Difference between i7-950 and i7-2600?

[bigrash]

Is the new Sandy Bridge i7-2600 chip that much better than the old Bloomfield i7-950? Are they both Quad-core (the 2600 doesn't mention that on the box)? Which would you buy out of the two for gaming?

 

[Castiel]

Gaming? 2500K

 

[Spike]

Clock for clock the SB is going to be faster so if your buying right now then the 2600k (or 2500k) would be the best choice. They are also on a new socket that has some hope of seeing new Ivy Bridge chips down the line, though don't buy it as that may not pan out. Buying an i7-9xx would not be smart unless you need to have tri-sli or triple channel ram as the 1155 socket does not support those but the 1366 socket does.

If you already have an i7-950 then getting a 2600 does not make much sense. Yes, the 2600 will be faster, overclock higher, and run cooler but unless power usage is a huge concern the difference in performance will be noticeable only on benchmarks. For "real world" use there is not much benefit to buying a 2600 if you have an i7 currently.

 

[nanaki333]

yeah. i have an i7 950 and my wife has an i7 940. i'm going to upgrade both of our machines to ivy when it comes out (or BD if it proves AWESOME!).