Say farewell to Intel’s conventional three-component platform design. P55 (and very likely every desktop chipset moving forward) centers on a two-chip implementation consisting of the CPU and one piece of motherboard core logic. Surely, there’s a team of Nvidia engineers feeling pretty gosh-darned vindicated right now.
With the memory and PCI Express controllers now part of Lynnfield (and graphics migrating that direction with Q1’s Clarkdale launch), there’s little else for a chipset to do except the functionality formerly handled by Intel’s ICH southbridge lineup. Thus, P55 gives you six 3 Gb/s SATA ports, a Gigabit Ethernet MAC, 14 USB 2.0 ports, HD Audio, and eight lanes of PCI Express 2.0 for peripheral connectivity. As an indication of how far southbridge technology has come in the last two years or so, P55 is wholly uninspiring.
There is some notable power savings here compared to X58, though. To begin, Lynnfield sports a 95W TDP. Bloomfield is 130W. The X58 Express IOH is a 22W part. That vanishes completely. P55 uses up to 4.7W. And ICH10R consumes up to 4.5W. Add it all up and you’re down more than 56W right off the bat.
Making The Connection
Intel’s most recent three-chip desktop platform, X58, employed a 25.6 GB/s QPI link between the Core i7 CPU and X58 IOH. It then used a 2 GB/s DMI connection between X58 and the ICH10 chipset component.
As we shift to P55 and its two-chip design, the northbridge gets absorbed into Core i5/Core i7, and we’re left with what amounts to a southbridge attached to the processor, even if Intel refers to this as a platform controller hub. As with the ICHes before it, P55 connects to its host (Lynnfield) through a DMI connection.
According to Intel, the DMI link between Lynnfield and P55 runs at 2 GB/s, similar to past-generation ICHes. Previously, that connection handled six lanes of PCI Express 1.1, SATA, USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and HD Audio. With the move to P55, most of those subsystems remain unchanged. However, the chipset now supports eight lanes of PCI Express 2.0.
Intel is nevertheless confident that its DMI link won't be saturated. The math doesn't lie, though. With the right combination of add-in storage and SSDs, it wouldn't be difficult to jam things up there.
- Introduction
- What’s In A Name?
- QPI, Integrated Memory, PCI Express, And LGA 1156
- Intel’s Turbo Boost: Lynnfield Gets Afterburners
- Hyper-Threading: Differentiating Core i7
- Memory Architecture: Does Losing One Channel Hurt?
- P55: The Chipset’s Responsibilities Dwindle
- Windows 7: Microsoft Listens To Intel, Finally
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Benchmark Results: Media Apps
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power Consumption
- Conclusion

There is sooo much to learn and there is so much information here.... I feel confused!!
Since when has the I7-920 become an extreme?
Now the i5 750 on the other hand is great performance at a great price, and would certainly be the budget gamers new weapon of choice.
I currently have an i7-920 setup which is my main rig and am very happy with it and not at all upset to the see the 870 outperform it (since the 870 would cost me twice as much). I also have had an i5 750 setup now for over a week (the 1156 processors and motherboards have been available here in Australia for nearly 2 weeks now) and it is an amazing processor for the price of it.
So what am I trying to say? 1366 is still a good platform for the top end of the market. The i5 are fantastic new processors for their price, and the 1156 i7's are just confusing and I'm not really sure who they are going to appeal to? I could understand it if Intel launched the 1156 i7's in 6months time when alot of users are already using the 1156 platform and are looking to upgrade their CPU without a new mobo. But to anyone looking at getting a 870, just get an 920 and use the extra cash on the mobo and ram to go with it.
I would prefer a bench with HD4890. They scale better in CF.
There is sooo much to learn and there is so much information here.... I feel confused!!
This will also compel AMD to bring some more value to the market. Nice article.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/Turbo.zip
It uses the method that Intel recommends in their November 2008 Turbo White Paper.
Since when has the I7-920 become an extreme?
The power readings are for the whole system, not just the CPU. And their readings are a bit higher than yours because their video cards are almost certainly more power-hungry than yours, and they have a quad-core cpu, running significantly faster than your dual-core (4 cores at ~3Ghz vs. 2 at ~2Ghz, which SHOULD use more power?)
hey guys some tests done at the same cpu speed would be helpfull! thx!
Who was "worried"? It would've been AWESOME (although not to expect of Intel) if the lower-price platform would've outperformed the high-end item.
Typo--thanks for the catch evolve. Pulled that table from a previous review and missed the Extreme!
When you set up an i7 system you turn off the HT and turn up the speed! Turning off a core might even be an upgrade for some. But i agree, the i5 is really a good plateform the mid-mid high level people and at a lower price.
above - too long for intel? for main stream? you could buy a 8400 and run it 3.8 in any system and it rocks.
people have to learn that overclocking is not what it once was, intel does not build all that into the procesor and chipset for nothing so use it! core 2 is still a good main steam system, abit, no upgrading
Great read, by the way
All the mixed rumors were really misleading
http://bit.ly/Lynnfield
And a side-by-side comparison with all the key stats are here:
http://bit.ly/LFDcomparison
AMD is feature packed, Intel is feature lacked.
Intel make good chipsets yes, Intel make good reliable boards (proper intel boards) yes, intel make good CPU's yes.
But Intel have worthless motherboard line ups.... I am happily an AMD fan, I will take my Phenom II with the slower speed for the quality of board I can buy to run it.
Intel & Motherboards = Fail.
Until they improve there, numbers mean zero to me. Why pay more when you get less?
PS. We used to sell all Intel at my work, we now sell 99% AMD. Price, value as a packaged. If Intel had better feature motherboards things might change until then. AMD builds a platform not just a CPU.