CORE i3 - LETS GET CLOCKING

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rjk

rjk

rjk

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its that time again, there are new chips about and i have been given a few bits and bobs to play with

normally i would be going for outright silly overclocks and seeing how far i can push the i3 platform

this is a brief summary of the I3-530 chip using the H55 chipset
the i3-530 is a dual core chip that hyperthreads.

H55 has onboard graphics and is generally aimed at the budget end of the market. the advantage is that this platform is good for family pc/HTPC or budget implementation,
but the onboard graphics are limited to HD playback

you wont be gaming on it essentially

however, putting something like a 5770 or a gtx 260 in the pci slot takes the load off the chips on board GPU. this means two things

  • the chip overclocks further because it generates less heat from doing less work
  • you reduce the boards workload too meaning overclocks should theoretically be more stable

the good thing about these chips is the manufacturing process. this means that these cheap and cheerful chips are very, very good value for money.

its incredibly cool too when you are not running the onboard GPU
our test bed is showing 20'c idle using a megahalem in a hot room. this means that an expensive third party cooler need not be an issue.
A H50 would be my choice as you could fit the m-ATX boards into incredibly small cases making for some seriously good value SFF powerhouses!

you can overclock the nuts off these chips too, the i5 670 we have in technical does a lot better than the 750 in most instances. but im not interested in mid range, Thats a grey area where percieved value is the customers choice. the difference between the 1156 i7 and the 1366 i7 is not an argument i care to discuss. but the decision is far more clear cut in this instance.

The i3 platform isnt going to set the world on fire. it isnt the best choice for a workstation, it isnt the best choice for rendering/encoding. cpu intensive, multithreaded tasks should be reserved for the high end as has always been the case.

but most people dont realistically need an i7 rig for their daily computing needs. this is where i3 really shows its potential.
for office work you could run an i3-530 at stock in a cheap board with some cheap 4gb ddr3 kit and have a truly rapid system
add in a new/old graphics card and you would have a nice backup gaming rig for LANs or just a games rig for the kids

these are all my own opinions though, i have done a few quick benchmarks to show you comparisons of all the current big hitters. its not as thourough as i wanted it to be but gives you an idea of how they are shaping up

for more indepth reviews, Azza has created a great thread in the CPU section that includes load of different sources of opinion

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CINEBENCH

Pentium E5300 @ 4GHz
Cinebench.jpg


i3-530 @ 4GHz
i3cinebench.jpg


i5-750 @ 4GHz
CINeBENCH750.jpg


i7-860 @ 4GHz
CINeBENCH860.jpg


I7-920 @ 4GHz
CINeBENCHi7.jpg


Phenom II X3 720 Black edition @ 3.3GHz
CINeBENCHPTC.jpg


Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition @ 3.8GHz
CINeBENCHP955.jpg


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wPrime [version 1.55]
bear in mind the i3 results are from a DUAL CORE CHIP

wPrime 32m Speed Test:

1. 5sec 630ms - Core i7 950 @ 4500mhz
2. 6sec 190ms - Core i7 860 @ 3976mhz
3. 6sec 350ms - Core i7 920 @ 4200mhz
4. 7sec 280ms - Core i5 750 @ 4485mhz
5. 9sec 305ms - Core i5 750 @ 4006mhz
6. 9sec 322ms - AMD 955 @ 4004mhz
7. 12sec 604ms - Core i3-530 @ 4004mhz



wPrime 1024m Stability Test:

1. 2min 48sec 780ms - Core i7 920 @ 4500mhz
2. 3min 3sec 110ms - Core i7 920 @ 4200mhz
3. 3min 10sec 160ms - Core i7 920 @ 4011mhz
4. 3min 10sec 340ms - Core i7 860 @ 3976mhz
5. 3min 54sec 760ms - Core i5 750 @ 4424mhz
6. 6min 26sec 770ms - Core i3 530 @ 4004mhz
7. 12min 26sec 650ms - Athlon II X2 245 @ 3132mhz

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Pushing Further decided to stay late tonight to get some big clocks, [all with a megahalem and an apache fan]
heres what we got...

4ghz primed on one of the cheapest boards [this is not the board featured on the ocuk bundle]
4ghzprimed.jpg


heres a quick stability run @ 4.2GHz which i think would be fine for 24/7 use
42stable.jpg


then we tried 4.3ghz to see if we could go higher
43ghz.jpg


not bad...
we got 4.4 stable for 20 mins but it crashed, i am still working on that to see if i noobed something up

then i decided that sensible stable overclocks were boring
and so it begins...

