Intel Core i7 and Gaming @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Intel Core i7 and Gaming - We take our Intel Core i7 processors ranging from 2.66GHz all the way up to 4GHz and turn them loose on Ubisoft’s FarCry 2. It is a great game but does it need a new CPU to give you a better gaming experience? The results even surprised us.

One thing I do know is that the data presented here today should give you enough Core i7 performance feedback to help you make a decision on your next upgrade. If you are in for a full blown system build, I think you would not be making a good decision by sticking with a Core 2 platform unless you are making the decision based solely on budget. My next system is very likely going to contain a Core i7 920 on an ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard.
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Thanks!

Edit: I think that sticking with C2D is not a good decision but C2Q isn't that far behind the Core i7 considering the price of the Core i7 CPU, RAM and mobo when compared to an OCed C2Q.
 
Awesome, thanks for the game benches at all resolutions. Some sites (not to be named) skimped on showing the scaling (which is to say, lack thereof). Looks like this is a pass for gaming right now. Of course if I do build another system, it would actually be target at being a workstation for Adobe apps, in which case I will definitely be getting the i7.
 
alg7_munif said:
Thanks!

Edit: I think that sticking with C2D is not a good decision but C2Q isn't that far behind the Core i7 considering the price of the Core i7 CPU, RAM and mobo when compared to an OCed C2Q.
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Agreed. I would not build a C2D system now, but if you currently have one for gaming, you may not be wanting to bail out just yet.
 
canislupy said:
Awesome, thanks for the game benches at all resolutions. Some sites (not to be named) skimped on showing the scaling (which is to say, lack thereof). Looks like this is a pass for gaming right now. Of course if I do build another system, it would actually be target at being a workstation for Adobe apps, in which case I will definitely be getting the i7.
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You are welcome.

I think the scaling IS the story.
 
Thanks, I've been waiting to see this for a while. Been thinking of upgrading from the setup in my sig for a while now and I think I can safely go with a c2d for now and blow my load on an i7 when the platform matures in a year.
 
alg7_munif said:
From your conclusion:

Did you mean Core 2 in general or Core 2 Duo because... well the 3.2GHz QX9770 is faster than the 3.2GHz Core i7 here:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU4MCwyLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
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I meant what I wrote. C2 is at the end of the line. And it is "faster" there, but would not be noticeable in a realworld gaming scenario. A socket LGA 1366 motheboard is going to have a lot of upgrade options for the next couple of years or so. Or you can always wait....but you can always do that.
 
Nice article. I think I'll stick with my E8400 for now though. The synthetic and application articles impressed me, but gaming it my primary focus and Core i7 just doesn't seem worth it until we get games able to take real advantage of Quad-Core CPUs. I get the feeling my C2D will last me all through next year as well, especially as I plan to buy a new mobo and go SLI.

Still have to wonder what AMD has up their sleeves, though I doubt its going to be any more impressive with gaming than the i7.
 
Interesting. I have a S939 X2 4400+ and it definately feels like it is holding my GTX 260 back. Would it be worth it to build a system around a C2Q Q9550 or around a Ci7 920? The C2Q system would be much cheaper but the Ci7 would be more future proof. It would be used solely for gaming so that complicates things even more.
 
I wasn't expecting lower performance. Interesting. hopefully its just a matter of optimization.

/hugs old quad core
 
but the Ci7 would be more future proof
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There is no such thing as being future proof in this industry. Either you're willing to spend the extra money for top of the line or you spend it on what gives the best price/performance. The i7 looks quite good and compared to other Quad Cores seems priced reasonably.

The fact of the matter is that overclocking the Core i7 920 (which is supposed retail for around $284) was one of the easiest overclocks I have ever experienced.
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I'm sure it will be more than $284 but the 9550 is ~$310 right now, so i don't see how you could lose by getting the i7 920.
 
Kyle,

Thanks for the evaluation using SLI, however have you tried CrossFire? Have you tried other games using multi-GPU solutions?

