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Intel Core i7-875K And Core i5-655K Battle Beyond 4 GHz

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  • Core
  • Intel i7
  • Intel
  • Intel i5
  • CPUs
Last response: in Reviews comments
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May 28, 2010 4:00:12 AM

Do you like the idea of an unlocked clock multiplier, but don't want to pay $1,000 for an Extreme Edition? Intel's K-series CPUs bring overclocking down to the mainstream. The question is: can these scalable parts keep up with AMD's Black Edition CPUs?

Intel Core i7-875K And Core i5-655K Battle Beyond 4 GHz : Read more

More about : intel core 875k core 655k battle ghz

May 28, 2010 4:29:16 AM

BE vs K!! go K series
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May 28, 2010 4:57:07 AM

LGA 1366 i7 hopefully will be available soon. GRRRRRRRRR........
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May 28, 2010 5:00:27 AM

wow now that is some serious over-clocking... and here i am trying to push my 955 up past 3.93. i would have liked to see some liquid cooling tossed in to spice things up and maybe one more 5970... great job Chris!
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5
May 28, 2010 5:05:36 AM

Known--I'll talk to Thomas about getting some of that going in his next System Builder Marathon piece. He loves liquid cooling =)
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May 28, 2010 5:15:42 AM

still love my 930...
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May 28, 2010 5:50:22 AM

Intel did release the E6500K for the LGA 775, but only in Asia.

The only good thing here is that these chips will probably ship with heat sinks that don't suck and a good price drop for the i7 870. Otherwise, who cares, FSB stability on decent P55 boards has not been a problem. What the socket really needs from Intel is a better chip-set, not easier overclockers.
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May 28, 2010 6:11:53 AM

9. All prize winners are responsible for taxes and other surcharges on the prizes they win.

1099'd for $1499? I hate how contest prizes all have full MSRP on everything. Even if you win it end up costing you $500+ in taxes.
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May 28, 2010 6:12:50 AM

Intel makes good cpus, that's a given. Their problem lies in the pricing of such chips. I mean if you could buy a processor because you want to overclock it then the locked but cheaper one is as good as the unlocked one. Sure, it's more difficult, but I for one love a challenge.

Also, as a side note, I do have a problem with the benchmarks and more accurately with the conclusion you extracted from them. Who in their right mind would buy a processor, overclock it, and then do iTunes all day ... I mean come on, there's more to life then music ripping. What I'm saying is that the benchmark section SHOULD be remade entirely. Same old tests, that I could anticipate the outcome of every time, isn't a very compelling way to make a point. I do appreciate the game section though, at least i saw a new title.
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3
May 28, 2010 6:12:58 AM

Finally, very good news for serious desktop processing power that wont leave me with an empty wallet. The 875K is going to be my next CPU for 3D modeling and rendering. I hope it will keep me entertained for a while =)

Don't get me wrong but I was getting bored with the tiny world of ARM and Tegra and on the other side of the spectrum the hexacores and dual Xeons were far and away for my budget.
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May 28, 2010 6:31:21 AM

sarsoftLGA 1366 i7 hopefully will be available soon. GRRRRRRRRR........

On Xtremesystems.org, I just read about a guy reaching 4.644GHz on air with his i7 930. Granted, he has a great chip, but by no means is a unlocked multiplier needed for high overclocks.

If I were to build a new PC, the 1090T/1055T would be very complelling.
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15
May 28, 2010 6:46:03 AM

These Intel CPU's are "cool", but they have "hot" prices.
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-4
May 28, 2010 6:53:55 AM

1055t at 4Ghz here!!

For only 200bucks I got my 1055t to 4Ghz!!
1.445v 32c Idle, ~53c Load

My ~$1000 rig...maybe a little more.

1055t AMD Phenom II X6 @ 4Ghz (287*14) w/turbo OFF!!
gotta turn of to get max oc!)
4Gb G.Skill DDR3 2000Mhz (Tom's Best ot the Best sku# :) 
ASUS PRO 890GX USB 3/Sata II
XFX ATI RADEON 5770 1 Gb DDR5
60Gb Vertex Sata II SSD
2x WD Caviar Black 640Gb
CoolerMaster 212 Plus
NXZT Lexa Case with 5*120mm w/fan controller
Corsair TX650w PSU


Extras

Klipsch THX 2.1
Samsung 46' 1080p HDMI HDTV
HP 23' 1080p HDMI EYEFINITY 3x MONITORS
Samsung 1440*900 DVI
MS Natural Keyboard
Logitech invisible optical wirless mouse
320Gb Ext Backup Segate USB 2.0
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5
May 28, 2010 6:58:46 AM

Maybe I got a lucky chip...these things can go either way, but this thing got to 4Ghz with no more effort than a few bios settings and a $30 heat sink. It could get to 4.2Ghz or higher with another nudge..NO PROBLEM...

