Intel Core i7-920

On November 3, Benchmark Reviews had the pleasure of publishing our first in a series of articles and reviews covering Intel's newest processor series, the Core i7. As we alluded to in that article the time frame from receiving our review kit to publishing the finished product was only a matter of days, so something had to give. We opted to stick with the basics and present a general overview of the entire product. As a result we had to omit many of the extras we would have normally included in a feature article of this type. Since the release of that article we have had a number of our readers request future articles in our series that deal more with with the specifics of each processor. The same group was somewhat adamant that we showcase both performance tuning and the overclocking capabilities of each product.

Today we are releasing the third review in our Core i7 series which focuses on the features and performance of the Intel Core i7-920. The Core i7-920 is considered to be the processor for the mainstream consumer primarily because of its price to performance ratio. The i7-920 doesn't have the unlocked multipliers that its more mature sibling does, but it is still a quite capable chip with its 2.66 GHz factory clock. We intend to share all of our findings and hope after reading this review you will have a much better understanding of the Core i7 family in general and the i7-920 in specific. We also plan to go into as complete of a discussion as possible on everything you can do to enhance capabilities this processor brings to the table. Unfortunately we don't have a QX9770, Intel's previous "King of the Hill", to compare the i7-920 to; but we should note that in all the test results we've seen the i7-920 outperforms the QX9770 in all processor dependant tasks. So the only true competition for the i7-920 are the other members of the Core i7 family which we will be testing for comparison purposes.

In our first article, Intel Core i7 CPU & DX58SO X58 Platform we covered most of the available information regarding both the Nehalem Technology and the architecture used with the Intel Core i7 Processor family. We will therefore not repeat that discussion, instead; our goal today is to spend most of our energy concentrating on those features and performance aspects of the Intel Core i7-920 (model BX80601920) that have led it and its other i7 kin to be dubbed "The Fastest Processor on the Planet" by Intel.

About the Company: Intel

Intel Corporation is the world's largest semiconductor company founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, Intel's successful "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names.

Intel pushes the boundaries of innovation so our work can make people's lives more exciting, fulfilling, and manageable. And our work never stops. We never stop looking for the next leap ahead-in technology, education, culture, manufacturing, and social responsibility. And we never stop striving to deliver solutions with greater benefits for everyone. Intel is making PCs more accessible and affordable through innovative PC purchase programs. Through public and private collaboration, Intel has worked closely with government and industry leaders to develop more than 200 programs in 60 countries. With the onslaught of wireless broadband communication technologies like WiMAX, Wi-Fi, and 3G and wireline ADSL and cable, Intel in collaboration with local governments is connecting more people in more places than ever before-no matter how remote.

Intel is committed to improving education on a global scale. With an ongoing focus on students and teachers, we're making an impact with technology solutions that support the development of 21st Century skills, including digital literacy, problem solving, and critical thinking. As citizens use the Internet, the need to create localized content is the key. Intel-sponsored programs provide localized content and services to connect technologies to villages, suburbs, and cities around the world to deliver access to community information, education, and healthcare.

Core i7-920 Specifications

As you probably know by now the Intel Core series of processors is not just a rehash of its previous Core 2 Duo technology. Instead it uses a completely unique design that embraces much of the new Nehalem technology fully described in "First the Tick, Now the Tock: Next Generation IntelMicroarchitecture (Nehalem)". Intel has gone to great lengths to avoid having their newest product entitled "just another revision" by their consumer market. They have shown their confidence in the Intel Core series by making this product launch the biggest and arguably the best in their history, even in a time where the economy is less than prosperous.

With the Core i7 series Intel has produced their first true, native quad-core processor which incorporates multiple cores on a single processor die. This is unlike the existing Core 2 Quads which feature two dual core processor dies mounted on a single piece of silicon. The Core i7 processors also eliminate the need for the Northbridge chipset to manage system memory and link it to the processor with integrated, on die memory controller which links the processor directly to the system memory. You might be asking yourself: Isn't this design is eerily similar to the AMD Phenom? From this limited point of reference you would be right.

