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• The company won’t get specific about the changes made to its QuickPath Interconnect, the point-to-point interface first used to attach Core i7 to X58. But there is a QPI link inside of Lynnfield, serving as the glue between on-die PCI Express and the uncore. Intel has a lot more freedom with this technology now, since it doesn’t have to leave the die. Thus, the performance and timings are both reportedly better here than they were on Bloomfield. This interconnect is important today, naturally, but will become a key performance enabler when Clarkdale launches next year. With graphics and memory control on the same piece of silicon, memory bandwidth—one of the biggest Achilles’ heels of integrated graphics designs—is delivered much more effectively. As a result, expect to see Intel adjusting the speed of its internal QPI link up or down to differentiate its Clarkdale SKUs. Of course, none of that is really a concern with Lynnfield, which employs 16 lanes of integrated PCI Express 2.0 to interface with discrete GPUs. We’ve already spent considerable time comparing the performance of single- and dual- card configurations on P55 against X58, P45, and 790GX using 2.8 GHz processors. We've determined that there’s very little gain or loss resulting from Intel’s Lynnfield implementation. In other words, the integration of PCI Express is just about as close to transparent to end-users as possible. This is the way integration should work (though most of us have been conditioned to think it automatically leads to performance sacrifices). Much more impactful is the licensing of SLI and CrossFire, which allows most P55-based motherboards to support either technology, just like X58. Of course, the difference is that P55 platforms are going to be significantly cheaper. More on the chipset shortly. Finally, you have the processor’s integrated DDR3 memory controller, which is cut from three 64-bit channels in Bloomfield to two 64-bit channels with Lynnfield. Officially, Bloomfield is rated for up to DDR3-1066, yielding a theoretical maximum of 25.6 GB/s of bandwidth. We’ve all seen the LGA 1366-based Core i7s scale as high as DDR3-2133 though, so the official spec means very little to enthusiasts. In contrast, Lynnfield is rated for DDR3-1333 memory modules, offering up to 21.3 GB/s. For the most part, the loss of that third channel is made up for by an increase in attainable data signaling rate. We’ll put this theory to test in a couple of pages. LGA 1156: More Socket Segmentation The table below should look somewhat familiar; I used it back in February to chart the last nine years of desktop socket launches from Intel and AMD. With the debut of LGA 1156, the Intel column is looking pretty darned crowded. Disruptive Socket Launches YearAMDIntel 2001Socket 478 2002 2003Socket 754 2004Socket 939LGA 77520052006Socket AM2(Intel launches Core 2 Duo, most motherboards need to be replaced)20072008LGA 13662009(Socket AM3–new processors work in old motherboards, but not the other way around)LGA 1156 I’m sure there will be a number of enthusiasts who’ve spent a lot of money on LGA 1366, X58, and Core i7. You'll see the performance of Lynnfield, compare the cost, look at the upgrade path to Clarkdale, and ask me why I couldn’t have given a more vocal heads-up about what was to come. To those folks, let me give you one hopefully-welcome piece of information: the upcoming Gulftown design (32nm, hexa-core, Hyper-Threading-enabled) will be a drop-in upgrade to your existing platform. Meanwhile, those waiting on Clarkdale have a dual-core design to look forward to—certainly not as sexy, unless you’re really itching for integrated graphics.  What, then, was the impetus behind LGA 1156 less than a year after LGA 1366? And why couldn’t Intel integrate PCI Express on the LGA 1366 platform, too? Right from the get-go, 1366 was designed as a DP interface for Intel’s Tylersburg platform. The fact that it surfaced first on the desktop is similar to how LGA 771 made a brief appearance in Intel’s Skull Trail gaming configuration. The difference is that motherboards based on X58 made their way under $200 and the cheapest processors dropping into the interface are less than $300. That’s not little money, to be sure. But it’s affordable enough to tempt the folks who know how fast an overclocked i7 machine can be. LGA 1366 didn’t get PCI Express because it would have made the pin-out far too complex. Plus, the servers and workstations that now use the 5520 and 5500 chipsets need access to more than just 16 lanes of connectivity for storage controllers, professional graphics cards, and high-speed networking. Thus, LGA 1156 becomes the true successor to LGA 775, despite now-convoluted segmentation. It’s simpler than LGA 1366, its locking mechanism applies pressure more evenly on the CPU’s heat spreader, and it helps protect against EMI—particularly important when Clarkdale exposes on-chip graphics. You can expect this processor interface to remain pervasive until the end of 2011, when LGA 1155 (planned launch in the first half of 2011) starts grabbing market share big time.

