How is your Nehalem or Westmere processor holding up in modern gaming?

[cbn]

For anyone still using these processors how are they holding up? Still playing modern games at decent frame rates?

I am particularly interested in the 4C/8T Nehalem variants at both stock and overclocked levels.....but if you have a Westmere quad core or hex core please mention how that is doing.

P.S. It would also help if you mention what memory configuration you are using (capacity, RAM speed, dual channel or triple channel) and video card.

 

[cbn]

Some benchmarks using older games I found:

http://www.techspot.com/article/1039-ten-years-intel-cpu-compared/page5.html

 

[MongGrel]

For anyone still using these processors how are they holding up? Still playing modern games at decent frame rates?

I am particularly interested in the 4C/8T Nehalem variants at both stock and overclocked levels.....but if you have a Westmere quad core or hex core please mention how that is doing.

P.S. It would also help if you mention what memory configuration you are using (capacity, RAM speed, dual channel or triple channel) and video card.

112 pages of Hex stuff.

😉

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/xeon-l5639-overclocking-on-x58.2335636/page-112

 

[cbn]

One reason I am asking this question is because I found my stock speed LGA 771 E5440 Xeon (equivalent to a stock speed Q9550) absolutely unplayable on certain parts of the Crysis 3 Welcome to the Jungle level (specifically after the point in the level where the alien sniper rifle is used to destroy the weaponized tower). At this point of the game I was getting a steady 17 FPS most of the time even with resolution lowered to 800 x 600.

However, looking at the Crysis 3 benchmark results used in the previous post (which I assume are not from Welcome to the Jungle) a dual channel Nehalem (Core i5 760) with 2.8 Ghz base and 3.33 Ghz turbo does 58% bettter than a Q9650....so I imagine the 4C/4T Core i5 760 would probably come close to 30 FPS at the hard part of the Crysis Welcome to the Jungle level.

So assuming close to 30 FPS for 2.8 Ghz/3.33 Ghz 4C/4T dual channel Nehalem.....I wonder how 4C/8T Nehalem with triple channel would do?

 

[MongGrel]

If you're going to build something from scratch these days and do not have a Westmere Hex board laying around to upgrade, you could do a lot better on the cheap these days from scratch.

771 is pretty much ancient these days for gaming on anything new.

 

[atticus14]

my 920 @ 3.6 (Tri-Channel) lets me participate in anything still yet, but anything cpu intensive like GTA V is definitely stuck at sub 60 FPS gaming at very near ultra settings. I would say I average about 40 FPS in that game in particular. (R9 390 @ 1150)

I don't regret my computer, but I think it's funny that Sandy Bridge is still so good...if only I waited one more year and got a seemingly typical 4.5 oc, I Think I would have been okay to ride it out even longer, but as is, I'm looking forward to hopefully Ryzen build sometime later this year.

 

[cbn]

If you're going to build something from scratch these days and do not have a Westmere Hex board laying around to upgrade, you could do a lot better on the cheap these days from scratch.

For a Nehalem 4C/8T triple channel PC I was actually thinking of the Pre-built LGA 1366 Workstations which can often had for $150 or less. An example would be the Dell Precision T3500 which comes with a 525W PSU equipped with one 6 pin PCIe power connector.

 

[MongGrel]

For a Nehalem 4C/8T triple channel PC I was actually thinking of the Pre-built LGA 1366 Workstations which can often had for $150 or less. An example would be the Dell Precision T3500 which comes with a 525W PSU equipped with one 6 pin PCIe power connector.

GL I'm bowing out on this one.

I have not bought a Dell pre-built in 20+ years.

 

[Rifter]

My i7 930@4.2Ghz is still going strong 7 years later. I originally built this PC(in sig) with 2 GTX 460's and 6 months ago upgraded the GPU's to a single RX480. The CPU has no issues pushing this new GPU. In games CPU usage is usually around 60-80% and GPU usage always pegged at 100%.

I game mostly at 1440p, only go down to 1080p for very brutal games, otherwise i just turn down some setting at 1440p.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

My i7 930@4.2Ghz is still going strong 7 years later. I originally built this PC(in sig) with 2 GTX 460's and 6 months ago upgraded the GPU's to a single RX480. The CPU has no issues pushing this new GPU. In games CPU usage is usually around 60-80% and GPU usage always pegged at 100%.

I game mostly at 1440p, only go down to 1080p for very brutal games, otherwise i just turn down some setting at 1440p.

The power consumption of the CPU alone must be pushing 225w. What kind of cooler did people use on these?

 

[Rifter]

The power consumption of the CPU alone must be pushing 225w. What kind of cooler did people use on these?

Yeah you need a beast of a cooler, i have a Noctua NH-D14, everyone thought these things would warp your mobo but mines been fine for 7 years.

