Which core 7 is best

[jackdock]

Have 2 (8800 GTX)Discreet Graphics cards (run Autocad MEP 2010 on 3 21"monitors )
Have Intel Q9450w/8gig DDR2, wish to upgrade to Intel I7w/32 Gig
Any thoughts as to best price to preformance in Autocad with the I7

I don't believe I can afford the Extreme edition,
so it's between the 950 ,870 or the 860 (don't want Intel graphics)

INPUT???

 

[k1114]

The 870/860 is definitely a no go, even a i5 2500k outperforms them. Id recommend the i7 2600k, it outperforms the 950 in everything. It also runs cooler, overclocks better and uses less power. If you could wait till the end of the year, the new SB E will come out and would help much more. But I dont think youd wait that long.

 

[k1114]

The thing I dont like about those benchmarks, is it leaves every piece of hardware as a variable to change the performance. Amount of ram, ram speed, video card, gpu oc, of course cpu oc, ssd/hdd, raid setup, etc, all have an impact, so even accounting for all this, look at similar for everything, the 2600 is still beating the 950 in everything.

Heres benchmarks for similar setups, although the 960 is .2ghz slower, the performance difference is large enough to see that the 2600k outperforms.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-990x-extreme-edition-gulftown,2874-7.html

 

[k1114]

It tests a balance setup not just one part.

This is what I was stating, since every part is affecting the performance of a system you cant do a real one on one, cpu vs cpu. In a controlled test like they did in Tom's benchmark, they minimize variables to get the closest they possibly can to see which cpu is actually better.


What is a AMD x6/gtx 470/ssd second to last being beat by turion 2s and c2ds with gt210s, regular hdds and other low end components?

 

[Emperus]

Currently 32 gigs of memory is possible only on a P67 board.. So that gives the i7 2600k the lead choice.. However, the availability of only 4 memory banks spills the need for 4 x 8GB memory sticks which, am not sure if is available also or not..

 

[Russ_64]

As said above, if max RAM is a must then only i7-2600 can support 32GB, i7 870/860 only supports 16GB and the 950 supports 24GB.

Also consider future upgrades - socket 1156 is dead, 1366 is high-end (i7 only) but 1155 (Sandybridge) is mainstream.
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=52214,41315,41316,37150

 

[oby20]

As said above, if max RAM is a must then only i7-2600 can support 32GB, i7 870/860 only supports 16GB and the 950 supports 24GB.

Also consider future upgrades - socket 1156 is dead, 1366 is high-end (i7 only) but 1155 (Sandybridge) is mainstream.
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=52214,41315,41316,37150

i7 2600 supports 32gb, but it only supports dual channel memory (4 dimm slots), and its very hard to find a single 8gb memory dimm?
or if you found one how much will it cause you 4 pcs of 8gb dimm? it is easier and cheaper to have a 24gb on a triple channel memory (6 dimm slots).
so 32gb is not possible in sandy bridge right now.
i7 950 supports triple channel memory and can easily maximize the 24gb memory support.
if max RAM is a must then i7 950 wins in that category.

 

[Daplinksta]

If youy've got a grand for a cpu then http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115079. If not probably http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070.

They have p67 boards that support xfire(I've been looking at the sandy as a possible upgrade) and 8 gig sticks are probably somewhere in the near future. *agree's with ATI/AMD for gpu*