Intel Core i5 750 & i7 870 Review - PAGE 1

It has already been ten months since the first Core i7 chips were released, bringing processor performance to new heights. The QX9770 was no longer king of the hill, being replaced by the equally expensive, but much faster, Core i7 965 based on the full featured Nehalem architecture. The Bloomfield lineup proved to be excellent multithreaded performers, thanks in part to the return of Intel's HyperThreading technology.

Since then, Intel has been nearly silent in terms of launching new products. They quietly introduced a couple more Core i7s with updated core frequencies, thus replacing the 3.2GHz king by a 3.33GHz monster, named the Core i7 975. Without any doubt, this processor is the king of the hill when it comes down to raw performance. All that for a bargain basement price. Right now it can be yours for as low as a grand. Of course, there's the 2.66GHz Core i7 920 which comes in at a much more reasonable $280 USD.

That's where AMD comes into play. Their K10.5 architecture, as shown in most tests, cannot rival Nehalem parts at equal frequency. Being second in terms of performance, AMD has no choice but to offer very competitive prices, in function of the performance its processor delivers. AMD's flagship processor is sold for tad less than $250 USD. This might get the attention of anyone buying a computer on a budget, since the Core i7 platform is more expensive all around, from the triple channel memory kits to the X58 motherboards.

That's where the need for a mainstream oriented platform based on Intel's Nehalem architecture comes from. With the launch of the cheaper Core i5 and i7 processors built on the Lynnfield core, many people are hoping to finally get their hands on the bleeding edge toys. In fact, the Core i5 750, on launch today, sells for $199, whereas the i7 920 costs $279.99. What do you get for such a low price and are there also higher-end versions that might still be affordable? Let's take a peek at the specifications of the new Lynnfield processors.

	Intel Core i5-750	Intel Core i7-860	Intel Core i7-870	Intel Core i7-920
Clock Speed (Ghz)	2.66	2.80	2.93	2.66
Max Turbo Frequency (GHz)	3.20	3.46	3.60	2.80
Cache	8MB
Memory Speed Support	DDR3-1333MHz
Memory Channels	Dual			Triple
Integrated PCI-E	Yes (1x16 or 2x8)			No (2x16 or 4x8)
TDP	95W			130W
Die Size	296mm2			263mm2
Transistor Count	774M			731M
Data Transfer Interface	DMI			QPI
Hyper Treading	No	Yes
Code Name	Lynnfield			Bloomfield
Processor Generation	New Intel Core Microarchitecture (Nehalem) 45nm

The first noticeable thing is that Intel allowed the maximum turbo frequency to scale much higher than with previous Core i7 processors. In fact, Lynnfield processors can bump their multiplier by up to five notches. The memory channels are down to two, however the memory frequency is the same and desktop computers aren't exactly starving memory bandwidth so it shouldn't have a large impact on overall performance, if any.

Another great innovation is that the PCI-Express 2.0 controller is now on the processor's die. It has 16 lanes, so it can run either one 16x or two 8x slots, although most manufacturers will opt for the latter in order to support two graphic cards in either CrossFire or SLI. The X58 chipset could handle up to four video cards, however, keep in mind that Lynnfield parts are targeted at a mainstream audience. Compared to the i7 9x0 series, the TDP dropped 35W, from 130W to 95W. Bloomfield's run hot so I am happy to see an improvement here.

Next, the die size and transistor count is a tad higher due to the integrated PCI-E controller. Also, on the X58 platform, communication between the processor and the northbridge is done using an extremely fast QPI link while Direct Media Interface, or DMI for short, is used between the north and southbridge. Since the PCI-E lanes are now directly on the processor, the need for bandwidth has been greatly reduced so Lynnfield dumps QPI in favor of DMI. Furthermore, the new platform now consists of a dual-chip solution - a processor connected directly to the platform controller hub, or PCH for short, which is the new fancy and admittedly more accurate name for southbridge.

Therefore, this compensates for the larger processor die size. In fact, the package size as a whole is reduced by 40% compared to a 45nm Core 2 Quad, P45 chipset and ICH10. The idle power consumption is also down by a rather impressive 50%.

The P55 chip is essentially what we used to refer as the southbridge. In fact, it is extremely similar to Intel's ICH10. The chip is highly integrated and contains a whooping 14 USB ports, 8 PCI-Express 1.0 lanes, Gigabit LAN, HD audio and six SATA2 ports.

Basically, new Core i5 and i7 parts based on Lynnfield core and accompanied by Intel's latest P55 chipset brings more performance and lower power consumption while keeping pricing in line with an AMD Phenom II based platform.