core i7 970 first review

Cool. If i was considering getting into the 6 cores, I doubt I would even consider the 980. :(
 
I reckon it would be at the $500-odd price point - below the Extreme Edition price, but above the 930.
 
The only pricing point i've seen (which could be a bunch of bull) was around 800 bux for this CPU..

I'll get a 6 core when they're around 500 bux retail.
 
A lot of money these days for a processor. Used to be common place with $1200 being the top end.
 
nightwalker said:
I'll get a 6 core when they're around 500 bux retail.
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I got one for $138.19 plus an $86.80 ($71.80AR) CFX/USB3/SATA3 motherboard a little over a week ago.

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Oh, you mean Intel. :p
 
Because its clocked so close to the 980x I don't think we will see too big of a price reduction. Right now the non Microcenter prices are roughly:

930 - $300
950 - $550
975 - $1,000
980x - $1,050

Intel will probably slot it in between the 950 & 975 at around $800. The 930 really needs to become a $225 part, the 950 a $300 part, and the 970 could slot in at the $550 price point and actually give some value. Maybe in 2012 I can get a 6 core chip to replace my 920.
 
weuntouchable said:
...Maybe in 2012 I can get a 6 core chip to replace my 920.
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You can count on that one. If we look at Q6600 pricing and the history of other strong chips that started off at $999, then it's safe to speculate that Intel is going to have some hex-core offering at the $500 or less price point. The only factor is time.

By the time Sandy Bridge is out Intel is going to want to milk the LGA1366 platform for as much as they can, so something will be out by then at an attractive price.
 
Hmm if these benchmarks are true and you can get this thing for $500 id buy one to replace my Q6600 just cuz im bored.
 
Where did $500 come from? :p The price is supposedly going to be around $800 at launch.
 
That new i7 970 is definately something that will interest people who need the threads. When you consider that the Core i7 930's don't really overclock worse than the extreme edition 975x, I suspect that the upcoming 970 is going to overclock very well. We have a few folders for our team that are easily getting 4.2ghz out of their Gulftowns. Considering that the 970 will also be a 32nm cpu, it should do very well. I just hope that we get some very reasonably priced versions of the Gulftowns before LGA 1366 is abandoned by Intel next year, as i'd like to stretch out the life of my LGA 1366 folding rig some more. Gulftown is the first Intel processor that has truly impressed me(i'm an AMD fan), and it makes me excited to know that lower cost versions are on their way.
 
As far as gaming goes. The Intel and AMD Hexacores are just about identical in performance. I'd have liked to see Gulftown vs quadcore i7 performance. I doubt the FPS difference for games is much there either.
 
cmon, just release this as a $500 part or make a 6core 3.06ghz @ $350 or something that would actually make people buy these.nice 6cores...
 
ihira said:
cmon, just release this as a $500 part or make a 6core 3.06ghz @ $350 or something that would actually make people buy these.nice 6cores...
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Agreed. Or release a 2.8Ghz Hex Core for around $300.
 
That new i7 970 is definately something that will interest people who need the threads. When you consider that the Core i7 930's don't really overclock worse than the extreme edition 975x, I suspect that the upcoming 970 is going to overclock very well. We have a few folders for our team that are easily getting 4.2ghz out of their Gulftowns. Considering that the 970 will also be a 32nm cpu, it should do very well. I just hope that we get some very reasonably priced versions of the Gulftowns before LGA 1366 is abandoned by Intel next year, as i'd like to stretch out the life of my LGA 1366 folding rig some more. Gulftown is the first Intel processor that has truly impressed me(i'm an AMD fan), and it makes me excited to know that lower cost versions are on their way.
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Seeing as it's a newer product, despite the fact that the processors are binned and all that, it could very well be that most of the 970s would clock better than the 980x's that have already been sold.
 
Mr. Pedantic said:
Seeing as it's a newer product, despite the fact that the processors are binned and all that, it could very well be that most of the 970s would clock better than the 980x's that have already been sold.
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I will say this, if the i7 970 X6 processor ends up being priced at under $500, I have a feeling that I will be doing an impulse upgrade on my folding rig. I can't wait to see how well these new 32nm babies are going to overclock. I'm a conservative overclocker though, but it will still be exciting to see.
 
while these new procs are nice, i just cant imagine dropping such a chunk of change for one. my 920 will last quite a while in my rig...
 
amdgamer said:
I will say this, if the i7 970 X6 processor ends up being priced at under $500, I have a feeling that I will be doing an impulse upgrade on my folding rig. I can't wait to see how well these new 32nm babies are going to overclock. I'm a conservative overclocker though, but it will still be exciting to see.
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From what Ive seen from reviews, them being 32nm helps but the additional 2 cores (+50% more than quad) do not, so it sorta cancels out.

