOL . I have never ever done a bannable offense. But its not wise to rub people the wrong way.

1 year ago K10 appears the hype had it beat C2D by 40% and guys kepy it up for over a year. Till trueth slapped them .

Today we have IC7 and its intel people complaining . I can say for FACT. That if K10 would have = IC7 the forums everwhere would have gone APE shit. You all know thats the trueth . So tell me something . How can that be if its not prejudice. I bought a K10 its a nice system . And it does infact feel smoother than C2D. But not IC7 its nice.

 

[walk2k]

Again, the i7 is a great chip, Intel has literally outdone themselves with i7.

For some people, it's a great upgrade. For others, like those on a budget, there are better options (IMO).

For people who don't want to spend $1k on a cpu+ram+moboard and are not going to spend $1k on 2-3 video cards... a Core2Duo/Quad is a better deal right now.

Benchmarks prove this. With such mundane setups like single GTX 260/280 or similar ATI boards and a lowly E8400 performing nearly at the same level or practically the same level in games as expensive i7 machines it's pretty hard to endorse the i7 right now, considering they are 2-4x the cost!

You say an i7 920 is "future proof" but it's hard to say that right now, if indeed Intel plans to release yet another socket next year. For sure they are nice systems, and will outperform anything on the planet in benchmarks and maaybe in games if you throw mutilple GPUs at them, but each person has to take the costs into account also. If money is no object then hey, go for it. Otherwise, a C2D/Q system is no slouch either.

 

[Nemesis 1]

1366 socket will be around along time. If AMD hopes to compete with intel . AMD will have to do a socket change. 1066 socket I won't say this will be around that long. The mobil version probably gone same time 1066 goes. Sandybridge is likely were this change will occur. 1366 should last years.

If you need to know more about nehalem as far as future proofing goes . Find out why the QPI path between the CPU and GPU is going to be used for and why it was needed. That should enlighten ya. If not theres no hope for ya till ya see it run on Larrabee with project offset game. Than install Larrabee on AMD system and try to run the Game . IT won't happen . AMDs cpu is't designed to run games like Project offset and intel API. But Intel larrabee can do anything ATI or NV can do . Maybe just maybe in Hardrender games ATI /NV might be faster thats unknown . What is known is niether ATI / Or NV can run games designed for intels API. FACT! If Project Offset is a success. Intel becomes the dealer . Thats OK by me. . Complete PC from one maker it sounds so Matched. Amd is going to do same thing. Just a little later. They already have the side port. But they have to figure out how to get Max usage out of CPU in gaming first. Intel is going to beat everone to the punch on this.

 

[IntelUser2000]

For you guys to be saying IC7 isn't a hugh step forward is laughable and bias. When sandy is released the same things will not be said. because of Larrabee Sandy will almost double the gaming performance of an old larrabee card. Because of AVX . The core itself will pretty much remain the same as Westmere. Westmere the 32nm shrink is more than a shrink . It was formerly known as Gesher and Nethalem C .

CORRECTION: Nehalem C is indeed Westmere, but Gesher is not. Gesher is Sandy Bridge. They changed the name.

Sandy Bridge and Larrabbee isn't the same thing. AVX is Sandy Bridge and Larrabee is something else entirely. Why would you think a general purpose CPU's FPU unit and a one made for heavy multi-threading and 3D graphics would have same FPU??

Now when Sandy is released it will double floating point of westmere. which will show up in games big time . Not todays games. But games like Project offset. If Intel gets to do the next Xbox. It will be a major shift to fully programmable games. With out the 1 way render path. But again the guys holding out for westmere will complain about Sandy .

Oh pfft, come on. Game code isn't FP bound. Communicating with the drivers, running AI and Physics is what limits the CPU. Sure, games will become faster after being optimized for AVX itself, but not because of the doubled FP power going to 256-bits.

 

[Wurmer]

To the OP :

It's a tough decision you got to make for sure as any decision taken on the verge a new hardware launch is. The problem is pretty much always the same here, new hardware almost always provide improvement in performances and technology but it comes at a cost specially when recently released. Personally, at this point in time, I would go for the Q9550. That CPU paired with a good GPU (or two) will give you plenty horse power in years to come. I know that there is plenty of tech savvy and hardware enthusiasm people around these forums but seriously and realistically, pretty much any recent Intel Quad or even AMD (high end model) for that matter provides more horsepower than any Jane and Joe six pack will ever need for a good many years.

On a side note, I will be purchasing a Q9550 in a few weeks to replace my C2D 6850 which I'll drop in my wife's rig. BTW the 6850 still provide plenty of horsepower to play any recent games without much issues.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Wrong Gesher is Nehalem C changed to westmere because Gesher is a political group in Isreal.