Either way :)  :)  :)  :) 
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May 28, 2010 7:02:42 AM

SpadeMIntel makes good cpus, that's a given. Their problem lies in the pricing of such chips. I mean if you could buy a processor because you want to overclock it then the locked but cheaper one is as good as the unlocked one. Sure, it's more difficult, but I for one love a challenge. Also, as a side note, I do have a problem with the benchmarks and more accurately with the conclusion you extracted from them. Who in their right mind would buy a processor, overclock it, and then do iTunes all day ... I mean come on, there's more to life then music ripping. What I'm saying is that the benchmark section SHOULD be remade entirely. Same old tests, that I could anticipate the outcome of every time, isn't a very compelling way to make a point. I do appreciate the game section though, at least i saw a new title.


Throw some suggestions out there! I'm always watching the comments for feedback :)  iTunes is but one element of the tests, and to be fair, it's a nice change of pace from all of the threaded transcoding apps that demonstrate the same thing, for the most part ;-)
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May 28, 2010 7:08:00 AM

Wonder why 875K is not a 32nm upgrade, we could see some serious overclocking at low power consumption.Still waiting for affordable (for me)pure processors without graphics with 4/8 cores on 32nm.
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May 28, 2010 7:13:54 AM

what's the big deal? I running ai7 860 at 4.0 on air stable!
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May 28, 2010 7:20:55 AM

The Core i7-875K looks like a great CPU to run Microsoft Flight Simulator X with.Please Tom's include more FSX benches.FSX make a nice benchmark.
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May 28, 2010 7:25:35 AM

Any word on the general availability of these CPUs?
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May 28, 2010 7:35:02 AM

dirtmountainAny word on the general availability of these CPUs?


These are going to hit after Computex. This was really supposed to be a preview :) 
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May 28, 2010 7:44:50 AM

jecastejFinally, very good news for serious desktop processing power that wont leave me with an empty wallet. The 875K is going to be my next CPU for 3D modeling and rendering. I hope it will keep me entertained for a while =)Don't get me wrong but I was getting bored with the tiny world of ARM and Tegra and on the other side of the spectrum the hexacores and dual Xeons were far and away for my budget.

lol the bulldozer will kill the intel line finally maybe
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May 28, 2010 7:49:27 AM

lashtonlol the bulldozer will kill the intel line finally maybe

Honestly, if I were you..I'd buy the true 6core AMD 1055T and spend the extra $150 on a nice 60Gb SSD Sata II drive....just saying, it's faster at 4ghz for what you're doing anyway AND an SSD is almost like having your first X amount of Gb's in RAM..constantly.

Either way you go you'll have to buy an after market cooler to achieve 4Ghz+. But that SSD will make a bigger difference in your day to day stuff than any difference in clock you may achieve with the i7.
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May 28, 2010 7:56:46 AM

I wonder if they disabling 2 cores of the 6 on the P II x6 will help improve gaming performance.
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May 28, 2010 8:22:09 AM

Yeah, this was nothing more than marketing. Every single current gen Intel chip is a capable overclocker. People have been pushing 4+ on i7s for a year now and the 860 is so easy to get to 4 it's laughable. I fail to see how having unlocked multipliers helps at all. 860 maxed at 21, 870 22. So you increase the multiplier, but guess what, now you have to lower the BCLK in order to compensate, which reduces the speed of everything. 191x21 Has always been the sweet spot on both the 860 and 920. Even Multipliers = Fail regardless.
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May 28, 2010 8:36:57 AM

Yaha! Now for the rest of the line-up to be BE -ed
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May 28, 2010 8:57:55 AM

:) 
cangeliniThrow some suggestions out there! I'm always watching the comments for feedback iTunes is but one element of the tests, and to be fair, it's a nice change of pace from all of the threaded transcoding apps that demonstrate the same thing, for the most part ;-)

Glad someone is listening :) 
Well my suggestions are as followed:
1. For the Audio department i'd go with something that can convert cd's to flac or flac to mp3 aif aac and the works, maybe run it as a batch process. (I personally am using goldwave for that, plus it adds filters and distorsions)
2. On the video side I'd go with avidemux or virtualdub and convert into x264 with mkv/mp4 package since it's becoming the norm these days (take anime and compressed HD video)
3. I like the 3dsmax since I use it, but spicing it up with some CAD, maybe some solidworks or why not even the good ol Blender since it's free. And if it's possible some other photo suite, be it from Corel or whoever.
4. Definitely some office/open office/flash tests, content creation as a batch process and time it from start to finish.
5. Games .. definitely no console ports or games that were made with consoles in mind. Crysis Warhead, Alien vs Predator, Metro, some racing simulator, a strategy game, basically games that have either a wide install base OR are using new engines and technologies.
6. Anti-virus programs, you can always use the free editions of avira, avg, mse, and so on and so forth.

