UPDATE: Core i7: Blazing Fast, O/C Changes

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SSE 4.2 And The Technical Nitty-Gritty

SSE 4—Complete at Last

With the switch to its 45 nm production process, Intel introduced SSE4.1 into the Core 2 processors. As the ".1" implies, this was only the first iteration of the SSE4 instruction set, and was not yet fully complete. Now, Nehalem comes with the full complement of instructions enabled. Specifically, SSE4.2 adds seven new commands: CRC32, PCMPESTRI, PCMPESTRM, PCMPISTRI, PCMPISTRM, PCMPGTQ, and POPCNT.

The following table compares the technical specifications of the Core i7, Core 2 and AMD Phenom processor families.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Feature	AMDPhenom	IntelCore i7	IntelCore 2
Core	AgenaToliman	Bloomfield	Yorkfield / XEWolfdaleKentsfield / XEConroe / XE / 2048Allendale
Production Process	65 nm	45 nm	65 nm45 nm
Max. Frequency	2.80 GHz	3.20 GHz	3.20 GHz
L1 Cache	64 + 64 KB	32 + 32 KB	32 + 32 KB
L2 Cache	512 KB	256 KB	4 MB
L3 Cache	2 MB	8 MB	-
Max. Thermal Loss (TDP)	140 W	130 W	136 W
CPU<->Northbridge	HyperTransport	QuickPath Interconnect	Front Side Bus
CPU<->CPU	HyperTransport	QuickPath Interconnect	Northbridge internal
Max. Core Speed	3.20 GHz (25.6 GB/s)	6.4 GT/s (12.8 GB/s)	400 MHz (12.8 GB/s)
Min. Core Speed	800 MHz (6.4 GB/s)	4.8 GT/s (9.0 GB/s)	200 MHz (6.4 GB/s)
FSB (internal)	200 MHz	133 MHz	400 MHz333 MHz266 MHz200 MHz
64-Bit	x86-64	EM64T	EM64T
Hyper-Threading	-	yes	-
MultimediaExtensions	MMX3DNow!SSESSE2SSE3SSE4.1	MMXSSESSE2SSE3SSSE3SSE4.1SSE4.2	MMXSSESSE2SSE3SSSE3SSE4.1
Virtualization	Pacifica	VT	VT
Power Saving	Cool‘n’Quiet 2	Enhanced Halt State (C1E)SpeedStep	Enhanced Halt State (C1E)SpeedStep
Thermal Protection	Thermal Diode	Thermal Monitor 2	Thermal Monitor 2
SpeedStep	no	yes	yes
Execution Protection	XD bit	XD bit	XD bit
TrustedExecution	Presidio	LaGrande Technology	LaGrande Technology
Active Management	no	iAMT2 (V-Pro)	iAMT2 (V-Pro)

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156 Comments Comment from the forums

joseph85

Good article, and may I say Keep up the good work.
Reply
pullmyfoot

AMD’s HyperTransport protocol can transmit up to 25.6 GB/s at 3.20 GHz.
You mean Intel don't you? Other than that little mistake, good article

Reply
wh3resmycar

hmm, question. once this nehalems come out. will we ever see a dieshrunk c2q again after the penryns? im expecting the price of this procs along with the mobo and ram to be too far off from my budget. or
Reply
skywalker9952

One of the first side effects of Intel's domination of the CPU market is beginning to show. Since they don't have to compete with AMD in any market segment the i7 occupies, they have limited (significant) overclocking to only extreme models.

RIP AMD.
May Abu Dhabi restore you to life soon so we don't have to suffer through more Intel ripoffs.
Reply
sonar610

"The fastest Core i7, the 965 Extreme, is more than 2.6 times as fast as AMD’s current flagship CPU, the Phenom X4 9550 BE."
This seems like an editing mistake maybe it should be 9950BE.
Reply
cryogenic

Core i7 is a great CPU, the article is not. I can't believe after all this time you still stack overclocked CPUs with unoverclocked ones. It's great to find out the overclocking potential of Nehalem but, at least include some overclocked Penryns in there too, to see how overclocked Nehalem stacks agains OTHER overclocked CPUs, because it's fairly evident that and overclocked new gen CPU will stack well with older non overclocked ones.

Reply
joseph85

CryogenicCore i7 is a great CPU, the article is not. I can't believe after all this time you still stack overclocked CPUs with unoverclocked ones. It's great to find out the overclocking potential of Nehalem but, at least include some overclocked Penryns in there too, to see how overclocked Nehalem stacks agains OTHER overclocked CPUs, because it's fairly evident that and overclocked new gen CPU will stack well with older non overclocked ones.If it's evident then who cares?
Reply
fender22

skywalker9952One of the first side effects of Intel's domination of the CPU market is beginning to show. Since they don't have to compete with AMD in any market segment the i7 occupies, they have limited (significant) overclocking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking to only extreme models.RIP AMD. May Abu Dhabi restore you to life soon so we don't have to suffer through more Intel ripoffs.
My thoughts exactly... I wonder if there will be some sort of resistance to this sort of thing... It's like buying a car, you can do whatever you want to it (within the limits of the law) to make it as fast as you want. Sure, you may void your factory warranty, but it's your deal. You don't see car companies making it impossible for you to do what you want to their cars so you have to buy their expensive high end just to get your kicks... (not a perfect comparison, but it works)

I dunno, it's just pretty weak. And they are just taking advantage of the situation...
Reply
cangelini

sonar610"The fastest Core i7, the 965 Extreme, is more than 2.6 times as fast as AMD’s current flagship CPU, the Phenom X4 9550 BE." This seems like an editing mistake maybe it should be 9950BE.
Fixed, thanks!
Reply
onearmedscissorb

Aside from the all too prevalent and potentially misleading typos, which someone needed to get a handle on as of months ago, I must say that the overall quality of this article is MUCH better than pretty much anything I can remember of the last few months. It's actually informative and thought out, rather than being a mess of assumptions that many people reading already know better than.

Keep it up, and maybe I'll pay attention to this site like I used to.

But just for the record, I don't believe that it's particularly appropriate to use the overall average performance percentages as a basis for comparison between the "speed" of Core 2 vs. Core i7. Obviously, most people are going to be interested in the difference with games, where it's likely to be pretty minimal. But here and there, you have something like the 55% WinRAR difference pretty much skewing what otherwise would have been an accurate depiction of average expectations across the board.
Reply