Revisiting the Intel i7-930 and Nehalem Microarchitecture

Megalith

Megalith

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Gamers Nexus has dusted off the i7-930 from 2008 to see how a relic manages present-day titles. This chip was launched nearly a decade ago, but benchmarks suggest that it remains pretty sufficient in games ranging from GTA V to Battlefield 1. Lack of compatibility with modern features (e.g., memory frequency, DirectX 12) remains an issue, however.

The difference between Intel’s CPU generations were huge leaps around 2010. Overclocking the i7-930 was mostly painless, and we saw 35-ish percent performance increases in synthetic benchmarks, and 25% or greater in games by going from 2.8 to 4GHz. Despite this, our 4GHz i7-930 was equivalent in most benchmarks to a stock i7-2600K, a CPU released only a year later for a moderately higher price. As we recommended with the 2600K (or any CPU), current owners of the i7-930 that are considering an upgrade should first ask themselves if they’re unhappy with performance.
 
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As much as I like gamer nexus I don't think he covered it all that well. He only pushed it to 4ghz which isn't bad but could easily be better. And he never really considers the option for a $40 e56xx hexa core Xeon ( their seoursly cheap now and OC fantastically on almost all x58 board). All in all its still a viable cpu for gaming with a decent gpu...no surprise their. My 2 cents.
 
I have a complete spare x58 930 setup and to be brutally honest, it does everything my z170 6700k setup can do, ok maybe a slight degredation in some thing but not as much as you would think.

It played games great for me up until 2015 when i went to a 6700k setup and I am sure it could still game with no problems if I were to try it albeit the graphics card would probably be letting it down now.

As for everything else, i really dont see any difference between the 930 and 6700, ok obviously the 6700 is much faster but since am not benchmarking or encoding all day long I just do not notice the increase in speed as they both open firefox as quickly as each other, they both load windows fast and they both send shit to the recycle bin just as quickly as the other one does.

I can game good on one and game good on the other but I dont bother with either as I love my ipads.
 
Nothing wrong with an old i7-930. I've had one in service since it was released and it has been very reliable. With a SSD and reasonable graphics card it doesn't have any issues with 1080p gaming at 60FPS. My son is very happy with it. People shouldn't look at old tech like it has no value...although I would be first to admit it seems a bit tired these days.
 
I've bought older chips from eBay to upgrade old servers in my basement - bargain prices and good performance. For what I use them for (Plex, home automation, FreeNAS, playing with new stuff like Docker) - it's amazing performance for the dollars I spent. Hell, my main rig I use the most is still an i7-2600k. It still handles my gaming needs (which isn't as much as it used to be), and works great for everything else I do.
I've also bought some old Xeon servers. They are loud and suck down the power, but are killer servers for stuff I like to play around with.
I've been following Ryzen closely - but remind myself that I'm not going to see a big bang in my computing power if I switch. Yes, a new rig would be faster and could do certain stuff quicker. Not arguing that. I'm just saying if I spend the cash, I'm not going to notice a huge difference in my daily tasks.
 
I'm still using my 920 and it's starting to become an issue with some games, several newer games have had massive framerate issues in certain areas that tax the CPU and I put Watchdogs 2 in my backlog until i get a new system because it was unplayable. I've been running at stock clocks since my water cooler went belly up which is a big part of the problem but it had already become the weak link when I still had it at 4 Ghz, I would replace the cooler but I think it's time for a new system I'm just still on the fence about what to get.

The weak IMC on the early Nehalems is also an issue, 12 GB is the biggest triple channel kit you get for it and at least with my CPU the larger the kit is the slower it needs to be run at. I can't get past 1066 Mhz with my 12 GB 1600 Mhz rated kit, couldn't get past about 1500 MHZ with my 6 gb 2000 Mhz rated kit, or past about 1650 Mhz with my 3 GB 1866 Mhz rated kit. I considered throwing one of the x58 xeons in there but my MB doesn't support the better ones or overclocking on any that would be a step up from the 920.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's still a viable gaming setup but it's far from ideal and if I wasn't so indecisive about what to get I would have replaced it already.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
I have a complete spare x58 930 setup and to be brutally honest, it does everything my z170 6700k setup can do, ok maybe a slight degredation in some thing but not as much as you would think.

It played games great for me up until 2015 when i went to a 6700k setup and I am sure it could still game with no problems if I were to try it albeit the graphics card would probably be letting it down now.

As for everything else, i really dont see any difference between the 930 and 6700, ok obviously the 6700 is much faster but since am not benchmarking or encoding all day long I just do not notice the increase in speed as they both open firefox as quickly as each other, they both load windows fast and they both send shit to the recycle bin just as quickly as the other one does.

I can game good on one and game good on the other but I dont bother with either as I love my ipads.
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Yeah I have an 930 paired with a Radeon 5870 and used that rig until Nov 2015 and right up to the end as long as I turned off shadows it handled everything fairly well.
 
