Is the i7 860 a rival to the i7 920? Discuss!

[Zenduri]

I've been sitting on the fence now watching the progression of the newer Intel I7's e.g Bloomfield and Lynnfield.

Its accepted that the 920 is a formidable chip pushing the 4-4.5ghz boundries on decent cooling and its one of the main reasons why such a chip has become so popular.

With the release of the new i7's on the lynnfield skt im starting to think theres a real contender to the 920's throne.
While the 1156 skt is a new tech and the 860 now being adopted by more users theres some interesting results popping up.

The 860 is now starting to be thoroughly tweaked and tested and results are springing up now showing that its clocking just about as well as the 920.

I know im looking forward to the i7 860s with a even further reduced TDP and hopefully a tweaked revision.

The 860 seems to hi 3.8ghz very easily so im only including examples above 3.8ghz

Half Way down semi stable 4.4ghz on air
4.6ghz unconfirmed stability
4.4ghz but with HT off
4.2ghz with HT

Whats your thoughts and opinions?

 

[Zenduri]

I know this is a silly question but would the lynnfield chips have the ability to run triple channel memory or are they purely limited to dual?

It would be nice to see a revision of the lynnfield chips with x16/x16 even if its the i7 lynnfields, if that happened i really think lynnfield would fly off the shelves.

 

[Zenduri]

Well it makes sense re the memory but i thought that the PCi-e lanes were limited by the CPU onboard graphics controller.

Also the x58 will still remain for the enthusiast market, if they changes the lynnfield capability to 32 pci-e lanes. It would make sense to allow 32 lanes on a mainstream processor and board.

 

[Zenduri]

Hmm fair enough I learnt something new. I thought there was a limit imposed somewhere along the line by the cpu graphics controller.

 

[Zenduri]

Its good that we've got some clarification on the chip arcitecture as obviously not everyone undestands myself included.

But what do you guys think performance wise compared to the 920. After all the pci-e lane issues will only really effect 5-7 fps in dual card setups. (As shown in benchmaks of the 5870 in crossfire)

 

[Zenduri]

People seem to overlook that the next upgrade to 1366 will be around £500 for a cpu.. i see a lot of people down the line wanting to upgrade but cant afford the cpu prices.

 

[Zenduri]

Theres a 750s and 860s which has even lower TDP then the normal 750 and 860 but dunno if theres any other revisions to them. Sandybridge is the next real leap.

Possibly a 3.4mhz-ish stock i5 on the cards too start of 2010

 

[Zenduri]

+1 vertigo1

I have to agree with vertigo on this.

If 1366 we're assured to have a cheaper more maintstream option i'ld buy 920 straight away. But as it is there should be plenty fo room for the 1156 platform for a while and when the "860s" version arrives with lower TDP I might change to that.