The current Intel i7 lineup - query

[newconroer]

From what I know exists, there's :

860
870
875
930
950
960
970
980X

Brief understanding is that :

A) 800 series lacks Quickpath and triple channel DDR3 support
B) 970 and 980 are hexacores
C) 980 unlocked multiplier


With this in mind, I've seen some (for example) 875s with a moderate overclock, out performing 930s and 950s in real world program scenarios, yet they lack the the Quickpath and additional RAM support.

Are these two features of any day to day value versus potentially better overclocking? Is there a correlation?

Also, any threads going about Intel chips on 2011 roadmap?

 

[dhdude]

You're pretty much on the ball there man, everything you've said is correct; in regards to the 2011 Intel Roadmap, their next generation Core i3/5/7 line codenamed Sandy Bridge is out in January, being announced and released at CES, this introduces a new socket (1155) to replace the existing 1156 socket and its offerings (Core i7 800 series, as well as the i3s and i5s) of the current generation. The replacement for the i7 900 series is out later in the year on what is currently known as socket 2011. Hope that helps man!

In regards to the dual channel and QPI issues, do you have use many memory bandwidth intensive apps such as rendering programs? and do you have many expansion cards such as RAID controllers? If not to both of those two then I doubt you'll notice any difference, as in everyday usage theres hardly anything in it. If you're considering building a new rig man, do wait for Sandy Bridge to come out, it'll be worth it Anyone else wanna back me up?

 

[fusionblu]

Here is a more accurate list of all the currect i7s for socket 1156 and 1366:

1156 i7s:

i7-860 [2.8GHz]
i7-860S [2.53GHz][Low Watts Consumption, 82w instead of 95w]
i7-870 [2.93GHz]
i7-870S [2.66GHz][Low Watts Consumption, 82w instead of 95w]
i7-875K [2.93GHz][Unlimited Multipliers]
i7-880 [3.06GHz]​

(All of these are quad-core i7s which run on 2.4 GT/s QPI by default)

1366 i7s:

Quad Core:
[Standard, fixed multipliers and 4.8GT/s QPI]
i7-920 [2.66GHz]
i7-930 [2.8GHz]
i7-940 [2.93GHz]
i7-950 [3.06GHz]
i7-960 [3.2GHz]
[Extreme, unlimited multipliers and 6.4GT/s QPI]
i7-965 [3.2GHz]
i7-975 [3.33GHz]

Hex Core:
[Standard, fixed multipliers and 4.8GT/s QPI]
i7-970 [3.2GHz]
[Extreme, unlimited multipliers and 6.4GT/s QPI]
i7-980x [3.33GHz]​

 

[entropy13]

Also, any threads going about Intel chips on 2011 roadmap?

There is an old news thread here. It's 233 days already though since the last post there.

 

[newconroer]

Ya Entropy, I completely missed that - but I've never seen Power Up's search engine as being all that intelligent anyways so..I'm blaming that.

Thanks Fusion on the added details.

I came across this chart below.
I am confused about the upper box of the Performance listings.

The 970/960/880 seems persistent throughout 2011.
It's like they're suggesting that only some Bloomfield will get replaced but Gulftown won't, until after 2011.

Guess we'll have to see the results!

 

[fusionblu]

From what I see they might make one more extreme hex core CPU for socket 136 called the i7 990x which if the same as the ultimate i7 quad-core Xeon X5677 in terms of clock speed it will be 3.46GHz by default and the rest would be the same as the 980x in theory (but the CPU will most likely be better made for higher overclocking potential of course); but that's if they go though with making the final CPU (which I doubt).

 

[fusionblu]

The other update I would like to add from what I see is that Intel want to phase out all the old systems such as the dual-cores and core 2 quad-cores on socket 775 and have Sandybridge dominate the whole of the mainstream Intel systems and below to get better sales plus promote the use of "green" systems before AMD gets to do that with their Bulldozer CPUs.