Intel Core i7 Features

Another very interesting feature is Intel's QuickPath Interface. QuickPath Architecture is a platform architecture that provides high-speed connections between microprocessors and external memory, and between microprocessors and the I/O hub. One of its biggest changes is the implementation of scalable shared memory. Instead of using a single shared pool of memory connected to all the processors in a server or high-end workstation through FSBs and memory controller hubs, each processor has its own dedicated memory that it accesses directly through an Integrated Memory Controller on the processor die. In cases where a processor needs to access the dedicated memory of another processor, it can do so through a high-speed Intel QuickPath Interconnect that links all the processors. An advantage of Intel QuickPath Interconnect is that it is point-to-point. There is no single bus that all the processors must use and contend with each other to reach memory and I/O. This improves scalability and eliminates the competition between processors for bus bandwidth.

Turbo Boost

Most of you have owned a chipset over the years that has offered you some type of turbo mode that was supposed to dramatically improve your processor's performance. In many cases the activation of this feature caused more problems than it did benefits for your system's operation. From this point forward put those bad memories behind you because the turbo boost we speak of today with the i7 processor and X58 chipset actually works, and works quite well. What's more it's always active and can actually auto overclock your system without changing a single setting.

Here's our take of how turbo boost actually works: You're using your new Core i7 quad core processor coupled with the X58 chipset and you're running software that actually takes advantage of all four cores. In this scenario turbo boost remains inactive and the processor runs at its stock or overclocked frequency frequency and voltage level. We all realize this scenario doesn't happen that often due to the lack of software that truly utilizes all four cores, but we're talking theory here. A much more likely scenario would be you're running a couple of threads simultaneously. In this case turbo boost takes over and shuts down the remaining two cores including their cache utilization. Turbo boost then takes a fraction of the savings from the two cores it shut down and redirects their voltage and frequency to the two active cores actually giving them a slight overclock. This same application holds true anytime less than four of your processor's cores are in use.

Turbo boost is regulated by two features that are contained on the i7 processor's die, the Power Control Unit and the Power Gate. The Intel Core i7 processor has a built-in Power Control Unit coupled with Power Gate Technology that constantly monitors the temperature and power use of the cores and can disable them completely when they're not being used. From our understanding Turbo Boost with also operate when your processor is overclocked as long as voltage and temperature thresholds remain under the preset limit governed by the Power Control Unit. In a scenario such as gaming where on one core is in use, turbo boost when activated can effectively add as much as 266 MHz to your processor's performance power without ever changing another setting.

Intel Core i7-920

Up until this juncture we have talked about features and specifications that generally apply to the entire Intel Core i7 Processor family. It's now time to focus solely on the i7-920 and look at the features this processor brings to the table that cause it to be called the Extreme Edition. The Core i7-920 derives its 2.66 GHz clock rate by multiplying the system's 133MHz base clock by the i7-920's standard multiplier of 20. Unfortunately the i7-920 has a locked multiplier the only exception is when turbo mode is activated and the conditions are right; in this case turbomode will automatically boost the base clock multiplier of 20 to 21, giving the you essentially 133 MHz of extra processing power without ever touching the first setting.

Testing Methodology

We have changed our testing methodology a bit from that used in our first article. Since our concentration today is on the Intel Core i7-20 processor, we have modified our benchmark applications to include those that best showcase this processors capabilities. We chose our current fastest quad core system for comparison purposes. We overclocked the X3350 to 3.2 GHz to emulate the fastest Core i7 processor in the mix and used the standard components that we use with this system on a daily basis. Intel supplied both the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition and the Intel Core i7-920. They asked if we'd down-clock the i7-965 to 2.93 GHz to emulate the performance of the Intel Core i7-940, and we were more than happy to oblige.