Interesting video / article but as others have said I question some of the results.

For example going from my 3550k @ 4.2ghz to my 6600k @ 4.2ghz didn't give me the frame rate increase he is showing when I was using a 1080 ti @ 1080p. Only reason I upgraded was a. Got an amazing price on the 6600k system, b. Wanted 2 m.2 slots on motherboard, C. Wanted to oc higher (which I can, hits 4.6ghz now). But for reference at the same speed it was maybe 4 or 3 frames at 1080, and not even that at 4k. So either I did something wrong or he is.

Then again his charts for the ryzen processors look interesting as well. And the fx 8350 wins vs i7 930 in base clock vs base clock makes since as well . . .
 
i just upgraded from this cpu back in january. Got it when it was first released. Mainly just did it for somewhat better clocks and better support for ssds. Remember on this chipset (x58) sata 3 was optional
 
On the Open Broadcaster (commonly used for Twitch streaming PC games) forums, a few people have been using this CPU for their streaming PC with surprisingly good results. Definitely underrated, but I wouldn't tell anyone to buy one used, just get a 2600k (or a later gen i7) instead.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
i just upgraded from this cpu back in january. Got it when it was first released. Mainly just did it for somewhat better clocks and better support for ssds. Remember on this chipset (x58) sata 3 was optional
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One of these days I want to try a pci express m.2 on my Asus p6te (my $68 now $40 [email protected] 3x8 1866) see how that plays out. I'm still trying to figure out if theirs one available that will let me boot into a drive like that even for my x79 for that matter. That said I see little difference compared to my 3930k same ish specs but 4x8 1866. Hard to justify anything above a hexa core for my needs and everything new seems to be a negligible upgrade for the price, i.e. Ddr4 and dx12 atm, though I've never heard of people having issue with dx12 and this platform so that could be neither here no their..I just don't know.
 
I didn't feel a big jump in performance switching up from a 4.0ghz 920 to a 5.0ghz 7700k. I don't regret the upgrade as I have 2 decent gaming rig computers now.
 
Still love my 920 but literally just this morning I decided to order a used 980x off ebay. Its the last thing I can reasonably upgrade on this 8 year old motherboard. I was reading how I could go for a Xeon if I either wanted to attempt a soldering mod on the mobo, or ship it to eVGA and have them perform the mod, but frankly, I have had such a great time on the Corei7 I figured I would just stick with the series and go for the 2nd best one in that generation. Can't wait to jump to 6 cores, 12MB cache, an unlocked multiplier for a far simpler overclocking process. My 920 could dummy OC to 3.2. Beyond that it gets fucky because I've never been able to lock down good timings and voltages.

Games have mostly been fantastic at 1080p. It really helps that I run 12GB triple channel, SSDs, and a geforce 1060. Some games that still lack 64bit support or multicore optimization suck on it, like Grim Dawn.
 
HoffY said:
i'm typing on one now ;) Really wanted to go to X299 but intel shat the bed so... meh
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I don't see anything wrong with the X299 honestly. It still checks off all the boxes for my needs and will most likely be a solid system but pricey.

I'll wait to see more info on the TR before I make my next purchase. I'm not 100% thrilled with my RyZen build.
 
Trimlock said:
I don't see anything wrong with the X299 honestly
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I wish i was that lucky. lol. To much wrong with it for the price they are asking for my needs. Going to sit tight and see how things go (keeping an eye on TR as well). I really was hoping ot jump into a new system quicker. ah well. The 950 will soldier on for longer. :)
 
My last CPU was an i7-930. I replaced it in 2014 with an X99 setup, but the 930 is still chuggin' away. Still debating on keeping it around it or selling it (cuz my broke ass does need money). I had no issues with the CPU, but I needed to move to a new platform so I could have PCIe 3.0, chipset-based SATA-3 and USB 3.0, and other shit (also it's handy having M.2 onboard). I might put the 930 on water and see what I can do about OC'ing it, maybe wring some more performance outta it, I dunno. But yeah the 930 was a damn fine processor, served my needs very well for years. I still got some friends and clients rockin' the i7-920, but most had moved to at least Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. I got my eye on Threadripper, not that I'm looking to replace my current system anytime soon, but I can't wait to see how it does so I can keep it in mind for the future.
 
I'm still using my OCed 930. Looking at replacing it now - but also curious about cheap upgrades - didn't even think about Xeons (always just looked at the extreme edition chips which were still crazy expensive).
 
Painless OCing my ass. I had a 930 it wouldn't go beyond 3.33.
 