I know that changing a benchmark suite takes time and $ but, I believe it could be more fair and close to a real life usage scenario.
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May 28, 2010 8:59:22 AM

youssef 2010I wonder if they disabling 2 cores of the 6 on the P II x6 will help improve gaming performance.



Honestly, I think the Phenom II X6 scores lower than the Phenom II X4 because of the more "advanced" power management.

I've noticed on mine (X6) that it will throttle down to very low Mhz ~1150 even when running at 4Ghz. I imagine disabling this aggressive power management would allow for speedier game scores since most are only running on a fraction of it's cores and it would not have a lag while "throttling up" in Mhz.
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May 28, 2010 9:00:31 AM

I'm still running my old C2D E6300 (stock 1.86 Ghz) at 3.33 Ghz.

That's a 1.47 Ghz overclock on a 1.86 Ghz chip. On air. With a £15 cooler. On an Asus P5K mobo. For well over 2 years.

My next rig will be AM3, Phenom II X4 965 BE. But no cash for the project yet :( 

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May 28, 2010 9:04:12 AM

Well atleast this is a good start on Intel's side IMO...Like they said in the article, this should expand to the rest of the chips also...
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May 28, 2010 9:06:26 AM

same old price structure by Intel, quite perfect though so as not to affect the value other chips.
anyways, new parts won't sway me from buying the AMD black editions. there's not much performance difference.
the savings will get me a reasonable a heatsink.
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2
May 28, 2010 9:07:54 AM

Intel needs to have a k series for the 1366 boards!



Not to say Id get it since I already am building around a i7930, which I just got this past weekend.
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May 28, 2010 9:47:46 AM

masterofevil22Honestly, I think the Phenom II X6 scores lower than the Phenom II X4 because of the more "advanced" power management.I've noticed on mine (X6) that it will throttle down to very low Mhz ~1150 even when running at 4Ghz. I imagine disabling this aggressive power management would allow for speedier game scores since most are only running on a fraction of it's cores and it would not have a lag while "throttling up" in Mhz.


I think the X6 returns to the original Phenom's independent core clocking system, albeit with much quicker ramp and slam delays (I think those are the terms?). Thus, it's very elegant and results in a far smaller performance drop than we saw back with Barcelona. If you throw something relatively heavy at the Phenom II X6, you wouldn't ever notice a difference between having all cores locked at the same frequency and all cores working independently anyway.
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May 28, 2010 10:05:57 AM

silverblueI think the X6 returns to the original Phenom's independent core clocking system, albeit with much quicker ramp and slam delays (I think those are the terms?). Thus, it's very elegant and results in a far smaller performance drop than we saw back with Barcelona. If you throw something relatively heavy at the Phenom II X6, you wouldn't ever notice a difference between having all cores locked at the same frequency and all cores working independently anyway.


The independent clocks for each core on Barcelona was a great idea. The only problem was the crappy thread scheduler that Vista had. It made the threads bounce cores all the time, thus the cores were constantly slowing down and ramping up. Win 7 is a bit better on that regard, but I imagine not by much. Anyway, the new X6 only uses it for Turbo and not idle clocks, I think.
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May 28, 2010 10:08:57 AM

oh the pain of having your epeen cut in half.
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May 28, 2010 10:25:27 AM

In MW2, the Thuban is the only CPU that seems to increase speed as you go up in resolution... and, with AA on, is the best performer at 2560x1600.

As for the strange result in Crysis, I doubt it's due to non-power-of-2, otherwise we'd have heard about it by now with the X3s. Was this repeatable? Could it be down to the aforementioned change in power management, and if so, why now and not in other resolutions/with other settings?
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May 28, 2010 10:39:22 AM

SpadeM2. On the video side I'd go with avidemux or virtualdub and convert into x264 with mkv/mp4 package since it's becoming the norm these days (take anime and compressed HD video)


I don't know about Virtualdub becoming the norm, it's been around for years now and most people I speak to who do a lot of video encoding use Handbrake.

Chris you should really lose the DVIX & XVID benchmark, these avi containers are limited to two threads at the most and it's been that way for years now there not going to change which makes them pointless for testing these highly threaded/CPU's.

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May 28, 2010 11:33:14 AM

it's obvious that intel doesn't unlock the i5 750 and 930 for precise the reason stated: they are way to popular to upgrade to unlocked versions that will effectively cancel all orders for the normal ones prolly. Although very good oc, the i5 655 is a dual core and in these times I want a triple core minimum for multitasking and rarring, videoeditting and such. Pure gamers could use a fast dual core though.
good article and very nice oc's on all cpu's. The six core still disapoints me a bit in performance, I would have expected more power from the two extra cores. Now it only matters in the specific multicore/thread optimized programs which are not that abundant.
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May 28, 2010 11:48:22 AM

JeanLucI don't know about Virtualdub becoming the norm, it's been around for years now and most people I speak to who do a lot of video encoding use Handbrake. Chris you should really lose the DVIX & XVID benchmark, these avi containers are limited to two threads at the most and it's been that way for years now there not going to change which makes them pointless for testing these highly threaded/CPU's.


