Core i7 Nehalem Benchmarks Preview

Crysis, GRID & ET:Quake Wars

Published: 3rd November 2008 | Source: Intel | Price: - | Author: James Napier

Crysis is without doubt one of the most visually stunning and hardware-challenging games to date. By using CrysisBench - a tool developed independently of Crysis - we performed a total of 5 timedemo benchmarks using a CPU-intensive pre-recorded demo. To ensure the most accurate results, the highest and lowest benchmark scores were then removed and an average calculated from the remaining three.

Staying true to its form, Crysis gives each of the systems a hard time, with not even the Core i7 managing to muster up an average of anywhere near 60FPS at 1280x1024. Admittedly, this is more than likely down to the HD 4870x2 not quite having the pixel-pushing power to conquer Crysis, but regardless the i7 still leads the pack at both resolutions, offering a ~10-15FPS increase over the Q6600 and a few FPS over the QX9650.

Race Driver: Grid is a visually taxing game that presents a challenge to any graphics system. Results were recorded using FRAPS to log the average FPS over a 2 minute race. To ensure consistency, the same track, car and general path of travel was used in each of the 5 benchmark runs for each system, with an average FPS being calculated from the median three results.

While the difference in performance in Crysis is but a mere few FPS, GRID puts every ounce of the Core i7's power to work. Managing a ~35FPS increase over the QX9650 at both 1280x1024 and 1920x1200 resolutions, this clearly shows that even on the QX9650, the performance of GRID is being held back by a lack of CPU power. Further testing of SLI and Crossfire over the next week will certainly reveal if the i7 is able to widen this gap even more.

ET:Quake Wars is a follow-up game to Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory developed by Splash Technology. Using a modified version of id Software's Doom 3 engine along with Mega rendering technology, the game offers high resolution textures, fast gameplay and plenty of explosions. Using the built-in recordNetDemo and timeNetDemo commands, we recorded a 5 minute online gaming session and played it back a total of 5 times on each system, calculating the average FPS from the median three results.

Judging by the results above, it would certainly appear that GRID isn't the only CPU-bound game, with the i7 system taking the lead by almost 20FPS in Quake Wars at 1280x1024. Once again the Q6600 setup shows its total lack of umph compared to the other two systems, acting as a very large bottleneck and slowing the GPU down to around 90FPS at both resolutions.

Most Recent Comments

03-11-2008, 03:26:51

Jim

"Finally the NDA has been lifted and today we can give you all exactly what you've been waiting for: Core i7 BENCHMARKS"

http://www.overclock3d.net/gfx/artic...205402847l.jpg

Core i7 Nehalem Benchmarks Preview

03-11-2008, 04:09:54

Colossous

Nice one, looking forward to further testing on these babies

03-11-2008, 05:05:25

Jaster

***runs to get mop to clean drool up from around my workstation*** (health and safety first

....

Looks very impressive, just at stock, looking forward to the OC'ing and the SLI v Crossfire setup...

03-11-2008, 05:42:50

Rastalovich

Good stuff Jim.

Looking very much forward to see if it can maintain it`s credentials in the overclocking stakes. (cos we don`t use stock speeds around here.. do we ?)

Awesome.

03-11-2008, 05:51:46

Jaster

the problem is on the non "extreme" editions having over wattage protection could hinder overclocking capability,

I think intel have finally realised that people were buying midranged CPU's and investing in top cooling...rather then forking out for the top ranged line....sad sad day....do you recon this is backlash from intel actually having very little competition these days...maybe so...so rast looks like stock maybe the only option for sub £500 i7's

....it makes me want to cry

03-11-2008, 05:52:30

!TIMMY!

Great article! Cant wait to see how these oc and compared to current hardware oced.

03-11-2008, 05:55:30

D-Cyph3r

Those Grid results are freaking unbelievable.

03-11-2008, 05:58:49

Jim

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='D-Cyph3r'

Those Grid results are freaking unbelievable.

