Core i7 920 vs 940? Is the 940 worth it?

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RamGuy

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I'm going to get my Nehalem setup very soon, so then I have to decide on which CPU to get?
Then this question pops in my head, 920 or 940?

The 920 isn't that expensive and provides good performance for it's money, the 940 on the other hand is almost twice the price? And is it really worth twice the money?
 
Too early to tell imo. Don't know what actual prices are going to look like. Overclocking results still far from finalized.

If I were to guess right now I'd say 920. It seems to overclock by a greater % than the 940. Though that's probably because the 920 has received more attention. Still, I can't come up with any reasons to pay twice as much for a 940.
 
Honestly from the overclock data it doesn't seem so. I'm going to be getting a 920 and overclock it anyway so I don't think the 940 will be worth the extra cash.
 
Indeed... even without overclocking, the 920 has far better bang for the buck, because it's almost as fast as the 940, at a much lower price.
With overclocking, generally the lower-end models can overclock further, so if you overclock both to the max, the 920 is probably even closer to the 940, or in some cases even faster (luck of the draw really).
 
920 easily. I would say on avg the OC is around 3.6ghz which is on par with the Q6600.
 
I've seen reviews of the 920 saying it can do anywhere from 3.8-4.0Ghz on the overclock. That is pretty darn impressive to me. For as cheap as you can get a 920 for that should be all anyone really needs. Pretty much anyone who buys any of the faster CPU's are completely wasting their money. The benefit they will gain past what the 920 offers is just pure epeen status.
 
What I'm curious about is if the multiplier make a difference on power consumption. I mean if you take a 920 and a 940 and clock them the same with different voltages how much power are you saving? If you plan to load them continuously with folding or something will the 940 pay for itself in a year by power savings alone?


 
RamGuy said:
I'm going to get my Nehalem setup very soon, so then I have to decide on which CPU to get?
Then this question pops in my head, 920 or 940?

The 920 isn't that expensive and provides good performance for it's money, the 940 on the other hand is almost twice the price? And is it really worth twice the money?
Click to expand...

Not rarely if ever is it worth it to get a higher rated cpu from the same batch, especially the initial models. Granted once you start getting into revisions and new stepping then differences can materialize. The E8400 and E8500 are the same provided the stepping is the same. The E8600 E0 however does represent a step up from a C0/C1 E8400
 
Unless the price is not an issue, you might want to consider that current pre-order price for 920 goes over $300, while 940 may run as high as $600... quite a difference for such a small clock speed difference for me.
 
The 920 is my current list favourite, just because it's cheapest and [H] already showed it can hit the 3GHz mark, if you wanted to go that direction.
 
I'll be going for the Core i7 920 then, hoping for a stable 3.5 3.8GHz overclock!
If it's true that the 920 clocks better than the 940, then the 940 is simply a waste of money.
 
I'm going to get a 920 at some point but really I need more info on overclocking capability and maybe even some price lowering over the 3 new components I'll need.
 
What little evidence I've seen on the 940 points to it not overclocking very much beyond what a 920 can.
 
It really is a waste of money if the one under it overclocks JUST as well. And honestly the 920 is going to be the one I'll be springing for soon enough. I'm just waiting for the mobos and CPUs to populate on newegg.ca.
 
Get the lowest end CPU and OC it for FREE. Why pay more for something you can do yourself?
 
That's what most OCer's do. Buy the cheapest thing they can and OC the living life out of it. Granted there are some who buy the top end stuff and do the same but more often than not OCers are also bang for your buck guys too
 
yeah, I think the 920 it likely going to be the best choice if you plan on OCing.. it used to be the case that some of the higher end cpus had more headroom, that they were cherry picked samples, but I think that's less and less the case these days... I guess the higher multiplier might be nice in some cases, but it's not worth an doubling the price of the cpu.. gah!
 
At this point the 920 may be your best bet, and you can always oc it
wink.gif
 
Does anyone know what memory multipliers the 940 have?
Because i have red somewhere that 920 and 940 have 6 or 8 multiplier, and 965 have 10 or 12.
But somewhere else i have red that only 920 have 6 or 8, while 940 and 965 have 10 or 12.

If 940 have 10 or 12 multiplier.. then the benefit of having a higher CPU multiplier gets eaten up..
 
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