Unfortunately when testing systems of this type there is not set of "grass roots" tests that will completely speak to the to the system's overall performance. It is therefore necessary to comparatively test the performance of the CPU, Memory, Hard Drive(s) and Graphical Rendering and then draw your assumptions from the results of these tests. We chose an array of benchmarking tools (captioned below) that we felt would give our readers a complete of a picture of each system's performance. Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. We then ran each of the tests a minimum of three times and them reported an average of each test's results.

Test Systems

System #1

• Motherboard: Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO
• Processor: Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition BX80601965 [3.20 GHz clock speed]
• Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P with 1366 adapter kit
• System Memory: QIMONDA 3 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM
• Disk Drive: Intel High Performance SATA SSD X25-M 80GB MLC,

System #2

• Motherboard: Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO
• Processor: Intel Core i7-940 BX80601940 [2.93 GHz clock speed]
• Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P with 1366 adapter kit
• System Memory: QIMONDA 3 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM
• Disk Drive: Intel High Performance SATA SSD X25-M 80GB MLC,

System #3

• Motherboard: Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO
• Processor: Intel Core i7-920 BX80601929 [2.66 GHz clock speed]
• Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P with 1366 adapter kit
• System Memory: QIMONDA 3 x 1GB DDR3 1067 CL7 non-ECC UDIMM
• Disk Drive: Intel High Performance SATA SSD X25-M 80GB MLC

System #4

• Motherboard: ASUS P5E3 Premium WIFI-AP @n, BIOS 0503
• Processor: Intel X3350 Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHz [Overclocked to 3.2 GHz]
• Processor Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P
• System Memory: 2GB Patriot Viking DDR3 PC3-1500, running at 8-7-7-24
• Disk Drive: Seagate 1 TB Barracuda ES.2 SATA Drives

Common Components

• Graphics Card: Zotac GTX 260 Amp²!
• Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-2014L1T SATA Optical Drive
• Enclosure: Lian Li PC-A7010B Black Aluminum Full-Tower ATX Case
• PSU: Thermaltake W0132 Toughpower Cable Management 1000 Watt
• Monitor: Dell 24-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor 2407FPW
• KVM Switch: ATEN CS1782 USB 2.0 DVI KVM Switch
• Operating System: Windows Vista 32-bit Ultimate SP-1 with all current updates

Benchmark Applications

• PCMark Vantage
• 3DMark Vantage v1.01
• 3DMark06 v1.1.0
• SANDRA 2009
• EVEREST Ultimate v4.60.1500
• Cinebench R10
• World In Conflict
• Crysis v1.21 Benchmark

Intel Core i7-920: Overclocking

In recent years Intel has become much more understanding that the enthusiast community has grown quite large and that raw performance ranks number one with this consumer group. For that reason Intel has softened their view significantly regarding the overclocking of their processors and motherboards. In fact with the materials provided with the Core i7 review kit Intel even included a rather in depth 22 page document entitled Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO ...Performance Tuning Process. This document elaborates quite freely on the best way to overclock the Core i7 family of processors. In the document Intel states that there are four multipliers on the motherboard which are used to set the system speed:

1. CPU Speed: When multiplied by the system base clock speed (default 133.33 MHz) gives the CPU frequency. Four multipliers are used to define different speeds based on the number of active CPU cores.
2. Memory Speed: When multiplied by the system base clock speed gives the memory frequency. For example a memory multiplier of 10 times the base clock of 133.33 MHz results in a memory frequency of 1333 MHz.
3. Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) Speed: Selectable transfer rate of data transferred between the CPU and the IOH.
4. Uncore Speed: This multiplier applies to the non-CPU related items in the processor. The limit on this multiplier is set by the memory multiplier.

In the case of the Intel Core i7-920 only one of these methodologies applies, increasing the base clock. Upping the base clock with small increases in VCore proves to be quite efficient in skyrocketing this product to the next performance level.