I ask only because AnandTech seems to show hit-or-miss scaling their review:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3448&p=12

QuakeWars in their tests scaled as FarCry 2 does in you evaluation on both CrossFire and SLI, but Oblivion seemed to have issues on a Core i7/X58 solution versus an older Core2 system with X48 chipset or Nvidia's 790i. I'd imagine it's a driver issue more than anything, but it's worth pointing out.
 
I will go with the i7 920...better options to upgrade down the road seals the deal for me.
 
Thanks again for the benches at lower resolutions for us with smaller LCD's and AA.
 
maybe I'm reading it wrong but it looks like unless you are running 280 SLI the Corei7 isn't worth it. It would be interesting to see top end Core 2 duo with 280 SLI vs Core i7 and 280 SLI.
 
Deviationer said:
maybe I'm reading it wrong but it looks like unless you are running 280 SLI the Corei7 isn't worth it. It would be interesting to see top end Core 2 duo with 280 SLI vs Core i7 and 280 SLI.
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add in a 2x 4870 1gb crossfire or a 2x 4870 x2's then we have a fair and balenced party well not with the x2's (4 gpu bliss mmm intel based spider platform) but you get the point
 
maxius said:
add in a 2x 4870 1gb crossfire or a 2x 4870 x2's then we have a fair and balenced party well not with the x2's (4 gpu bliss mmm intel based spider platform) but you get the point
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yeah I get it :)

2-4X GPUs = good match for the Core i7, otherwise you will be GPU limited.
 
I'll gladly take the C2 Duo and save my money. Now I'll probably just gamble and hope that they come down in price a bit after the i7 comes out.
 
will the i7 920 be available on launch day or is an extreme edition only affair?
 
TS28 said:
Strange. How did hothardware get such different results?

Here we see Core i7 doing much better o_O: http://hothardware.com/Articles/Intel-Core-i7-Processors-Nehalem-and-X58-Have-Arrived/?page=15
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Well, I look at it this way. I don't see much need in looking back in terms of gaming engines. QW is way long in the tooth, and UT3 never did present a challenge of any kind. IMO this what synthetic benchmarks are best for. We have great potential here, and we know that, but will we see software that will leverage it? I think FC2 is doing a good job of multithreading but just not taking advantage of what i7 has to offer.
 
Will be interesting to see how GTA 4 PC scales on the new quads since it will take advantage of multi-core. Hopefully they dont blow the C2D too far out of the water or I'll be needing another upgrade... *sigh*
 
Ever since 7900GTX I haven't bothered running an SLi configuration because it always seemed that they were being held back by todays current CPU's as far as scalability. Hell even the [H] has been seen to say that tri sli isn't worth it from what they saw.

I read the review from guru 3d among others and what they showed was a ENORMOUS performance increase in multi card gaming. They showed 2x GTX 260 2x GTX 280 and 3x GTX 280 as well as 2X 4870 and 2x 4870x2.

See here; http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i7-multigpu-sli-crossfire-game-performance-review/6


At cpu limited resolutions there was a performance increase of almost double. (well maybe more like 70% or more increase)

I know these were synthetic benchmarks. However, I would love to see if this was even remotely close in real world benchmarking.

I think a short article showing Real-World GTX 260/280 2x and 3x and 4870/4870x2 2x would be good to see if it's time for me and a bunch of other readers to buy our 2nd (or 3rd) graphics card for our rigs, for the 1st time in a LONG time :D:D:D
 
zeekle said:
do you think the first gen motherboards will have upgrade options or get stuck in the first rev blues?
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I dont see any reason for that happening. Intel has learned about crossing into that 140w power envelope.
 
mr_zen256 said:
Will be interesting to see how GTA 4 PC scales on the new quads since it will take advantage of multi-core. Hopefully they dont blow the C2D too far out of the water or I'll be needing another upgrade... *sigh*
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Might be greatness there!!!
 