No one said AVX has anything to do with Larrabee . But if you would Look at a company called neoptica You will understand Why Intel is Increasing the floating point power of Sandy. Both the CPU andGPU with neoptica API will use 100% of all the resources of both the GPU and CPU in Gaming and other task. Intel has been moving instep. With larrabeee as a platform . It was a bit of a stretch for me to say sandy would double the processing power of Larrabee. When installing Sandy . But the Increase will be substancial. Avx will take care of the floating point requirements of the processor. After all were talking about 8 real cores here. 16 threads. Also the Compillar comes in to play here big time.

This is unlike anything thats ever been done befor . Intel Feeels the need to make the CPU a bigger player in Graphics. I am sure you can understand why they want that. Thats what AVX is all about . Making the CPU a bigger player in Graphics.


I thought I better Check what ya said . Because your usually pretty good. Yep your correct . Gesher was Sandy . My memory just not working like it should. Thanks for the correction.

 

[supastar1568]

Originally posted by: Wurmer
To the OP :

It's a tough decision you got to make for sure as any decision taken on the verge a new hardware launch is. The problem is pretty much always the same here, new hardware almost always provide improvement in performances and technology but it comes at a cost specially when recently released. Personally, at this point in time, I would go for the Q9550. That CPU paired with a good GPU (or two) will give you plenty horse power in years to come. I know that there is plenty of tech savvy and hardware enthusiasm people around these forums but seriously and realistically, pretty much any recent Intel Quad or even AMD (high end model) for that matter provides more horsepower than any Jane and Joe six pack will ever need for a good many years.

On a side note, I will be purchasing a Q9550 in a few weeks to replace my C2D 6850 which I'll drop in my wife's rig. BTW the 6850 still provide plenty of horsepower to play any recent games without much issues.

Yup, I agree. I may be going with a q9550 and dropping my e8400 in my parents computer. Instead of buying them a new CPU, why not get a new one for me and give them my old. Otherwise, I probably wouldnt make that upgrade step.

 

[Wurmer]

Originally posted by: ]supastar1568
Yup, I agree. I may be going with a q9550 and dropping my e8400 in my parents computer. Instead of buying them a new CPU, why not get a new one for me and give them my old. Otherwise, I probably wouldnt make that upgrade step

I wouldn't make that move myself but my wife need a little extra power in her rig and I want to take full advantage of my present setup before changing platform which shouldn't be done anytime soon.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Wrong Gesher is Nehalem C changed to westmere because Gesher is a political group in Isreal.

I assume you are saying from the info in Wikipedia. It says here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...ge_(microarchitecture)

"Sandy Bridge uses the 32 nm manufacturing methods from Westmere (formerly known as Nehalem-C) and applies it to the new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture[1]. The former codename for this core was Gesher (means 'bridge' in Hebrew), but that codename was abandoned on 17 April 2007 because a political party in Israel is also named Gesher, as mentioned in Justin Rattner's keynote at IDF Spring 2007[2]."

"...uses the 32nm manufacturing from Westmere(known as Nehalem-C"

That says Nehalem-C = Westmere

"The former codename for this core was Gesher (means 'bridge' in Hebrew),"

The new code name for the core is Sandy Bridge. Don't you get it?? Gesher code name was shown long before Core 2 was out.

Gesher=Sandy Bridge

Know your code names correctly.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: IntelUser2000

Wrong Gesher is Nehalem C changed to westmere because Gesher is a political group in Isreal.

I assume you are saying from the info in Wikipedia. It says here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...ge_(microarchitecture)

"Sandy Bridge uses the 32 nm manufacturing methods from Westmere (formerly known as Nehalem-C) and applies it to the new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture[1]. The former codename for this core was Gesher (means 'bridge' in Hebrew), but that codename was abandoned on 17 April 2007 because a political party in Israel is also named Gesher, as mentioned in Justin Rattner's keynote at IDF Spring 2007[2]."

"...uses the 32nm manufacturing from Westmere(known as Nehalem-C"

That says Nehalem-C = Westmere

"The former codename for this core was Gesher (means 'bridge' in Hebrew),"

The new code name for the core is Sandy Bridge. Don't you get it?? Gesher code name was shown long before Core 2 was out.

Gesher=Sandy Bridge

Know your code names correctly.

arent u just reciting what nemisis said? im lost in this comment. :T

 

[woolfe9999]

With the American and global economies in disarray, you can expect prices to drop on i7 somewhat more rapidly than might typically be the case. I never buy new hardware at or within 60 days of launch. If you must get a new rig now, than get a q9550. If you can wait, I suggest that 90 days from now is a better time window. I'm not one to advocate always waiting for something as that rationale can stretch out to eternity, but new launches are just not the best time.

