[Imglidinhere]

Okay... since I have been lacking majorly, for knowledge, in the area of intel's newest children, the i3, i5, & i7 CPUs, I have a question or two regarding the real performance of those processors. Without hyperthreading, If you put a Core 2 Duo/Quad 2.66GHz up against a Core i5/i7 2.66GHz, is the newest core actually faster clock for clock than the previous core, in those terms?

 

[paulo dourado]

yes, by A LOT

 

[Brutal-Force]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulo dourado yes, by A LOT

That really depends on what your definition of A LOT is.

I went from a Q6600 to a i5 750. Benching scores went from 13k to 17k. But that was a difference of Q6600 @3.6 and i5 750 @4.2. I figure there is about a 25% increase in benchmarks, but for every day use, you will not notice the speed difference. I then decided I wanted an i7 so I upgraded to the i7 860 for the Hyper threading. Bench scores only score higher when its a bench that utilizes Hyperthreading.

Now I understand that its not a clock for clock comparison, but lets face it, IF we are overclocking the processor, then why not make comparisons at their maximum overclock. AND if we are doing that then you figured clock speed wise we are talking a about a 12.5% increase in clock speed for about a 20-25% performance increase. If you run at stock, I would expect these numbers for fall to something like 8-10% increase at the same stock speed.

Not everyone will use HT and honestly I only got it to "future proof" my new computer, but if I had to advise someone as whether or not its "worth it" I would have to say no. If you have money to burn and/or you need to build a whole new computer, then go i-series. i3 is for Gamers, i5 750 for average users and i7s from either platform for power users. If you intend to build a server or just have more ȼents than brains, then buy the 1366 platform for the 6 Core.

 

[windfire]

Tom's hardware has done two tests comparing Core i7 with C2Q in a wide range of applications in order to get a ''weighted average''.

1st: at 3.2 Ghz
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...m,2057-11.html

2nd: at 2.8 Ghz
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...u,2499-10.html

Both tests indicate that C2Q is about 16% slower than Core i7 at these two frequencies. I would imagine this still holds true at 2.66 Ghz.
(The tests were likely to have hyperthreading on)