Here we go guys 
As i did with the i7's, im going to see how far we can push things with i5 and how the performance relates to its bigger brother i7.
I have only been allowed a short period of time to familiarise myself with the new tech so my results are far from the max obtainable.
i5 clocks just like i7, there is a BCLK [Base Clock] which is the bus speed of the chip, also there seems to be similar multipliers [low to mid 20's].
The i5 750 has a multiplier of 21 just like an i7 920. this meant that i was in familiar territory. The 750 doesnt feature hyperthreading in the same way the nehalem chips for socket 1156 do.
The BIOS of all the boards has a similar layout to that of the X58 counterparts
there is little difference between the bios of an Asus P6T Deluxe X58 and an Asus P7P55D Deluxe P55
the notable difference is that all boards seem to like 1000mv being put through the cpu diff amplitude
voltage wise - the 750 seemed to need around 1.35v to get stable at 4ghz
this is slightly more than needed for an i7 920 but this is all relative of course
the memory controller has its own IMC [internal memory controller] voltage in the bios, be warned though - this does add to the heat dump of the chip considerably. The smallest changes seemed to increase temperatures drastically.
[PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT REALTEMP IS NOT READING THE CLOCK SPEEDS CORRECTLY YET]
Test Setup
I used watercooling to get my results
the deltas meant the cpu was idling in windows at just below sub ambient temperatures
I started out with [what now] is a standardised clock target
200 BCLK X 20 @ 1.35V
4.0ghz
then i raised it up a bit
200 BCLK X 21 @ 1.40V
4.2GHz
notice the memory timings on this run, i managed to achieve great timings on the memory of CL7 8-7-20 1T @ 1600MHz
partly due to to the Elpida Hyper IC's on the fantastic Dominator GT but also due to the IMC on the chip which has performed far in excess of my expectations
Stability at 4.2Ghz with aggressive memory timings. All good so far!
These clocks were fairly easy to obtain stability on
I would imagine anyone could achieve similar using air cooling and minimal tweaking
so how far does it go...
well - i had to update the BIOS of the board to get above 200 BCLK
I managed to get into windows at 4.72Ghz. this was so unstable that opening any programs resulted in a rapid BSOD
i settled on 4.5Ghz, whilst this failed prime95 after a very promising 10 minutes, it still looked good for some CPU benchmarks
SuperPi 1M is renowned for being a quick test of CPU speeds
for reference here is the best result from my I7 920 D0 @ 4.66Ghz
SuperPi - 8sec 830ms
and the best result from the I5 750 @ 4.5Ghz
all things considered - fairly level pegging!
a sub 10s superpi 1m result is nothing to be sniffed at - especially for a chip in this price range!
onto wPrime
here are a few of my recent results on the wPrime 32m Speed Test:
here are a few of my recent results on the wPrime 1024m Stability Test:
I am massivley impressed by the i5, it seems intel have refined their midmarket offerings and produced what appears to be a chip with good performance and value to compete in a section of the market where AMD had previously occupied alone.
the preformance seems to be right on the money in the few benchmarks i had time to run
I hope this gives a good indicator of whats to come
thanks for reading
rjk
-------------------------------------
Appendix 1
860 Clocking results
heres my findings today with an 860 processor on air
i used the following equipment
Test Setup
i didnt really have time to do a full report so grabbed benchies i could easily obtain
by no means are these max clocks like the testing of the 750 so take these as a guideline
initial impressions, this is essentially the exact same chip as the 750 but with hyperthreading capability
it clocks exactly the same as i mentioned previously with regards to the 750
however - it does dump around 10'c more heat into an air cooler than the 750 [both chips on same cooler running at 4ghz]
it was a little harder to gain stability on air at 4ghz with this chip - it required a lot more tweaking than the 750 which was at 4.2 after 5 bios changes on the asus p55 deluxe [which is a better board in all fairness]
i like the Evo board, it features many of the deluxe features and overclocks nearly as far
the Zalman CNPS10X was my cooler of choice for these tests as most of the major third party coolers dont have a bracket yet
here is 3.8 stable on air - pretty easy, not many tweaks required - more than acceptable temperatures
i pushed for 4ghz and got that stable in time to do some benches before i had to carry on with other things
here is SuperPi at 3.8Ghz
and SuperPi at 4GHz
my main interest - and something that made me smile - is gaming
whilst i had no games to hand to compare, i was eager to see some 3d benchmarks from the new socket
i am putting this up against an i7 920 benchmark i have to hand
i7 920 @ 4ghz - biostar X58 - OCZ blade@ 1600Mhz CL7 7-7-20 1T - GTX280 SLI @ GTX285 speeds
VS
I& 860 @ 4ghz - Asus P55 Evo - Corsair XMS3@ 1600Mhz CL9 9-9-24 1T - GTX285 SLI @stock
the 920 rig got the following results
the 860 got this...