47suicide.jpg

valid47.jpg


and then there was this...

lolz.jpg

valid4862.jpg



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in my opinion, i3 is much more than a replacement for 775 it is a whole new featureset that i think few people expected to perform as it was quoted

i must say, i am very surprised and glad that intel have finally done something like this.
 
rjkoneill said:
lolz.jpg



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in my opinion, i3 is much more than a replacement for 775 it is a whole new featureset that i think few people expected to perform as it was quoted

i must say, i am very surprised and glad that intel have finally done something like this.
Click to expand...

Was the PC outside to get those temps :p
 
What concerns me about Core i3 is that you are only getting 2 cores for your money. Given that you need a new motherboard and probably new RAM (for people coming from S775), it doesn't really offer that much of a saving over Core i5 (£50 on the cpu and maybe a little bit on the mobo).

Obviously for people not running apps optimised for multithreading, this will not be such an issue and certainly for those in the market for a dualcore system it would be fairly high on the list.
 
HangTime said:
What concerns me about Core i3 is that you are only getting 2 cores for your money. Given that you need a new motherboard and probably new RAM (for people coming from S775), it doesn't really offer that much of a saving over Core i5 (£50 on the cpu and maybe a little bit on the mobo).

Obviously for people not running apps optimised for multithreading, this will not be such an issue and certainly for those in the market for a dualcore system it would be fairly high on the list.
Click to expand...

Apart from the fact that you can get a dual core system a lot cheaper, and obviously someone lucking for dual core system won't be aiming for top notch high end performance so imho this is a fail.

If those were in the 50-110range instead of 100-160 range it would be more sensible. You can get a phenomII 945/955 for almost same price as cheapest i3 with also cheaper motherboard and more futureproof system.


Fail tbh...
 
I am aware that they hyperthreading technology means that while the i3 acts like a quad, it is in fact still only dual core.

My question is how much not a quad core is it? Is hyperthreading as good as having 2ce the processors? If not then is there a rough margin on it?
 
Depends heavily on what code you're executing. If you have anything in particular in mind I'm happy to run it with hyperthreading on and off to show the difference. Otherwise I'd say an optimistic, generic estimate is 50% faster with it on, and a pessimistic one around 15% quicker. I've pulled these numbers pretty much from thin air though.

I'd guess these replace the e8*00 systems for anyone building new. I'd like one in a mitx system as a fileserver, but that wouldn't be sensible of me.
 
JonJ678 said:
Depends heavily on what code you're executing. If you have anything in particular in mind I'm happy to run it with hyperthreading on and off to show the difference. Otherwise I'd say an optimistic, generic estimate is 50% faster with it on, and a pessimistic one around 15% quicker. I've pulled these numbers pretty much from thin air though.

I'd guess these replace the e8*00 systems for anyone building new. I'd like one in a mitx system as a fileserver, but that wouldn't be sensible of me.
Click to expand...

These chips are great when overclocked and I am seriously considering ditching my i7 setup and go i3 for a bit, have an urge for something new and an extreme clocked i3 would beat the performance my 920 C0 offers in what I use my PC for.

There is potential in these chips to be brilliant in media PCs, they compete extremely well when you compare them to say a AMD Athlon II X4 630 which is comparable price to a 530. I know which one I would take every day of the week and it is not the AMD.

These chips are truely fantastic value for money when overclocked, at stock speed they are good but the extra you can get out of them makes them special.

Best chip available for a couple of years thanks to there being platform upgrades available etc etc.
 
PhoenixUK said:
Apart from the fact that you can get a dual core system a lot cheaper, and obviously someone lucking for dual core system won't be aiming for top notch high end performance so imho this is a fail.
Click to expand...

Actually some people looking for dual core systems as opposed to quad core do so because they are primarily concerned with performance in single-threaded applications (or those which benefit little from additional cores, such as gaming). This is why people bought the Core 2 Duo E8x00 range of chips, they offering very good gaming performance right up there with the Core 2 Quad range. And thus a Core i3 is still an attractive prospect if they are hitting very high clock speeds. I really can't see there being much that could live with a 4.5ghz i3 in that price bracket for non multi-threaded apps.

But regardless, the point I was making is that really these chips find themselves in a situation where the cost is quite expensive for a dual core system - new mobo, probably new RAM which is rising in price, and a ton just for the cpu. Yes they are very nippy as far as dualcore systems go but you aren't saving that much compared to i5 which is quadcore and isn't that far behind in clockspeed.
 
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