- woolfe

 

[tim924]

Originally posted by: woolfe9999
With the American and global economies in disarray, you can expect prices to drop on i7 somewhat more rapidly than might typically be the case. I never buy new hardware at or within 60 days of launch. If you must get a new rig now, than get a q9550. If you can wait, I suggest that 90 days from now is a better time window. I'm not one to advocate always waiting for something as that rationale can stretch out to eternity, but new launches are just not the best time.

- woolfe

To what extent is your comment based on?Is it that you just doubt intel will come up with a buggy platform like the amd did with their phenom in the very beginning of their launch,but I guess you shouldnt base a different company's performance to judge another rather reliable corporation for that matter.Or is it that you think you'd get a newer stepping later on,but that'd always stay true even you are to buy like you said 90 days from now,cause there will always be new models/steppings coming out for the any particular time that you may consider.But I guess as long as it's not a major performance killer or bug issues,most people will be more than glad to be the first explorers given they are not financially limited.

 

[IntelUser2000]

arent u just reciting what nemisis said? im lost in this comment. :T

Are you both stupid?? He's saying Gesher, Nehalem-C and Westmere are SAME AND IDENTICAL products.

I'm saying Gesher is a previous code name for Sandy Bridge while Nehalem-C and Westmere are the code name for a different product, a 32nm Nehalem derivative.

Please watch the language....vacation may be closer than you think...

Markfw900 Anandtech Moderator

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: IntelUser2000

arent u just reciting what nemisis said? im lost in this comment. :T

Are you both stupid?? He's saying Gesher, Nehalem-C and Westmere are SAME AND IDENTICAL products.

I'm saying Gesher is a previous code name for Sandy Bridge while Nehalem-C and Westmere are the code name for a different product, a 32nm Nehalem derivative.

You guys do realize you are arguing over the semantics and details of a Nemesis post, don't you? Even Nemesis would slap you with a wet fish for doing this.

Just ask him kindly to clarify the part(s) of his post that is causing consternation, he'd prolly appreciate and thank you for clearing up his own mistatements.

No need for setting a tone of "are you stupid?" in the posts to resolve this sort of disconnect.

(not too mention the rather short-lived lifespans that folks tend to have around here when they needlessly butt-heads with mods...save the ammo for nailing them on a real technical issue...with Aigo his weakness is that he considers HSF's to be passive cooling , such a cases and cooling noob he is )

 

[Markfw]

Thanks for the support Idontcare, warning given....

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
with Aigo his weakness is that he considers HSF's to be passive cooling , such a cases and cooling noob he is )

LOL..

im still lost...

so the tock phase to i7, 32nm, gesher political group in isreal... is located in westmere?

wait whose on third again?

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: Nemesis 1
1366 socket will be around along time. If AMD hopes to compete with intel . AMD will have to do a socket change. 1066 socket I won't say this will be around that long. The mobil version probably gone same time 1066 goes. Sandybridge is likely were this change will occur. 1366 should last years.

I think he's right. Intel was due for a socket replacement. They got a lot of mileage out of LGA 775. They also made 478 last a long time. Intel has a good track record of supporting their platforms.

There is nobody else like Nemesis 1 here. When they made him, they broke the mold!

This is a tough time to decide on a new system build. I kind of lean towards the Q9550, but that's just me. Mainly because buying the very first iteration of a brand-new platform is often an exercise in frustration. (Usually because of the mobo makers.) The 9550 system would probably come together fast, while with a brand-new i7 platform, you're taking a big bet on initial stability and compatibility. But it is a little bit more future-proof.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Originally posted by: IntelUser2000

arent u just reciting what nemisis said? im lost in this comment. :T

Are you both stupid?? He's saying Gesher, Nehalem-C and Westmere are SAME AND IDENTICAL products.

I'm saying Gesher is a previous code name for Sandy Bridge while Nehalem-C and Westmere are the code name for a different product, a 32nm Nehalem derivative.

Please watch the language....vacation may be closer than you think...

Markfw900 Anandtech Moderator

Hay guys I corrected my ststement . There is a time stamp . Intelluser was correct.

So relax have a nice day. . It really was a stupid error as Sandy is being done in israel and Gesher is Israeli name.

 

[blert]

Another vote for the Q9550. I would recommend keeping an eye on the for sale forums and pick up a proven overclocker. I've been very happy with my purchase and don't see changing it out for quite a while.

 

[tim924]

Thanks for the valuable suggestions guys!Btw I have come across the Gateway FX desktop series,anyone knows if they allow us to overclock the systems that are brought from them?They've had some decent builds lately for a modest price,thanks.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Probably not... (Dell is notorious for that)