 

[psolord]

OP, I did a comparison of Sandy vs Yorkfield vs Lynnfield a while back with my GTX 970. You can find it in my signature if you are interested.

Here is the Lynnfield info, which is very close to Nehalem in terms of IPC.

 

[bigboxes]

I retired my i7 920 in January 2015 when I build the rig in my sig. Puts off a lot less heat. Now, it does duty in @ stock in my HTPC. I loved that P6T Deluxe v2 mobo. I had a TRUE cooling it. That build lasted me 5 1/2 years. I see a trend here with rigs lasting longer than previously. Nice to see many of you still making them work.

 

[richierich1212]

Man seeing these beast coolers makes me thankful that the latest CPUs these days don't need them anymore even for an overclock. The last big cooler I had was a Scythe Mugen 2 cooling a 1055T.

 

[scannall]

My overclocked x5660 still games just great. I do use 'MOAR CORES' for rendering and such. So I am hoping Ryzen will allow me to retire this rig gracefully.

 

[Deders]

I used to play Crysis 3 on an i5-750 overclocked to 3800 with a GTX670 and it had no problem handling the Welcome to the Jungle level. It's the most CPU intensive part of a game I've seen but i was still getting very playable framerates. at least 45fps, if not more.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Man seeing these beast coolers makes me thankful that the latest CPUs these days don't need them anymore even for an overclock. The last big cooler I had was a Scythe Mugen 2 cooling a 1055T.

I'm never going back to those old style monster coolers, it is such a pain taking ram sticks out and putting them back in again.

My next cooling solution will be an AIO water cooler from someone like Corsair.

 

[itsmydamnation]

I'm never going back to those old style monster coolers, it is such a pain taking ram sticks out and putting them back in again.

My next cooling solution will be an AIO water cooler from someone like Corsair.

I assume on a nice shinny Zen CPU, we will be like bothers 😛.
Im actually surprised AIO hasn't been more popular on the GPU side.

 

[cbn]

OP, I did a comparison of Sandy vs Yorkfield vs Lynnfield a while back with my GTX 970. You can find it in my signature if you are interested.

Here is the Lynnfield info, which is very close to Nehalem in terms of IPC.

Thank you for the work you did. Very nice!

It looks like the 4.8 Ghz Core i5 2500K (with dual chanel DDR3 2133) is around 15% to 20% faster (on average) than the 4.0 Ghz Core i7 860 with dual channel DDR3 2000.

I wonder how much effect triple channel (via LGA 1366 Nehalem or 4C/8T Westmere) would have had?

 

[rchunter]

My x5660--gtx 970 rig is running linux only now. I don't do a lot of gaming on it. Mainly kerbal space sim and minecraft.

 

[CHADBOGA]

I assume on a nice shinny Zen CPU, we will be like bothers 😛.
Im actually surprised AIO hasn't been more popular on the GPU side.

Maybe on Zen++ as I just don't have the need to update my current computer.

Unless my motherboard or something dies, I probably won't get a new system till 2019 or later.

Probably will get another GPU before then though..

 

[StrangerGuy]

It looks like the 4.8 Ghz Core i5 2500K (with dual chanel DDR3 2133) is around 15% to 20% faster (on average) than the 4.0 Ghz Core i7 860 with dual channel DDR3 2000.

What's interesting is i7 870 is dead even against Q9650 at in 2009 when both are similarly clocked back in 2009, and now Nehalem is burying C2Q alive.

And also, a 20% win for SB against 870 isn't really that impressive when its also clocked 20% higher.

 

[cbn]

And also, a 20% win for SB against 870 isn't really that impressive when its also clocked 20% higher.

Good point.

So assuming they tied if both were clocked at 4 Ghz the explanation would be hyperthreading vs. IPC and a slightly higher memory speed (dual channel DDR3 2133 vs. dual channel DDR 2000)? How about instruction set differences? (Sandy Bridge has AVX and Nehalem does not).

 

[StrangerGuy]

I retired my i7 920 in January 2015 when I build the rig in my sig.

Are those pics when the parts are brand new? My PC stuff will never be that shiny after 5 years living in a godawful 90%+ humidity climate.

 

[SPBHM]

Good point.

So assuming they tied if both were clocked at 4 Ghz the explanation would be hyperthreading vs. IPC and a slightly higher memory speed (dual channel DDR3 2133 vs. dual channel DDR 2000)? How about instruction set differences? (Sandy Bridge has AVX and Nehalem does not).

as far as I know AVX is not relevant for gaming, at least that much was clear on those i5 6500 overclock tests, with broken AVX and performed the same as an i5 6600K at the same clock on gaming

Nehalem should not be massively slower than sandy bridge in games, think a 4GHz Nehalem i7 should still handle most games pretty OK, more or less like a stock 2600K?