Yeah GRID really seemed to make the most of the chip. My guess was that it was mostly down to "physics" calculations, as during each run of the game i'd ramp the car up a bank and send it flying into a wall at 170mph.

03-11-2008, 06:03:43

SuB

ok.. wow.. that's impressive....

be nice to see it overclocked..

makes my q6600 look crap! but that is at stock, be nice to see it against an average overclocked q66 but all to come i guess

memory bandwidth is absolutely INSANE!

depending on price point, i might pick something like this up for rendering, that Cinema 4D benchmark is very very promising

utterly astounded by that memory bandwidth though.. photoshop and video editing are going to LOVE this chip

03-11-2008, 06:24:51

w3bbo

Great preview m8y. Soooo tempted to go i7 now - just when I thought I had the setup I wanted something else comes along to throw a spanner in the works!

03-11-2008, 06:29:11

Rastalovich

i7 extreme 965 seems to clock on air just under what a x9650 will do. I`ve seen 4.13g, but ofc people are hitting 4.2+ with the x9650. Have no idea where the rumors of not being able to clock these things came from.

(having said that, I don`t know if the i7 went that high and then crapped out >.< )

03-11-2008, 06:34:32

Jaster

non extremes have wattage limiters, for the i7 920 theres only a 20w + margin, which will hinder overclocking, but only for the non extremes, check here for further info...unfortunately it looks like intel are waving there "no competition banner" with pride

...don't blame them, but if the oc'g is severeley limited then sticking with 775 and oc'g may still yield better results...on the low end i7's anyway...lets see what bencies we get from the oc'g....come on jim lets see more numbers

still looks juicy just at stock...

03-11-2008, 06:41:44

Jim

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Jaster'

still looks juicy just at stock...

heheh i'm working on it. Would be nice if we could get a retail non-extreme sample to do some "I'm not a millionaire" testing, but I'm not sure when the stores are gonna start listing them as everything seems thin on the ground atm.

03-11-2008, 06:54:06

Jaster

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Jim'

you hinting your a millionaire jim

...yeah every review ive seen this morning have been extreme editions....and a lot of people are talking "intel domination" ... sad day ... considering the worlds in recession and not many could happily afford these high end cpu's....there are children starving in the world...(blah blah blah)... (actually that makes me feel sad inside, i'd rather have more FPS then feed a child....I'm going to hell)

...

03-11-2008, 06:58:32

Rastalovich

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Jaster'

still looks juicy just at stock...

How about a 920 running @ 3.9g ?

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=439417

x21 multiplier ???? 3.4g seems to be the popular hit.

03-11-2008, 07:02:36

Jim

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Jaster'

you hinting your a millionaire jim

*wishes* - No unfortunately I wont be upgrading my YachtPC to an i7...at least not this year

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Jaster'

..yeah every review ive seen this morning have been extreme editions....and a lot of people are talking "intel domination" ... sad day ... considering the worlds in recession and not many could happily afford these high end cpu's....there are children starving in the world...(blah blah blah)... (actually that makes me feel sad inside, i'd rather have more FPS then feed a child....I'm going to hell)

...

Ahahah...You just managed to make me smile on a Monday morning! But lets face it, if everyone donated their PC upgrade funds to the 3rd world then we'd be the ones running P4's and suffering from lag while some Ethiopian kicks our asses with his new i7 rig running on a fibre connection

03-11-2008, 07:19:34

ionicle

wow, amd have a lot of work to do...

03-11-2008, 07:50:03

Jaster

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Jim'

*wishes* - No unfortunately I wont be upgrading my YachtPC to an i7...at least not this year

no they would just be running scams like there nigerian counterparts..."there is a pigeon in your bank account sir" ...at break neck speed

...cracking networks using elcomsofts password software on tri-sli'd gx280's

...and also kicking yer ass on CS at the same time

.....