Being the curious sort we tried a variety of different memory and base clock settings coupled with various changes to the VCore remaining. We found that the best overclock for the Intel Core i7-920 was quite easily obtained by setting base clock rate to 180 MHz and using a 250mv default voltage override. This resulted in a clock speed of 3.6 GHz which proved to be rock stable. We were able to attain significantly higher clock speeds that approached 4.0 GHz but we had to use voltages that were a bit to close to the 1.65 Volt limit for our liking. We feel that this is a good starting point and as supporting equipment, motherboard BIOS, and drivers mature this overclock will be significantly higher. We feel that his processor should be able to easily run very close to 4.0 GHz 24-7 with the voltage staying well under the 1.65 Volt limitation and cooling the processor with a quality aftermarket cooler.

You will note in the CPU-Z images below that the multiplier is showing 21 and the core speed reflects 3.7835 GHz. We had inadvertently left turbo mode enabled and the conditions were right for it to boost the multiplier to 21, thus the increase in speed. We kept these image intentionally to show how turbo mode actually works and how confusing it can be if you don't pay attention.

We at Benchmark Reviews feel that to prove the stability of our overclocking results they need to be fully tested. Therefore we run all of our benchmarking tests using not only the stock processor speeds but also the overclocked speeds as well.

NOTE: We included overclocked results in our benchmarking tests utilizing results from our i7-965XE overclocked to 4.035 GHz. These results are fresh from our detailed review of the Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition.

PCMark Vantage System Tests

PCMark Vantage is the first objective hardware performance benchmark for PCs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista. PCMark Vantage is perfectly suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista PC from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops to dedicated workstations and hi-end gaming rigs.

Regardless of whether the person benchmarking is an artist or an IT Professional, PCMark Vantage shows the user where their system soars or falls flat, and how to get the most performance possible out of their hardware. PCMark Vantage is easy enough for even the most casual enthusiast to use yet supports in-depth, professional industry grade testing.

3DMark Vantage System Tests

3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 performance of your graphics card. We've been making 3DMark for over 10 years, with each new edition using the latest 3D technology to determine real-world performance.

A 3DMark score is an overall measure of your system's 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system.

3DMark is widely used by the PC industry, press and media as well as individual users and gamers, for comparing performance levels between whole systems or even specific components.

3DMark06 System Tests

3DMark is a computer benchmark by Futuremark (formerly named Mad Onion) to determine the DirectX 9 performance of 3D game performance with graphics cards. 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests.

3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. Some enthusiasts may note that Benchmark Reviews does not include CPU-bound tests in our benchmark battery, and that only graphic-bound tests are included.

SANDRA 2009 System Tests

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what's really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

EVEREST Ultimate System Tests

EVEREST Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes EVEREST Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

CINEBENCH 10 System Tests

CINEBENCH is a real-world test suite that assesses your computer's performance capabilities. MAXON CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software, CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. MAXON CINEBENCH runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances. The benchmark application makes use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores and is available for Windows (32-bit and 64-Bit) and Macintosh (PPC and Intel-based). The resulting values among different operating systems are 100% comparable and therefore very useful with regard to purchasing decision-making. It can also be used as a marketing tool for hardware vendors or simply to compare hardware among colleagues or friends.

We used the predefined benchmark included with the software and reported the rendering scores for both a single core (1 CPU) and for all four cores (All CPUs). We also ran the built in Open GL benchmark that is included with the CINEBENCH benchmarking suite.

SuperPi System Tests

Super Pi is used by many overclockers to test the performance and stability of their computers. In the overclocking community, the standard program provides a benchmark for enthusiasts to compare "world record" pi calculation times and demonstrate their overclocking abilities. The program can also be used to test the stability of a certain overclock speed. If a computer is able to calculate PI to the 32 millionth place after the decimal without mistake, it is considered to be moderately stable in terms of RAM and CPU. However, longer tests with other CPU/RAM intensive calculation programs will run for hours instead of minutes and may better stress system stability. While Super Pi is not the fastest program for calculating Pi, it remains very popular in the hardware and overclocking communities.

We ran and reported calculations for 1M, 2M, and 4M.

