Intel’s LGA 1156 platform launch has been a success; online media and user feedback have both been very positive. Our initial articles on i5 cover the processor and platform technology as well as gaming performance. Now it’s time to have a look at overclocking capabilities. How far can you take the Intel’s latest platform? What’s the impact of Turbo Boost? What about power consumption at accelerated clock speeds? You have questions. Much like Home Depot, we have answers.
P55: “The Next BX?”
This phrase has often been used (and abused) to characterize a new chipset or platform with the potential to become a de facto standard, and hence be dominant over all its direct competitors for a longer time than the regular product life cycle would imply. Long ago, the 440BX chipset, which powered the second-generation Pentium II, was the most popular core logic, despite several competitors having better numbers on paper. BX was the superior value king, and journalists kept referring to this product time and time again.
Many users still running Pentium 4, Pentium D, or Athlon 64/X2 or even first-generation Core 2 systems want to upgrade to four cores—and probably to Windows 7, as well. Core i5 is one of the best value options currently available, especially for users with overclocking ambitions.
Does the P55 platform have the potential to be another BX? Yes and no. On one hand, Intel will dwell on the LGA 1156 interface for a couple of years, at least, even though the pin-out and electrical specifications might be transient. From what we know today, we assume that the basic platform will reach out into 2011 and we expect this socket to host all Westmere-based 32nm processors, so, yes…you should be fairly "future-proof."
However, there are a few twists waiting in the wings that the P55 platform currently doesn’t support. The first is USB 3.0. The second is SATA at 6 Gb/s bandwidth. While the bumped-up SATA standard will only significantly impact flash SSDs and eSATA appliances that run multiple drives through one eSATA link, USB 3.0 is something we consider a must-have item once available, since most external storage devices are typically only limited to about 30 MB/s by the USB 2.0 bottleneck.
Overclocking: Great Speeds, Some Obstacles
We used MSI’s P55-GD65 motherboard for this project and were able to take the entry-level Core i5-750 to as much as 4.3 GHz. However, we could only reach speeds above 4 GHz after switching off some of the essential processor features.
- Maximizing Core i5 Value Through Overclocking
- Choosing The Best LGA 1156 Processor For Overclocking
- Platform And Results Without A Voltage Increase
- Speeding Up: Up To 4 GHz With More Voltage
- Overcoming Stability Issues At 4.1 GHz
- Clock Speed/Voltage Table And Test Setup
- Results: Synthetic Benchmarks
- Results: Games, 3DMark Vantage
- Results: Applications
- Results: Audio/Video
- Results: Power Consumption And Efficiency
- Conclusion
Nice to see a huge boost in gaming/non productive applications as well.
Nice to see a huge boost in gaming/non productive applications as well.
Question about the MSI GD65: Patrick/Achim did you guys try using any Channel Well based PSUs and if so did you experience any of the problems Atech mentioned in their review? (scroll down to the 4th paragraph) I recently purchased a Corsair 750hx and have noticed a fair number of comments not only in that linked article but also in places like newegg etc. The OC Genie issue doesn't bother me much but just hearing that there's any sort of problem at all between MSI boards and CWT-based PSUs has me a lil' sketchy till it's (presumably) fixed in a BIOS update. The Anandtech article mentioned they had the exact same problem w/ the GD80 so till MSI sorts their P55 problems out I'm on the fence about going w/ my first choice, the GD65 (LOVE that board's layout), or instead switching to the Asus/Gigbyte offerings.
~ dual-CPU workstations
~ high-end triple/quad GPU gaming setups that will tax PCIe throughput
~ easy (relative to p55) 4GHz+ overclocks
~ bandwidth intensive tasks that make use of the 3rd RAM channel.
~ nearly a year headstart to stabilize drivers and mature the x58 mobos
What seems to be more and more in doubt is if x58 is still better at:
~ stock/low voltage overclocks w/ little tweaking required to hit ~3.5-3.8GHz
No. The over-speed protection limits you from going past a certain power threshold. EE CPU's have unlocked multipliers, making overclocking extremely simplified.
Originally, you could only disable over-speed protection on the EE i7. Shortly after release, Intel changed their minds for whatever reason (Likely very bad publicity), and fixed that issue. Now it's entirely up to motherboard manf's to decide to include the feature to disable it.
And you're totally right, there's not much of anything worth the $700 price premium. The EE processors are more for people that either have more cash than sense or who want the fastest available, but who don't want to inherit the risks from overclocking.
I agree with you... but of course I have a i7 920
I like the thought of upgrading to the Intel Hex core next year over the current benefits of the i5 750 cost to performance.
An i5 750 @ 2.66 (stock) is already faster than a PII 965 @ 3.4 (stock). What makes you think it's going to be any closer when you push the i5 to 4.0?
Patrick/Achim, there's something I don't understand re your choice
of comparison CPU. The article states early on that the 870 doesn't
make any sense from a cost perspective, so why is it in the
graphs? Surely you should have compared to the 860? And indeed,
seeing how an 860 oc's is exactly what I would have thought most
people would want to know, since that is the most comparable CPU
to the 920. Paired into graphs with 750 results, it would be
genuinely useful to see how a 750 compares to an 860 on P55, ie.
whether the extra cost of the 860 is worthwhile (offhand, I had
assumed it would be) and by that I mean via including both stock
and best-oc 860 results.
Thus, can you please check with an 860 aswell? For most enthusiasts,
the 870 is not relevant. Likewise, how high can an 860 oc without
a voltage increase on that board? Does its higher base clock help?
Ian.