right on the money - ESPECIALLY TAKE NOTE OF THE CPU SCORES
whilst a little slower than 1366 i7, this can be accounted to the dual/triple memory difference
if it were my money, i would still go for the 750 for gaming
but go for the 860 if you wish to get that bit extra without stepping up to x58 platform price brackets
As i did with the i7's, im going to see how far we can push things with i5 and how the performance relates to its bigger brother i7.
I have only been allowed a short period of time to familiarise myself with the new tech so my results are far from the max obtainable.
i5 clocks just like i7, there is a BCLK [Base Clock] which is the bus speed of the chip, also there seems to be similar multipliers [low to mid 20's].
The i5 750 has a multiplier of 21 just like an i7 920. this meant that i was in familiar territory. The 750 doesnt feature hyperthreading in the same way the nehalem chips for socket 1156 do.
The BIOS of all the boards has a similar layout to that of the X58 counterparts
there is little difference between the bios of an Asus P6T Deluxe X58 and an Asus P7P55D Deluxe P55
the notable difference is that all boards seem to like 1000mv being put through the cpu diff amplitude
voltage wise - the 750 seemed to need around 1.35v to get stable at 4ghz
this is slightly more than needed for an i7 920 but this is all relative of course
the memory controller has its own IMC [internal memory controller] voltage in the bios, be warned though - this does add to the heat dump of the chip considerably. The smallest changes seemed to increase temperatures drastically.
[PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT REALTEMP IS NOT READING THE CLOCK SPEEDS CORRECTLY YET]
Test Setup
- Intel Core I5 750 Processor [this is a standard retail chip]
- Asus P7P55D Deluxe Intel P55 Motherboard
- Corsair Dominator GT 1866MHz DDR3 Memory
- Nvidia 9600GT Graphics Card
- Corsair 650w PSU
- WD Velociraptor HDD with Vista 64SP2
I used watercooling to get my results
- D5 Vario Pump
- EK SUPREME Waterblock
- Thermochill PA 120.4 Quad Radiator
- 4X 120MM Delta Fans
the deltas meant the cpu was idling in windows at just below sub ambient temperatures
I started out with [what now] is a standardised clock target
200 BCLK X 20 @ 1.35V
4.0ghz
then i raised it up a bit
200 BCLK X 21 @ 1.40V
4.2GHz
notice the memory timings on this run, i managed to achieve great timings on the memory of CL7 8-7-20 1T @ 1600MHz
partly due to to the Elpida Hyper IC's on the fantastic Dominator GT but also due to the IMC on the chip which has performed far in excess of my expectations
Stability at 4.2Ghz with aggressive memory timings. All good so far!