03-11-2008, 11:16:12

monkey7

Damn... It's sad the motherboards are so expensive. 200% the price for 150% the performance

Ah well, I'll see if there are some nice prices at the HCC!days (dutch computer marketplace). If the mobo+i7 gets below €400, it's mine :P

And DAMN I want to know how that guy got his 920 on 3.9 gHz. Maybe he had a prerelease version without the wattage limiter. If he had a retail version and it wasn't all too dangerous to do, I'm sold

*starts calculating the costs of buying an E8400 and i7 920 system*

And oh, am I allowed to post links to benchmarks on other sites?

03-11-2008, 11:27:59

Luigi

Nice review Jim, Good to be able to see the graphs at last :P

seems like quite a boost from Core2, but worth the cash? I dno..

03-11-2008, 11:45:13

Kerotan

Once again the Q6600 setup shows its total lack of umph compared to the other two systems, acting as a very large bottleneck and slowing the GPU down to around 90FPS at both resolutions.

90FPS aint bad for a chip that's ~2years old now tho is it? So long as it's pushing 60, it's still up to the job [in terms of gaming] imo, and as others have said, that was a stock clocked chip. GPU is still where it pays to spend more for gaming performance improvements.

Good review anyhow, be good to see these drive current prices down a little.

03-11-2008, 11:47:53

FarFarAway

Looks like I may have to upgrade, although I won't bother unless a GPU comes out that will allow the CPU/mobo to shine

I wonder how AMD's efforts will go?

03-11-2008, 11:56:01

Jaster

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='monkey7'

And DAMN I want to know how that guy got his 920 on 3.9 gHz. Maybe he had a prerelease version without the wattage limiter. If he had a retail version and it wasn't all too dangerous to do, I'm sold

It is questionable, from everything post NDA it seems that no one has actually had a retail 920 to test, you know what its like, new technology and lots of sites publishing unconfirmed or inaccurate data...all we can do is wait till the OC3D lot get a retail 920 in...then we'll have our answers...the wattage limiter though if reports are true seems a bit underhand

... I want AMD to at least give them a run for there money at the moment its more like a rocket car versus a dead horse in a shopping cart

03-11-2008, 12:04:44

Rastalovich

There`s 920 cpus in the likes of hwbot with cpuz confirmation screenies.

03-11-2008, 12:10:07

Jaster

until there confirmed as retail then the question is still up there...kind of like the amd "black edition"...unlocked multiplier and all that....even 20 watts though should be enough to give it a small boost...until general release I don't think were gonna answer these questions

...time will tell....looking forward to the "attainable" i7 reviews....sorry >£400 is a bit too heavy on my wallet...I can hear my bank manager coming after me with crow bar....

03-11-2008, 12:26:59

Kerotan

I wouldn't go up against my bank manager if he was Gordon Freeman either^^

03-11-2008, 18:04:54

Toxcity

Well, I am not really all that impressed. Intel can go lick there bums.

I was expecting a little more Ommph! But got something that can perform only slightly better than todays Extremes.

An overpriced Penryn on steroids.

03-11-2008, 18:15:11

Zoot

I'd like one myself for one reason only - to do some heavy Linux multitasking on the 8 threads.

TBH I'll hold off with Yorkfield until the 32nm die shrink at least though.

Should have done that with Conroe.

04-11-2008, 08:16:54

Rastalovich

Quote:

Originally Posted by name='Toxcity'

Well, I am not really all that impressed. Intel can go lick there bums.

I was expecting a little more Ommph! But got something that can perform only slightly better than todays Extremes.

An overpriced Penryn on steroids.

Well.. to be fair, I`m looking at this new socket to have "competant" cpus for atleast the first year or so. Something that`ll do that much little more % than the existing best 775. After a year I can see some real ball-busting cpus coming out.

Not like we need them or anything, but computers are no longer in the realms of trying to be the best they can be, it`s all about selling units.

Core i7 Nehalem Benchmarks Preview

Crysis, GRID & ET:Quake Wars

Published: 3rd November 2008 | Source: Intel | Price: - | Author: James Napier

Most Recent Comments

Related Content

Register for the OC3D Newsletter