So, everything I've been reading people are only talking about the i5 version of the Sandy Bridge. The price is only 20 bucks difference I think between the two? either way pretty small, is there a reason people are going for the i5 over the i7?
So, everything I've been reading people are only talking about the i5 version of the Sandy Bridge. The price is only 20 bucks difference I think between the two? either way pretty small, is there a reason people are going for the i5 over the i7?
I think the performance gain is minimal, as the i5 is more suited towards gaming than the i7. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, as i know more about AMD platforms than intel. Basically, more bang for your buck for the i5.
Zick - I hate to say but that is a completely useless graph post. You should also note the set-up (meaning graphics, memory etc) used while posting that.
Aside from that - it does look like the i5-2500k is the way to go for performance vs. price. $220~ for a fast chip that outperforms some of the older $1000~ chips? Yes please.
I am not suggesting the i7-2600k is bad, just the fact that it is actually ~$100 more in price point than the i5-2500k.
I am looking forward to the improvements as I need to build myself a new computer!
Turbo Mode Enabled
Intel DP67BG
2x2gb Corsair 1333 mhz
Radeon HD 5870 at 1680 x 1050
Our World of Warcraft benchmark is a manual FRAPS runthrough of a lightly populated server with no other player controlled characters around. The frame rates here are higher than you'd see in a real world scenario, but the relative comparison between CPUs is accurate.
We're using WoW's high quality defaults but with weather intensity turned down all the way.
Price difference is more like 200€ vs 300€. Not exactly "20 bucks".
If you're gonna use it mainly for WoW, i5 is the way to go. No arguments. i7 has its benefits though if you actually do a lot of video editing and stuff that actually benefits from the Hyper Threading. It's also safer bet for future, if you have the money. Most likely 2600K will be slightly more overclockable too.
The way I see it, go for i5 if you're short on cash and don't do heavy video editing / compressing etc. Go i7 if you got the cash for it and want a safer investment for future too.
Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
Trolling should be.
Hm, not sure why I thought they were much closer in price. That certainly helps clear things up. heh.
---------- Post added 2011-01-05 at 08:27 AM ----------
I guess another question I have then is what does hyperthreading do then? If it has no effect on gaming what does it effect? The only articles I could find in a quick search were 4+ years old and basically just said ht> no ht period. If someone has a good link I'd be more than happy to read it on my own I just didn't have much luck
Hyperthreading creates two threads per core. It essentially gives a quad core CPU 8 virtual cores. This doesn't do much for gaming, as there are a very minimal amount of games that are that multithreaded. It would help on things like video processing or sound editing, where jobs can be split into tiny pieces and spread among many cores.
Hm, I see. I guess I knew that I just wasn't aware most games were unable to take advantage of it. Thanks for the clarification.
The virtual hyper threaded cores don't really compare to real cores though.
Basically HT > No HT, Cores > HT. I have seen several benchmarks where AMD hex cores beat I7 processors (only in heavily threaded apps) in spite of intel having a superior architecture.
This is assuming that you use applications that are actually threaded for multi processor systems.... Most programs are not.
HT (IMO) is really a gimmick in most cases. It can help, but it's a feature that either should have died with the Pentium 4, or something intel shouldn't really be charging a $100+ premium for (Sort of like Intel-VT). You would be surprised how many people buy i7's and think they are getting a full blown 8 core cpu.Basically HT > No HT, Cores > HT. I have seen several benchmarks where AMD hex cores beat I7 processors (only in heavily threaded apps) in spite of intel having a superior architecture.
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Yeah, I'd only go for the i7 if you plan on doing more than gaming. Otherwise, you'd be wasting money.