| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Specimen-OMO
OMO stalker
|
|
|
Stingray
frequent visitor
|
 Posted - Feb 09 2009 : 10:23:31
|
Not as fast as I thought. I think you won't see full advantage of the i7 until drivers support it better and the 32nm i7's come out later in 09.
That's when you'll see the speeds increase. Your low end quad core i7 should be in the 3.0GHz range by then.
|
 |
Edited by - Stingray on Feb 09 2009 10:28:25 |
|
Country:
| Posts: 623 |
 |
|
|
Bloody
OMO groupie
|
Posted - Feb 09 2009 : 10:53:47
|
Sweet spot right now is the Core Duo Quads (9550 and 9650), as they are now cheap and fast. Mobos are less and easier to find for the 775 slot as well. The new i7 is the future, but not sure I would buy now.
|
|
|
Country:
| Posts: 1212 |
|
|
|
Arcane
Administrator
|
Posted - Feb 09 2009 : 18:27:07
|
Here is the real problem my friends... there are very few developers who understand how to write code for parallelism let alone multicore. Sure you can get some indication of multicore usage but not what it should be. So... what you're going to see in reviews like this is exactly what you see *grins* there isn't much difference between the i7 and a Core 2 with like clocks. The primary reason is single threaded code.
Where you will see a big difference is running multiple apps (or something like hyper-v / vmware) where each core can manage an app. Intel, AMD, and the OS folks (especially Intel and MS) are spending a lot of money to develop / stimulate development of classes / course material to help coders write better parallel / multithreaded / multicore supported code. As you guys already indicated... that isn't today.
Regardless the i7 is a huge leap forward for Intel. The underlying architecture actually drives forward the earlier work the Alpha chip designers had implemented in the AMD cpus (hyper transport).
I would say that if you only upgrade once every 18 months or so... the i7 / x58 can be a good choice even with the price disparity. If you can justify upgrading more often than that I would follow Bloody's advice.
For me I'm heading the route HB went MSI X58 and i7 965... I'm still running a Pentium 4D 960 on a 955x... so even with my GTX 280 I'm still seriously underperforming (I purchased the GTX 280 for $350 otherwise I would still be running my 7900GTX or maybe 4870x2 heh)
|
Novus Ordo Seclorum
Knowledge is power... has been since time eternal. Arcane knowledge is thereby ultimate power and can
therefore lead to ultimate corruption. Wisdom (and the experience that comes with age) is a serum for corruption.
Perhaps that is why there are so many Old Men with Arcane knowledge and so few young ones...
Arcane OMO - Circa 2001
|
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 2980 |
|
|
|
Bedpan-OMO
Too much coffee, Not a good thing.
|
Posted - Feb 09 2009 : 19:31:12
|
Ditto! I'm going with the 920 because it's way cheaper and very overclockable. I need a new case and supply but I don't know if I want to replace the 8800GTS 640 I have. Will I see a big improvement if I go to a GTX280 or incremental?
|
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, bourbon in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!" |
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 1211 |
|
|
|
Specimen-OMO
OMO stalker
|
Posted - Feb 09 2009 : 19:50:30
|
quote:
Originally posted by Bedpan-OMO
Will I see a big improvement if I go to a GTX280 or incremental?
That depends on your monitor size. If you have a 19" the price of a new card is not justified as there is not a significant gain. If you have a 22" or up a new card may be required for higher resolutions. I have a GX260 with a 22" with resloution of 1680X1050 - (might have posted something slightly different @ the BCO site) and I run COD5 between 80-95fps.
The 8800GT will see a performance drop with larger resolutions, I'm not sure about the 8800GTS. I think Dirt has a similar card.
|
Edited by - Specimen-OMO on Feb 09 2009 19:51:07 |
|
Country: Canada
| Posts: 2859 |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Core Duo vs i7