They're good OCers no doubt, but not a huge jump like what 45nm Wolfdale showed us versus 65nm Conroe.

Intel is missing a big enthusiast pie by not releasing 32nm quads with Nehalem.
 
ihira said:
From what Ive seen from reviews, them being 32nm helps but the additional 2 cores (+50% more than quad) do not, so it sorta cancels out.

They're good OCers no doubt, but not a huge jump like what 45nm Wolfdale showed us versus 65nm Conroe.

Intel is missing a big enthusiast pie by not releasing 32nm quads with Nehalem.
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Well this would be for my folding rig. We have several folders on our team who have Gulftowns and their level of production is just insane. Those of us with overclocked Bloomfields can generally fold a single bigadv(very very big) work unit every few days running 24/7. A gulftown overclocked to 4.2ghz is capable of not only folding two of these work units every few days, but also run GPU clients at the same time. Folding is a heavily threaded application that benefits largely from being about to process 12 threads at a time. This is why we are seeing some good production from the Thubans as they also do very well in heavily threaded apps like folding.

If you are a gamer, a Gulftown isn't going to impress you for the money as no game can take full advantage of anything other than the larger level of L3 cache on it. This is why I continue to say that the Gulftown is truly the first Intel processor to really get my interest, as it has some insane processing power for apps that need the threads.
 
Awesome. My Q6600 is still holding up strong (for my needs), but I can still feel the urge for upgrading is strong. Must hold out for 6 cores (+HT). I want my next upgrade to be a holy shit that's fast moment.
 
Impressive horsepower, but the fact that it's still 130W is disappointing to me. As a broke upgradeaholic, I promised myself no upgrades if it means power consumption goes up. I suspect I'll be on my 65w s775 quad awhile.
 
mavalpha said:
Impressive horsepower, but the fact that it's still 130W is disappointing to me. As a broke upgradeaholic, I promised myself no upgrades if it means power consumption goes up. I suspect I'll be on my 65w s775 quad awhile.
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I have a feeling that you may never be upgrading then. At least from an enthusiast standpoint, I can't recall anything coming out from AMD or Intel that had a TDP that low in a long time. If anything, power consumption for more enthusiast level parts are going to stay where they are right now if not go up. I can't recall anything coming out in the last several years that actually went the other direction in power consumption. From a cpu standpoint, it is clear that we are heading for more and more cores which would negate the benefits of a die shrink without a serious drop in clock speeds.

I suppose you would have to wait until lower level offerings of the enthusiast parts make their way down, but that can take a while and by then the new games may have entirely new cpu requirements.
 
mavalpha said:
Impressive horsepower, but the fact that it's still 130W is disappointing to me. As a broke upgradeaholic, I promised myself no upgrades if it means power consumption goes up. I suspect I'll be on my 65w s775 quad awhile.
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Intel went for 4 to 6 cores in the same power signature. Not bad.
 
I just don't see the point of these in a home computer.

If you are a serious folder, wouldn't your rather run multiple quad core based machines for the same price as a single quad?

As a gamer, you will gain little to nothing with a 6 core over a quad
 
Gadfly said:
If you are a serious folder, wouldn't your rather run multiple quad core based machines for the same price as a single quad?
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with the point bonus coming from the A3 (-bigadv -smp 8) work units, having 8 logical or physical cores in a single computer vastly outperforms two computers with 4 cores each.
 
I wish Intel would release this already, because the 980x is insanely priced, $1000 WTF no thanks. Hopefully this will be half the price, hopefully here in Australia it will be priced under $900 and I may consider getting one.
 
I have lots of rendering to do this fall. Really looking forward to picking one up. Here's to hoping the price is right...
 
RageVI said:
I have lots of rendering to do this fall. Really looking forward to picking one up. Here's to hoping the price is right...
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Judging by how quickly the Gulftowns are flying off the shelves of the Micro Center near me at $1000 each, i'd say that Intel could probably charge a very high price for this 970 i7. If the clock speed is indeed just slightly under the current Gulftown, it is going to perform like crazy and thus Intel would have no need to bargain price it.
 
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