Lord_Exodia said:
I think a short article showing Real-World GTX 260/280 2x and 3x and 4870/4870x2 2x would be good to see if it's time for me and a bunch of other readers to buy our 2nd (or 3rd) graphics card for our rigs, for the 1st time in a LONG time :D:D:D
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I mentioned in there somewhere today that we would be doing a realworld CPU scaling article soon. Gotta get enough hardware between Brent and I to get it done.
 
How long will it take for the price to be at a more acceptable level
wink.gif
 
See no real reason for upgrading my gaming machine (in sig) at present. I can wait till next year sometime for that. Now my office PC, well that's some impressive bench numbers so I will have to think long and hard about upgrading soon.
 
Excellent article, thanks very much. Looks like I don't have any reason to upgrade my current gaming machine for a while now.

I'm curious to see how long it will take for games will benefit from what i7 brings to the table.
 
I have to think I'm not the only guy out there with a fairly long in the tooth platform (S939 and AM2/AM2+, etc) with fairly modern vid cards, given results like this. I would be interested in seeing something showing us guys what we're missing out on by spending all our money on vid cards and skimping on CPU. $80 AMD X2 CPU with a GX280 vs. i7 with like a 8800GT or something would be interesting.

I'm just wondering how much my CPU is holding me back, and at what point does a vid card begin to outrun the rest of the system.
 
my feeling is that mult gpu setups are being held back by CPU's especially dual core ones. The gaps is only going to get bigger. The Core2 has had a great run but don't be surprised if all current records are smashed by i7, i pity AMD for now. The guru3d article show some amazing scaling on i7, can't wait for more real world proof because i won't have any i7 kit for awhile :(
 
Lord_Exodia said:
...I think a short article showing Real-World GTX 260/280 2x and 3x and 4870/4870x2 2x would be good to see if it's time for me and a bunch of other readers to buy our 2nd (or 3rd) graphics card for our rigs, for the 1st time in a LONG time :D:D:D
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sli scaling is damn near 100% (exaggeration, though my performance numbers are buried in one of the million farcry2 threads here) with my 8800gt sli setup @ 1920x1080. really, it works so much like it's supposed to that it's ridiculous.

going from the latest whql vista 32-bit forceware to the 180 betas really turned up the performance for farcry2 with sli.

*insert numbers and graphs here to supplement the gum-flappin*

i'll have to wait until i return home to run some comparisons with my rig against [H] farcry2 'synthetic' testing.


great article k n co.
 
g-money said:
There is no such thing as being future proof in this industry. Either you're willing to spend the extra money for top of the line or you spend it on what gives the best price/performance. The i7 looks quite good and compared to other Quad Cores seems priced reasonably.



I'm sure it will be more than $284 but the 9550 is ~$310 right now, so i don't see how you could lose by getting the i7 920.
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Add in the cost of DDR2 vs DDR3 and X58 vs a Cheap P45 mobo, then you will see .

mr_zen256 said:
Will be interesting to see how GTA 4 PC scales on the new quads since it will take advantage of multi-core. Hopefully they dont blow the C2D too far out of the water or I'll be needing another upgrade... *sigh*
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Why do you expect a console port, of all games, to use all four cores ?
 
I'm planing a new build for end of Nov, and I would be going C2D. Simple fact that Core I7 is new, there will most likely will be a glitch or two. The cost is also a major factor, While prices for I7 will remain high for awhile, the cost C2D and related products will be going down. Finally there is no shock and awe with the I7 performance over current generation (specially in gaming). I will build a mid level C2D system, and give I7 a year to mature. By that time, the price should drop and with a couple bios updates the I7 should be good to go
 
Nice review as always Kyle however, I was wondering if you had taken a gander at the guru3d gaming review of the CI7. Most notably the farcry 2 numbers running a i7965 vs an E8400. I was wondering what was done differently there compared to you guys. if you look at his numbers hes showing a clear advantage for the I7 up to 1920 x 1200. Not just super low res's that noone plays at.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i7-multigpu-sli-crossfire-game-performance-review/11

Would like to hear comments on this. :)
 
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