These clocks were fairly easy to obtain stability on
I would imagine anyone could achieve similar using air cooling and minimal tweaking
so how far does it go...
well - i had to update the BIOS of the board to get above 200 BCLK
I managed to get into windows at 4.72Ghz. this was so unstable that opening any programs resulted in a rapid BSOD
i settled on 4.5Ghz, whilst this failed prime95 after a very promising 10 minutes, it still looked good for some CPU benchmarks
SuperPi 1M is renowned for being a quick test of CPU speeds
for reference here is the best result from my I7 920 D0 @ 4.66Ghz
SuperPi - 8sec 830ms
and the best result from the I5 750 @ 4.5Ghz
all things considered - fairly level pegging!
a sub 10s superpi 1m result is nothing to be sniffed at - especially for a chip in this price range!
onto wPrime
here are a few of my recent results on the wPrime 32m Speed Test:
- 5sec 630ms - Core i7 950 @ 4500mhz
- 6sec 190ms - Core i7 860 @ 3976mhz - WOW
- 6sec 350ms - Core i7 920 @ 4200mhz
- 7sec 280ms - Core i5 750 @ 4485mhz
- 9sec 305ms - Core i5 750 @ 4006mhz
- 9sec 322ms - AMD 955 @ 4004mhz
here are a few of my recent results on the wPrime 1024m Stability Test:
- 2min 48sec 780ms - Core i7 920 @ 4500mhz
- 3min 3sec 110ms - Core i7 920 @ 4200mhz
- 3min 10sec 160ms - Core i7 920 @ 4011mhz
- 3min 10sec 340ms - Core i7 860 @ 3976mhz
- 3min 54sec 760ms - Core i5 750 @ 4424mhz
- 12min 26sec 650ms - Athlon II X2 245 @ 3132mhz
I am massivley impressed by the i5, it seems intel have refined their midmarket offerings and produced what appears to be a chip with good performance and value to compete in a section of the market where AMD had previously occupied alone.
the preformance seems to be right on the money in the few benchmarks i had time to run
I hope this gives a good indicator of whats to come
thanks for reading
rjk
-------------------------------------
Appendix 1
860 Clocking results
heres my findings today with an 860 processor on air
i used the following equipment
Test Setup
- Intel Core I7 860 Processor [this is a standard retail chip]
- Asus P7P55D EVO Intel P55 Motherboard
- Corsair XMS3 1600MHz DDR3 Memory
- Nvidia 9600GT Graphics Card
- Corsair 650w PSU
- WD Velociraptor HDD with Vista 64SP2
i didnt really have time to do a full report so grabbed benchies i could easily obtain
by no means are these max clocks like the testing of the 750 so take these as a guideline
initial impressions, this is essentially the exact same chip as the 750 but with hyperthreading capability
it clocks exactly the same as i mentioned previously with regards to the 750
however - it does dump around 10'c more heat into an air cooler than the 750 [both chips on same cooler running at 4ghz]
it was a little harder to gain stability on air at 4ghz with this chip - it required a lot more tweaking than the 750 which was at 4.2 after 5 bios changes on the asus p55 deluxe [which is a better board in all fairness]
i like the Evo board, it features many of the deluxe features and overclocks nearly as far
the Zalman CNPS10X was my cooler of choice for these tests as most of the major third party coolers dont have a bracket yet
here is 3.8 stable on air - pretty easy, not many tweaks required - more than acceptable temperatures
i pushed for 4ghz and got that stable in time to do some benches before i had to carry on with other things
here is SuperPi at 3.8Ghz
and SuperPi at 4GHz
my main interest - and something that made me smile - is gaming
whilst i had no games to hand to compare, i was eager to see some 3d benchmarks from the new socket
i am putting this up against an i7 920 benchmark i have to hand
i7 920 @ 4ghz - biostar X58 - OCZ blade@ 1600Mhz CL7 7-7-20 1T - GTX280 SLI @ GTX285 speeds
VS
I& 860 @ 4ghz - Asus P55 Evo - Corsair XMS3@ 1600Mhz CL9 9-9-24 1T - GTX285 SLI @stock
the 920 rig got the following results
the 860 got this...
right on the money - ESPECIALLY TAKE NOTE OF THE CPU SCORES
whilst a little slower than 1366 i7, this can be accounted to the dual/triple memory difference
if it were my money, i would still go for the 750 for gaming
but go for the 860 if you wish to get that bit extra without stepping up to x58 platform price brackets
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