• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

CPU cache query

CurlyWhirly

CurlyWhirly

CurlyWhirly

Associate
Joined
24 May 2003
Posts
1,429
Location
UK
I know that the i7 CPU's are a different generation of processor to the Quad cores but I'm nevertheless curious as to why the i7 CPU's have their L3 cache in a single block (of usually 8 MB) where as the Q9650 has it's L2 cache in 2 seperate blocks of 6 MB ?

I think that 2 of the cores have access to each 6 MB L2 cache on the Q9650 as that would make sense.
 
Big.Wayne said:
Isn't it because the i7 is a native Quad whereas the Yorkie is two Wolfdales sellotaped together? :D
Click to expand...
I don't know as I'm new to modern processors as I've only recently upgraded my PC to a quad core based system after my (ancient) XP 3000+ Barton based system blew in January :(

As it turned out it was a blessing in disguise as I now have a much better gaming rig :D


p.s. if the Yorkfield is 2 Wolfdales 'sellotaped together' then this could explain why 2 of the cores are always around 12C hotter than the other 2 idle.
 
Last edited:
CurlyWhirly said:
I'm new to modern processors
Click to expand...
CurlyWhirly said:
explain why 2 of the cores are always around 12C hotter than the other 2 idle.
Click to expand...
Well not that idle temps are really a problem but it would bug me still! :o

I am guessing if your a nOObling then maybe you have not installed the stock heatsink correctly using the infamous Intel Push-Pin system (it's not great!).

Thermalright sell a LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit for about £5.00 which does a much better job of securing the heatsink and may help even out the temps as I suspect your heatsink may not be fully attached?

thermalrightlga775bolttna8.jpg


thermalrightlga775bolttfc7.jpg


thermalrightlga775bolttir6.jpg


Thermalright LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit *mini* review
 
Big.Wayne said:
Well not that idle temps are really a problem but it would bug me still! :o

I am guessing if your a nOObling then maybe you have not installed the stock heatsink correctly using the infamous Intel Push-Pin system (it's not great!).

Thermalright sell a LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit for about £5.00 which does a much better job of securing the heatsink and may help even out the temps as I suspect your heatsink may not be fully attached?
Click to expand...
Yes that's the exact HSF that I've got - how did you guess? ;)

I didn't install it as it was pre-assembled - I've never built a PC in my life (only upgraded a PSU on my old PC) :o

Thanks for the tip about the Bolt-Thru-Kit, I'll look into it :)
 
Big.Wayne said:
Load it up CurlyWhirly! :p

10-20 loops of this and grab a screenie while you system is burning!

IntelBurnTest
Click to expand...
Thanks for that link as it's a really useful utility and after running it I'm no longer worried about the 13C temperature difference, as under load, the average core temperatures even themselves out ;)

Cores #2 and #3 were the cores that I was worried about but in both the CPUID Hardware Monitor and the Core Temp Monitor they seem okay.

In actual fact cores #0 and #1 reached a (slightly) higher temperature under stress!



2di5dg5.jpg




p.s. I said yes to the question about error detection and I'm just curious as to what it does as it can't be anything to do with my RAM as it isn't ECC RAM :confused:

p.p.s. I don't get much of an overclock on my Q9650 (mainly because I don't have a good overclocking mobo) but I'm going to try running Intel burn test with an overclock of 150 Mhz (i.e. 3150 Mhz) just to see if the core temperatures get any higher than 52C :D
 
I ran the test with my CPU (slightly) overclocked and the core temperatures hit a peak of 56C/57C and it was all evenly balanced as can be seen below:

e5lmjn.jpg




Even further evidence that I have nothing to worry about.

p.s. I selected the maximum stress test and ran it the recommended number of times (i.e. 5) same as before.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom