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Intel i5 vs i7

Andi's first post was spot on

the 1156 series use an on die PCI-E controller, hence have approximately 5% faster results with single card set ups

1366 however is better for multi card set ups due to the higher number of PCI-E lanes available (however there are some top end 1156 boards that do 16x/16x too)

the 1156 chips have a more agressive turbo boost, so if youre not OCing and the game uses less than 4 cores then this can also be a benefit, however as soon as you start OCing turbo boost becomes moot

IMO the best set up currently is an i5 760 with a 480, best single gfx card with good cpu
 
For price and performance the i5 is a winner but for that little bit of extra performance (which most wont need) theres i7. I think 1366 has longer shelf life though as its not being phased out just yet anyway.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Indeed, as HardwareGeek says - the reason the i5 may seem faster than an i7 in benchmarks is due to the more agressive turbo boost. However, when fixed at the same clockspeed (turbo boost off, which is not normally used when overclocking) the performance between i7 and i5 is very similar.

When comparing i5 with i7 (s1366) it should also be noted that the PCIe connection is slightly more direct with the i5 (due to the way the s1156 boards and chips were designed) - so this can give a small performance boost to an i5 system over a 900 series i7 system when using a single graphics card.

There are gaming benefits going for the X58 chipset (used by i7 900 series CPUs) such as dual PCIe 2 16x16x slots - but with current top-end graphics cards 8x8x is generally enough, hence the performance boost is only a few % with the X58 and dual graphics cards. This may extra bandwidth may be of more benefit in the future - but right now the performance difference is not worth the premium for a gamer (similar story with triple channel memory).
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/thread really :)

Oh and hubby1989, thanks :) made my night!
 
hubby1989 said:
Peoples view that for gaming the GPU is the only thing that is needed is absolute nonsense, as the CPU does a hell of a lot of mathematical calculations for gaming. I know for a fact that if I gave you a hardware configuration with an i5 then replaced it with an i7, in modern games you will be looking at about 70-100% improvement on FPS.
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Would love to see a single benchmark where an i7 would give a 70-100% performance improvement in a "modern game"; please, do tell.

hubby1989 said:
Those who go for SLI or Crossfire are stupid as this gives you about 15-20% improvement for £300!!! For £100 CPU upgrade on games you could get 70-80%! Im not saying the CPU does more than the GPU, or that a good GPU is not needed as it is, but people need to understand how much work the CPU does in a modern game!
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You're a bit hypocritical, the only reason to go for an i7, in terms of in-game performance, is for true SLI / CrossFire capabilities; i.e. true x16/x16 on the motherboard. For a single-GPU solution, an i5 system will get greater performance than an equal i7 rig, simply because the p55 chipsets manage GPU processing on-die.
But saying that, there are now some 1156 boards that can utilise full x16/x16, but due to the QPI links on the i7, I believe that's still classed as the superior option?

Must admit, this hubby truly is a good source of amusement, certainly brought a smile to my face :rolleyes:
 
It must have been a pretty good salesman that sold Hubby his 980X :). Now he's repeating all the great lines he was told. I lol that I get better FPS in games than he does and my rig cost less than his CPU :) :)
 
Just got the i5 760 bundle from here all setup and playing WOW at 1920x1200 with a 4890 (i know not the fastest card). I run 60FPS (vsync) raiding with most graphics at near max, my old E6750 at 3.46Ghz was nearly maxing both cores most of the time. This is not really breaking a sweat, most of the time its averaging about 20% across all 4 cores.
I run a lot of addons and stuff which really seems to take a bit of CPU performance.

I love the fact that coretemp can be left on and it interfaces with my G13 (and G15) so I can have it displayed real time with CPU usage.

In SC2 isage is a bit more, but I am convinced my 4890 is holding this back a lot, the difference when I used a 5870 was dramatic but i forgot to check CPU usage.

For me the price diff of the pre overclocked bundle was dramatic (approx £180) thats a good chunk towards my next upgrade if I think I need it. I am convinced the i5 is no where even close to being stressed by anything I can throw at it :)
 
hubby1989 said:
Right...from i5 to i7 you go from 4 threads to 8 threads, so for applications that support multithreading well, the i7 will definitely give you a boost. The i7 doesnt have better Turbo boost, and actually as Turbo works on thermals, with quad-core (with HT) the thermals would be higher with less room for Turbo boost...so in some cases an i5 would turbo more.

Peoples view that for gaming the GPU is the only thing that is needed is absolute nonsense, as the CPU does a hell of a lot of mathematical calculations for gaming. I know for a fact that if I gave you a hardware configuration with an i5 then replaced it with an i7, in modern games you will be looking at about 70-100% improvement on FPS.

Those who go for SLI or Crossfire are stupid as this gives you about 15-20% improvement for £300!!! For £100 CPU upgrade on games you could get 70-80%! Im not saying the CPU does more than the GPU, or that a good GPU is not needed as it is, but people need to understand how much work the CPU does in a modern game!

A brief intro to the Intel lineup - Core i3 = Hyperthreading with always 4 threads, Core i5 = Hyperthreading with 4 threads + Turbo Boost...and Core i7 = Hyperthreading with 8 threads (extreme can have 12) + Turbo Boost.

Saying that an i5 is better than an i7 for gaming not only depends on the game, but then apart from features you should look at the clock speed comparison...if you were comparing a high end i5 like the 760 to a low end i7 then for some games which dont take advantage of 8 threads, the i5 might perform better at a higher clock, but generally speaking more is better!
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No. This is all just wrong. Stop spreading misinformation.
 
robskinner said:
Just got the i5 760 bundle from here all setup and playing WOW at 1920x1200 with a 4890 (i know not the fastest card). I run 60FPS (vsync) raiding with most graphics at near max, my old E6750 at 3.46Ghz was nearly maxing both cores most of the time. This is not really breaking a sweat, most of the time its averaging about 20% across all 4 cores.
I run a lot of addons and stuff which really seems to take a bit of CPU performance.
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WoW is CPU hungry, especially when the :o hits the fan :)

The 4890 is still damn good card :) though I'm not to familiar with what is required in SC2.
 
Me neither, I just know that the 4890 is noticably more stuttery than the 5870 was.
It does it occasionally in wierd places in wow as well I notice it now where as I never did before I had the 5870 for a few days. Just a shame it was broken for me :(

I go on hols in under 4 weeks though, so I am sure I can survive till then, and hopefully buy something new when I get back. Probably a 59xx card I am guessing as it should coincide nicely on timing.
 
Both fantastic setups. i5 has really surprised me since it was released.

Both setups for gaming are keepers for sometime id say.

Performance i would think would be the same if one was slightly better we would be talking 1-10fps max ?!?!?
 
I know for a fact that if I gave you a hardware configuration with an i5 then replaced it with an i7, in modern games you will be looking at about 70-100% improvement on FPS.

Can't help buth laugh at this we would all rush to the shops and buy one if that was the case!!!
 
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