Crysis System Tests

Crysis uses a new graphics engine: the CryENGINE2, which is the successor to Far Cry's CryENGINE. CryENGINE2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders. To get the most out of modern multicore processor architectures, CPU intensive subsystems of CryENGINE 2 such as physics, networking and sound, have been re-written to support multi-threading.

Crysis offers an in-game benchmark tool, which is similar to World in Conflict. This short test does place some high amounts of stress on a graphics card, since there are so many landscape features rendered. For benchmarking purposes, Crysis can mean trouble as it places a high demand on both GPU and CPU resources. Benchmark Reviews uses the Crysis Benchmark Tool by Mad Boris to test frame rates in batches, which allows the results of many tests to be averaged.

We ran the Crysis benchmarks in DirectX9 only with all settings at high. We are reporting results at resolutions of 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 with no anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering utilized.

World in Conflict System Tests

The latest version of Massive's proprietary Masstech engine utilizes DX10 technology and features advanced lighting and physics effects, and allows for a full 360 degree range of camera control. Massive's MassTech engine scales down to accommodate a wide range of PC specifications, if you've played a modern PC game within the last two years, you'll be able to play World in Conflict.

World in Conflict offers an in-game benchmark; which records the minimum, average, and maximum frame rates during the test. Very recently another hardware review website made the assertion that these tests are worthless, but we couldn't disagree more. When used to compare video cards which are dependant on the same driver and use the same GPU architecture, the in-game benchmark works very well and comparisons are apples-to-apples.

We ran the World in Conflict benchmarks in DirectX9 only with all settings at very high. We are reporting results at resolutions of 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 with 4 x AA and 16 x AF utilized.

Core i7Power Consumption

To measure power we used our Seasonic Power Angel a nifty little tool that measures a variety of electrical values. We used a high-end UPS as our power source to eliminate any power spikes and to condition the current being supplied to the test systems. The Seasonic Power Angel was placed in line between the UPS and the test system to measure the power utilization in Watts. We measured the idle load after 15 minutes of totally idle activity on the desktop with no processes running that mandated additional power demand. Load was measured taking extended peak power measurements while running a variety of software applications in the background to achieve 100% load on all cores. Something to remember when looking at our load temperatures is that we are running an NVIDIA GTX based graphics card on our test rig, and they aren't power misers when loaded.

Intel Core i7-920 Final Thoughts

Benchmark Analysis

When looking at our benchmarking results there is no doubt that the entire Core i7 family of processors literally trounces the previous Core 2 generation of processors. Even though we didn't have Intel's fastest Core 2 Extreme processor, the QX9770 to compare these behemoths against we emulated a comparable processor by overclocking our X3350 45nm processor to 3.2 GHz. In every test excluding the gaming benchmarks we anywhere from a 40% to greater than 50% improvement from the Core i7 family of processors. In our gaming benchmarks we intentionally used two games that are not overly CPU dependant just to see what the added performance would bring to the table. All of our test were within a few FPS of each other. To be fair had we used a Game such as Far Cry 2 which actually utilizes the quad core capabilities of all our processors tested, we would have probably gotten a better idea of what the gaming arena can expect from this literally smoking family of products.

Remembering that this is a review specific to the Intel Core i7-920 we next need to look at the differences between it and its siblings. The Core i7-920 is unquestionably the slowest of its elder, higher clocked kin. On all tests aside from gaming we see an average performance decrease in the 10% - 15% range when comparing the i7-920 to the i7-965XE at stock speeds. The gap narrows to about roughly half that variance when comparing the i7-920 to the i7-940, again at stock speeds. When we compare the i7-920 overclocked to 3.6 GHz to the i7-965 overclocked to 4.035 GHz to we see very nice scalability on the part of both processors. Along with that scalability we see the gap between the two narrowed considerably with only a 2% - 4% performance improvement noted for the Core i7-965XE.

