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Intel Core i7-950 review:

Introduction

At the moment, Intel is the leader in the processor market. They have achieved this position due to the high quality and performance of their processors. But perhaps the biggest highlight of intel processors is the overclocking potential. If you buy the "right" processor you can increase its performance by 30 - 40%. This is undoubtedly a great savings. Some AMD processors allow you to unlock hidden cores, but this is essentially a lottery and even if you are lucky and unlock one or 2 cores, it is not a fact that they will work fully. While buying a certain model of intel processor, the buyer already knows what kind of performance gain he can get from overclocking.

One of these processors is the Intel Core i7-950. Its characteristics are as follows:

Manufacturer

Intel

The lineup

Corei7

Model

950 (SLBEN)

Connector

LGA1366

Technical process

45nm

Number of cores

4

Kernel (revision)

Bloomfield (D0)

Bus frequency

133MHz

Factor

23

Clock frequency

3060MHz

Cache Size

4x32Kb (L1) / 4x256Kb (L2) / 8192Kb (L3)

Supported instructions

MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, EM64T

QPI bus bandwidth

4.8GT / s.

Supply voltage

0.8 to 1.375V

TDP

130W

Maximum temperature

67.9 degrees Celsius

Supported technologies

Enhanced Halt State (C1E), Intel Thermal Monitor 2, Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology, Hyper-Threading Technology, Intel Virtualization Technology, Execute Disable Bit, Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Memory controller:

Memory type

DDR3 (800 - 1066 MHz)

Memory bandwidth

25.6GB / s

Number of channels

3

Maximum memory

24GB

EEC

-

In fact, our test subject differs from the predecessors Corei7-920 and Corei7-940 only in revision D0 and the multiplier and hence the clock frequency. Revision D0 indicates that the processor has optimized power consumption and increased overclocking potential.

This model is positioned as a solution for demanding users. Let's see how much the price of the new item is justified and how good it is in the field.

Packaging and equipment

The processor is packed in a "standard" blue color box. To avoid damage during transportation, the processor and cooler are placed in special plastic packaging. The package includes a processor, cooler, and instructions.

Although the standard cooling system does its job, if you want to unleash the overclocking potential of the processor, you cannot do without a good cooler.

Testing

Install the processor into the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-DS4 motherboard and run the CPU-Z utility to read the processor information. As you can see from the screenshots below, it follows that the processor is correctly detected and ready to work.

The situation with memory is especially pleasing, despite the fact that according to the specification, the processor supports three-channel operation of modules with a frequency of no higher than 1066. Three gigabyte memory modules with a frequency of 1333 feel great and work at the nominal frequencies.

The following configuration was used for testing:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-DS4 (Intel), GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P (AMD)

RAM: 2x (AMD) 3x (Intel) 1024 MB Kingston HyperX DDR3-2000MHz

Video card: ASUS EN9800GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E 2.0

Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P (Intel), Thermaltake Sonic Tower (AMD)

Hard Drive: Samsung 1000GB 32MB 7200rpm 3.5 "SATAII SpinPoint F3

Power supply: Cooler Master GX 650W

During testing, very interesting results were obtained:

Judging by the test results, we can safely say that the Intel Core i7-950 works noticeably better with high-speed memory than the Phenom II X4 965, which is partly due to the rather large difference in performance between these processors, both in 3D and in working with video. As for the younger model, the Core i7-920 turned out to be about 13% weaker than the tested processor.

The results obtained by the processor are quite good, and are sufficient for demanding gamers and 3D developers. But given the D0 revision promising good overclocking, it makes no sense to stop there.

Overclocking

As a result of a slight increase in voltage to 1.312V, the processor began to work perfectly at the bus frequency of 183 MHz and, accordingly, the processor frequency was 4209 MHz, which is a 37.6% increase over the nominal frequency. This result is more than good, considering the processor voltage remained within the specified specification. Also, special attention should be paid to the more stable operation of the processor at high core temperatures, which could not boast of more earlier processor models.

Despite the relatively high percentage of increase in the bus frequency, the RAM remained stable and worked perfectly at a frequency of 1464 MHz.

To fully appreciate the performance gain associated with overclocking the system, it is enough to re-pass all tests and compare the results.

Test package

Indicator

Result in overclocking

Growth %

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

PMark Score

12697

4,88

CPU Score

25875

34,73

Futuremark 3DMark'06

Mark score

6727

1,72

CPU Score

7310

35,65

Futuremark PCMark'05

Cpu

13832

37,77

Memory

13061

34,07

Graphics

10682

9,41

WinRar, Kb / s

3964

22,04

Far Cry 2, 1280x1024

DirectX 9, High

141.25 fps

3,04

DirectX 10, Very High

106.24 fps

3,28

World in Conflict, Maximum, 1024x768

Average FPS

76 fps

10,14

While in synthetic tests the performance of the processor and memory increased almost proportionally to the increase in frequency, in gaming tests the gain was from 3 to 10%. This is the standard picture when it comes to overclocking a system.

Output

If you are planning to migrate from LGA775 to a new platform, you will only feel the maximum performance gain with the Core i7.

Due to its high performance indicators, this processor can be safely recommended for building a powerful gaming station or workstation for 3D and video work (INTEL's advantage over AMD video and 3D graphics processing has been proven for a long time). And due to its high overclocking potential, this processor can be safely called the choice of enthusiasts and professional users.

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