Installation and Test Notes
While we normally like to set up a test system similar to what Intel’s own engineers sampled, we simply don’t have any Intel SSDs. Instead we went with the best components on hand provided by various vendors who make any computing experience that much greater.
Here are the specs for our test system:
- Intel Lynnfield Core i5 750
- Intel Lynnfield Core i7 870
- Intel Bloomfield Core i7 965
- IntelYorkfield Core 2 Quad Q9650
- Intel DP55KG Extreme Motherboard (BIOS 10J.86A.3456)
- 2 x 2GB Patriot Memory 2000 MHz Viper II
- ZOTAC Geforce GTX295 Graphics Card (1920 x 1200)
- Patriot Memory TorqX 128GB SATA Solid State Drive
- Antec CP850 Power Supply
The latest motherboard Inf 9.1.1.1015 Chipset and nVidia 190.62 graphics drivers were installed as well as the most up to date Windows 7 build possible since it has been “optimally tuned” for it.
SANDRA, Cinebench 10, Futuremark Vantage, Crysis, World at War, Left 4 Dead, and Mirror’s Edge were used for testing. Many of these you’ll be able to find free and be able to replicate or compare your own system’s results.
Lynnfield Synthetic Benchmark Performance
Even though SANDRA isn’t completely Windows 7 ready, I found the program good for answering two important questions in regards to CPU performance and memory bandwidth.
SANDRA Mathemetical and Multi-Media
As you can see, the CPU is anything but weak when it comes to Multimedia and Arithmetic calculations. The 870 and 750 both do surprisingly well in comparison to their equal counter parts given each is only using dual channel memory.
SANDRA Memory Bandwidth
Speaking of dual channel, we wanted to see just how the Lynnfield’s integrated memory controller measures up to the Bloomfield’s. It’s not surprising to see triple channel out pace dual channel memory. You’ll notice that the gap is fairly close.
Cinebench R10
Cinebench does a great basic job of offering the test systems’ overall performance. But, it’s especially detailed if you’d like to compare processing power from CPU to CPU.
In single threaded (single core) mode, the 870 enjoys a nice little gain over its Extreme siblings. This is indeed a unusual surprise and further testament to Lynnfield. However, the tables turn in favor of the Extreme processors mainly due to their extra memory channel.
Futuremark Vantage
We know that Vantage isn’t completely optimized for Windows 7 quite yet. But, it’s really close to being perfected and it works on any current version of Windows. We figured why not give it a shot and see what develops.
Judging by the scores, both processors were successful. In fact, these scores look pretty darn respectable and most likely won’t change even with any Futuremark updates. The i5 750’s performance is worth noting given that it has a lower core frequency and keeps up with the faster, more expensive Q9650.