I still have a i7-920 collecting dust, can't find a X58 board (non-OEM type) on the cheap, everyone has flipped their shit wanting huge $$$ just because of the 6-core Xeon craze. :mad:
 
ir0nw0lf said:
I still have a i7-920 collecting dust, can't find a X58 board (non-OEM type) on the cheap, everyone has flipped their shit wanting huge $$$ just because of the 6-core Xeon craze. :mad:
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^This. My board died and I couldn't justify buying a new one for so much money and still being stuck without the niceties of a modern platform so I had to move on. My 920 and X5650 had some amazing longevity, would probably still be using it for another couple of years if I could have because none of the benchmarks showed a very tangible improvement except for specific cases I didn't really care about. Maybe I'll make some keychains out of them..
 
ir0nw0lf said:
I still have a i7-920 collecting dust, can't find a X58 board (non-OEM type) on the cheap, everyone has flipped their shit wanting huge $$$ just because of the 6-core Xeon craze. :mad:
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i7-920 ended up being the equivalent of the BX-440 chipset....just did everything needed forever.
 
I got the 930 when it first came out. Returned the 920 that I got from microcenter because the 930 went on sale. I just recently demoted that CPU to my media server. Almost had that CPU for a decade. Have a i5-4570 now.
 
I'll probably kick the bucket before my 920 does. But I'm pretty sure this year's games are the last batch that it will be able to play reasonably well. I was thinking about getting an i7-980 (I'm not sure if my Mobo supports Xeons... apparently it does but I'm not super sure) but ahhh... for that money I'd better wait for Ryzen 2 or something next year. I´ve nver overclocked it though... might try that first, but then maybe I would have to get a case with more airflow or a better cooler, cause at stock I'm around 38-39 °C at idle and 65-67 °C at load.
 
Still running my P6T Deluxe V2.0 paired with a X5650, still going strong and can't justify an upgrade, have a little one on the way so priorities are switched. But if my P6T dies i'll be forced to upgrade.

Still the best IT purchase i've even made.
 
Was just a few months ago I swapped my 920 for a W3690; OC'd to 4.6 on my (not very good to OC) MSI X58M.
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My 920 was not a D0, so I never got it much higher than about 3.4 or so. Still, for just a bus OC with not much in the way of voltage tweaking, not bad
 
My SO is still gaming on a i7 920 C0 @ 3.8 GHz to this day. Probably the best value out of a CPU I have gotten ever.
 
Other than just feeling like it I don't expect I'd need to upgrade from my Oc'd 4670k unless games all of a sudden start demanding more cores/threads. I just don't expect I'd get much benefit since my system is 90% gaming. Upgrading in 2 years from my 1070 will probably be the better play.
 
I recently upgraded from a 2600k to a 4820k (because I got it for free). I have no real reason to want to upgrade to anything new since the "old" stuff handles everything I do just fine.
 
Still sporting my i7-920 @ 4ghz here. It's been solid as hell. Although I haven't been gaming much this past year, I'm running a GTX 680 in nvSurround, with a 4th monitor on top of the 3. It pushed everything quite nicely. No, I wouldn't play max settings in most games, but it handled mid-quality settings in games without an issue at 50+ FPS. I've been toying with the idea of going from the 920 to a X56xx, but haven't decided yet, even though they're cheap on eBay. Hmm..
 
I'm still rocking a Phenom 2 955 in my Plex server / file server / video encoder box. When it was my main rig I was running at 4ghz+, but I deflated it back to stock speeds and lower the volts a little to save on temps.

Just because something new comes out (or hell, even 5 new generations) doesn't mean "old" is useless. I'm sure all those i7-9xx's have plenty of life left in them.
 
I have a pair of 950s running media duty for the 4k tvs over my workstation, which is probably a waste. I was using a pair of g3258 anniversary edition pentiums @4gz, but I discovered something. Youtube will drop frames on anything less than 4 cores - I get better youtube playback on a Q6600 at stock speeds than I do on an overclocked, relatively modern in comparison dual core, no matter what GPU I use. I had similar problems with higher res video so I also replaced my media centre PC, but with an I5 3330.

I did end up going all in on the Xeon craze - My main workstation is a dual Xeon X5680s @ 3.33ghz, up from an i7-4770k, and I've got a pair of [email protected] and 1070's for my X-plane setup.
 
HighYield said:
Nothing wrong with an old i7-930. I've had one in service since it was released and it has been very reliable. With a SSD and reasonable graphics card it doesn't have any issues with 1080p gaming at 60FPS. My son is very happy with it. People shouldn't look at old tech like it has no value...although I would be first to admit it seems a bit tired these days.
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That 930 is still the backbone to my secondary PC in MD. The i52600k is in my Alaska rig. I feel so outdated. :(

However, I don't play a lot of "modern" games. I prefer my low key Indie titles. The 930 has no problem handling something like Axiom Verge which represents the main realm of games that I play. Hell, with 670's SLi I can play Dishonored 1 pretty reasonably if I want to go there.
 
still rocking an i5 760 in my htpc with a 1080 fe. Plays everything I need in 4k.... Granted, mainly rocket league but I have no need to upgrade anytime soon...
 
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