I was refering to x264/mkv/mp4 becoming the norm not the software you encode with. So many free encoders out there.. take your pick, but anything would be better then what's now available in the benchmark section
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May 28, 2010 12:30:24 PM

Eh. You can overclock the older models fine without it, this just makes it easier. Still probably looking at an i5-750, taken to 3.2 with Turbo still on to hit 3.84. Not really interested in what you yourself described as suicide run OCs.
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May 28, 2010 1:09:26 PM

Nice review man, now I have wait to see the price of a full build with the 785k and maybe I build another rig with an Intel CPU to add to my X4 955 @ 4.0GHz.
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May 28, 2010 1:17:46 PM

glad to see intel playing ball with us :)  like I often put it: the empire always strikes back. I cant wait to see how AMD will respond to this new chips.
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May 28, 2010 2:47:34 PM

Really enjoyed this.

Very well written Chris.

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May 28, 2010 3:05:19 PM

Great article. Sad to see how much AMD current processors really lag behind Intel. But even though AMD processors get owned easily when comparing core to core all my computers are still AMD. Intel really shoots itself in the foot with overall platform costs. Knowing how much cheaper and more full featured the AMD platform keeps me coming back every time. Being able to buy an affordable motherboard with plenty of Sata ports, USB 3.0, integrated high def sound, ext. Sata, non gimped pci express lanes, etc..., etc... is really a blessing for the builder on a budget.
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May 28, 2010 3:11:30 PM

Great article Chris! Keep up the good work.

Totally agree with you about their choice of models for the K series. Best guess is that is probably the sku they had the most of and felt comfortable in potentially wasting should something have gone wrong.
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Anonymous
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May 28, 2010 3:16:24 PM

I was personally looking forward to the new anti-virus benchmark. There was mention of doing away with AVG and moving onto Kaspersky, but I haven't seen the change. I was interested due to me having to run a number of virus sweeps for family and friends.
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May 28, 2010 4:12:36 PM

Thanks for including a few mainstream benchmarks, especially Adobe photo processes. Much appreciated.
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May 28, 2010 4:30:22 PM

interesting pieces of hardware Intel brought up

+1 on the choice of models for this k series but it makes me wonder why core i7 920 and core i5 750 weren't used to compare against on the Intel front
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May 28, 2010 4:37:25 PM

cangeliniThrow some suggestions out there! I'm always watching the comments for feedback iTunes is but one element of the tests, and to be fair, it's a nice change of pace from all of the threaded transcoding apps that demonstrate the same thing, for the most part ;-)


dBpoweramp batch converter can run several different audio file type conversions (flac and mp3 to name a couple) and it will convert a different song per core (does NOT work for hyperthreaded cpus with multiple cores though).
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May 28, 2010 4:55:03 PM

Good review. My only disagreement is on the game benchmark suite. You choose a bunch of video card taxing games. You should have chosen CPU taxing games like RTS (Total War), or MMORPG.

My next 3D app processor is most likely going to be the successor to Magni-cours using a G34 platform.
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May 28, 2010 5:10:42 PM

Chris,

I loved the article. Solid. And, since you asked for them, here are my suggestions. I'm an avid follower, and I love the hardware, but I don't get to build or game as much as I'd like, so here's what someone like me would like to see.

1. Maybe you have this on-site somewhere, but I couldn't find it. How about a permanent link on your main page that explains in detail your standard benchmark suite, what each benchmark is used for, and what it is meant to test for (For example, why run the iTunes bench if you know the cpu with the fastest clock speed will win? Are you looking to confirm the speed of the cpus, or are you looking for core advancements that might give you unexpected results?)? This way you could explain specific findings in the comparison article without having to re-explain what the benchmark specifically tests.

2. I agree that MS Office/Open Office benchmarks would be a great idea for home PC builders.

3. Please use a greater variety of games in the benchmark suite. Yes, you obviously want the most crushing, system-defeating games installed to test how potent the hardware is, but how about an MMO (incredibly popular, a useful test) or cpu-intensive RTS game thrown in to see how the cpu load affects system performance?

4. I realize you avoid this kind of thing to keep the charts less confusing, but this article was missing a comparison to a "normal" chip. Yes, these scores and times look great, but how do they stack up against a stock i7-920? Or one that's been overclocked? We have no basis for comparison, since such a cpu might never have seen this particular test rig before.

Love the articles. Please, keep 'em coming.
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