• On the PC front, Intel showed its upcoming 32nm dual-core CPUs running real-world applications. The company noted that the CPUs are on target to be delivered by the end of Q4. Performance of Clarkdale looked to be faster than the fastest Core 2 Duo--about 1.5x 3DMark Vantage performance (when comparing Clarkdale integrated graphics to G45 integrated graphics on the Core 2 Duo). What’s interesting about Arrandale and Clarkdale is that they’ll have the integrated graphics on the CPU package. The CPU package will have two chips, the CPU and the Intel graphics core. The CPU will be built on the new 32nm process, while the graphics core is 45nm. Even more interesting, the dual-channel memory and PCI Express controllers are integrated onto the graphics core, not the CPU core, unlike the original Nehalem-based Core i5 and Core i7s. As with earlier Nehalems, Turbo Boost is a part of the picture, allowing the CPUs to throttle up to impressive performance levels on lightly-threaded applications. Turbo Boost has been extended to the graphics core, too, allowing the GPU clock frequencies to crank up when more graphics horsepower is needed, as long as the overall thermal envelope of the whole CPU package remains within operational parameters. The GPU itself has been improved by increasing clock frequencies and adding more shader units. Performance of just the graphics unit is estimated to be double the current Intel G45. We saw the Resident Evil benchmark running on Arrandale (the mobile version) at around 18-20 fps at 1280x720. So, while it won’t kill discrete graphics, the new graphics core should "suck less" than previous Intel IGPs in 3D environments. What Intel is really aiming its integrated graphics core towards is HD video. It now supports dual-stream HD decode, so now can handle Blu-ray picture-in-picture functionality. Intel has also been working to improve the user interface of the graphics control panel. What we saw looked much improved over the existing Intel control panels, particularly if you’re a home theater video enthusiast. Videophiles now have more control over key parameters than they did previously. Since Arrandale and Clarkdale now move the memory controller onto the CPU package (and are DDR3-exclusive), systems built on those CPUs should see substantial gains in memory bandwidth--up to 1.7x versus systems with DDR2-800 memory. Toss in Hyper-Threading support, which allows for four simultaneous threads on the two cores, and the performance will rival Core 2 Quads in the same target price. Intel didn’t divulge pricing, but compared Clarkdale to the Core 2 Quad Q9400, so it’s safe to say pricing will be under $200. Despite the presence of integrated graphics on the CPU package, you can drop in a discrete graphics card into a Clarkdale system, which should make this a great CPU for building a budget gaming rig. Toss in enhancements from Windows 7 to make more effective use of Hyper-Threaded CPUs and you have a recipe for fairly high performance in even lower-cost machines than today's Core i5 is able to provide. Looking Forward As we noted on day one, Intel’s emphasis at this year’s IDF was strongly focused on small things: new mobile CPUs (Moorestown), handheld devices, and very thin laptops and netbook computers. But there was still a lot of meat for PC enthusiasts. While we didn’t get hands-on, Intel was very public about the 32nm Gulftown six-core CPU arriving as an upgrade sometime next year for owners of existing LGA 1366 systems. Arrandale looks to be a great addition to Intel’s mobile lineup. The company also announced Clarksfield, the quad-core, 45nm laptop version of Nehalem. Clarkdale on the desktop looks to be one of the best budget CPUs we’ve seen in a long time. While Intel only spoke of the 3.3 GHz version, we’ll likely see lower-clocked versions. Overclocking headroom is unknown at this point, but given the massive Turbo Boost increases we saw, Clarkdale is likely to be overclocking-friendly. But with Turbo Boost dynamically delivering additional performance, you may not need to overclock. If anything disappointed us at this year’s IDF, it was the anemic showing of Larrabee. Given the downright pathetic nature of the demo Intel was showing, Larrabee looks to be no threat to Nvidia or AMD’s ATI division for some time to come, at least in terms of gaming. We’re anticipating testing the new Intel processors, both mobile and desktop, as they arrive. And what performance enthusiast wouldn’t look forward to six cores under the hood?

• I’ll be honest—when I first got my hands on a pre-production Core i5 three months ago, the processor took me by surprise, even with an artificial cap of 2.8 GHz on its Turbo Boost functionality. That was before final specs or pricing was available. Now that we’ve had a couple of weeks with final hardware the Core i5 and Core i7 processor families are even more fascinating.   To begin, they make it much harder to recommend LGA 1366-based Core i7s. We know the i7-900-series is supposed to be higher-end, and it’s hard to ignore the fact that next year we’ll see hexa-core Gulftowns that drop right into our X58 motherboards. But seriously. Motherboards priced under $100? Core i5s under $200? We’re talking a possible contender next time we tackle an Intel-based $650 System Builder Marathon story (AMD fans rejoice—this month we’ll be doing an all-AMD series for you guys). That’s $10 less expensive than a Core 2 Quad Q9550 and $45 less than a Phenom II X4 965. Alright, so the Core i5-750, specifically, is priced well. What is there to like about it? Reasonable power consumption, a base clock rate comparable to Intel’s Core i7-920, a more-aggressive Turbo Boost able to take the chip to 3.2 GHz in single-threaded workloads, CrossFire and SLI compatibility—it’s a pretty compelling list, actually. What about the two LGA 1156-based Core i7s? We tested the Core i7-870 and are fairly convinced that, like the Core i7-950, it sits in a no-man’s land. Nearly two times the price of Core i7-860 and only marginally better-looking on a spec sheet, the Core i7-870 becomes Lynnfield’s version of an Extreme Edition processor—without the unlocked multiplier. More attractive for the folks who stand to benefit from Hyper-Threading is Core i7-860. Its price tag puts it in the realm of Core i7-920, its Turbo Boost helps make it faster, and a complementary motherboard is going to cost you between $75 and $50 less. But based on our benchmarks here and our game testing with single and dual Radeon HD 4870 X2s and GeForce GTX 285s, we’re most excited about the value of Core i5. The fact that it’s regularly able to smack around the current Core 2 flagship (QX9770) is just crazy. Of course, this launch isn’t all bad news for the AMD enthusiasts out there. When the Phenom II X4 965 BE debuted in August, I hinted that you should wait until today before taking a leap. Now you see why. With i5-750 selling at $199, AMD has no choice but to compress its price list. At the very least, it’ll likely slash the prices on its high-end Phenom IIs. If you held off, great deals are quite likely in your future. But any price action in the Phenom II or Core 2 lineups is going to be a result of a solid showing today by Core i5, which is why it earns the first Recommended Buy award I’ve given to a processor in almost a year and a half managing Tom’s Hardware. Stay tuned. Patrick Schmid is working on comprehensive overclocking coverage using these two Lynnfield processors. I've had one sample up to 4.1 GHz in the lab on air, and am excited to see what his story reveals.