i7 965 v i7 920

[widdyst]

So it seems I have bagged myself a i7 965 at a very low price. I had no intention of buying a 965 but it was an offer I just couldnt refuse. Now after looking around A LOT it seems the only difference I can find in the i7 chips is what the statement below says, So what does a faster quick path interface give me ?

"The Core i7 965 Extreme Edition runs at 3.20GHz and features a QPI (QuickPath Interface) throughput of 6.4GT/s, which is the key difference here. The mainstream versions of the processor include the Core i7 920 and 940, clocked at 2.66GHz and 2.93GHz, respectively. These more affordable processors feature a QPI throughput of just 4.8GT/s"

 

[DireEmblem]

Cmon, give us the goss..

Exactly how much cheaper did you get a 965?

 

[DragonQ]

Considering I'm running mine at 6.6GT/s, nothing.

It's just easier to overclock than a 920/940/950 and you can just bump up the CPU multiplier as well which might be easier than playing with the BCLK.

 

[PhoenixUK]

So it seems I have bagged myself a i7 965 at a very low price. I had no intention of buying a 965 but it was an offer I just couldnt refuse. Now after looking around A LOT it seems the only difference I can find in the i7 chips is what the statement below says, So what does a faster quick path interface give me ?

"The Core i7 965 Extreme Edition runs at 3.20GHz and features a QPI (QuickPath Interface) throughput of 6.4GT/s, which is the key difference here. The mainstream versions of the processor include the Core i7 920 and 940, clocked at 2.66GHz and 2.93GHz, respectively. These more affordable processors feature a QPI throughput of just 4.8GT/s"

Not much. You will see slight bit of extra performance if you render/encode using all cores I would say.

If you paid any more than 300 quid for it it's waste of cash tbh ; ).

 

[mmj_uk]

The QPI can be easily overclocked on i920 so it's a mute point really, it's the internal bandwidth shared by all the cores AFAIK, similar to the FSB on old systems except it's now built into the CPU's.

 

[widdyst]

So really there is no benefit to having a 965 over the 920 ? hm ?
Glad I only paid 920 money then

 

[mmj_uk]

So really there is no benefit to having a 965 over the 920 ? hm ?
Glad I only paid 920 money then

Well being a 955 it will probably be a binned chip meaning of higher quality, although 920 D0's are likely to be manufactured more recently (due to more stock being shifted) and most tend to be quite decent overclockers.

 

[ViRuS2k]

You dont get any stock I7 @ 3.8 or 4.0 or 4.2 so a d0 920 vs 965 are very slime pickings indeed, no point at all in going for a 965 vs a 920 becuse both can go to 4.2+ at least.

you might get higher headroom on the 965 but only if your water cooling or useing higher like LN2 ect ect..

othe than that nothing at all
the only reason the Quickpath is higher is becuse of the higher stock clock of the 965 compaired to the 920 but once you overclock that 920 to 965 clocks the quickpath is the same speed.