Other Thoughts

There is no doubt that Intel did their homework before bringing the Core i7 family of processors to the consumer market. The runt of the pack, the Core i7-920 is truly one of the three fastest processor currently on the planet, and brings a huge amount of new features that should be very enticing to virtually any potential consumer. Before making a scoring this processor we would certainly be remiss if we didn't cover all of the potential considerations a budding consumer should consider:

• The Intel Core i7-920 does not have and unlocked multiplier and will only improve the multiplier with turbo boost enabled. Standard overclocking can only be achieved by raising the system's core clock and adjusting the VCore accordingly.
• The MSRP of the Core i7-920 is $284.00 makes the purchase of this processor much more palatable
• The Core i7-920 is only currently supported by Intel X58 based motherboards so that expense needs to be added into consideration as well
• Unless you have a minimum of three sticks of DDR-3 that are fully functional at < 1.65 Volts, you will need to purchase new memory
• The Core i7-920 has a TDP of 130 Watts meaning a large amount of heat production at high performance levels, so an after-market cooler is most certainly recommended
• It is the cheapest member of the Core i7 family of processors and overclocks quite well
• The Intel Core i7-920 is in most cases still faster than the older generation processors including the extreme edition

The considerations we posed should in no way be construed as Benchmark Reviews not having true respect for the efforts Intel has put forth in bringing this awesome processor to market. Instead we're just trying to be realistic and cut through the hype that accompanies a product launch of this magnitude. We want everyone to realize that the Intel Core i7-920 is a technological marvel targeted for the mainstream market; and would be an excellent choice for anyone wanting the third fastest processor on the planet for a very reasonable price.

Intel Core i7-920 Conclusion

Well the day has finally arrived where the Intel Core series of processors aren't just hype, rumor, and innuendo anymore. Much of the marketing hype that was circulating before these processors were sent out for review has proven to be true and their new processor line is truly the fastest on the planet. We'll have to admit we were taken back by these processors raw power in CPU intensive applications as they cut through processes in record time that would have been much more challenging to their predecessors. Yes we're extremely impressed! The Intel Core i7-920 though the runt of the family is very capable and even though its the third fastest Core i7 Processor the 920 still smokes all its competition on almost every benchmark.

Presentation although being one of the most subjective categories we judge, is no less equally important in a product's consumer appeal. I must however admit that judging presentation on a processor is a very difficult task as in most cases it is heard in the form of results rather than seen. For that reason alone there must be some spillover in this category from the performance category. We feel the presentation of the Core i7-920 is virtually awe inspiring to anyone that truly needs the capabilities this processor has to offer. This category of consumer would consist of those that perform very processor dependant tasks on a daily basis; those that utilize some heavily graphical intensive programs such as Photoshop, Auto CAD, or video editing software; and finally the extreme computer enthusiast who wants the best there is regardless of the price.

With regard to appearance, again rating a processors appearance offers a bit of the conundrum as it does with presentation. The Core i7-920's presentation can be equated somewhat with an extremely fast and agile automobile that is responsive to your slightest command. Unfortunately processors again are judged by their end result and not by the way they look. The end result of the Core i7-920 is extremely ostentatious so we have to rate this category quite high.

The construction of the Intel Core i7-920 is like all of its predecessors, rock solid. The benefit of the Core i7-965 over the previous Core 2 line of processors is that there are virtually no protruding pins to bend if something goes wrong with installation. The protruding pins that are present are in the center of the chip and much less likely to be damaged if your placement of the processor in its 1366-pin socket isn't perfect.

In the case of the Core i7-920 we chose to borrow and rearrange Intel's own statement: The Core i7-920 is the third fastest performing production processor currently on the planet. We feel that just about sums it up!

We feel that given the superior standard performance coupled with excellent overclocking results we experienced with the Intel Core i7-920 it is an excellent value at Intel's MSRP of $284.00. As with any product that is both highly anticipated and new to the market the initial pricing by the first distributors to receive their shipments tends to be a little higher than the MSRP the first few weeks strictly due to supply and demand. NewEgg currently sells the Core i7-920 for $299.99, while our price comparison tool indicates that several other retailers are also selling the BX80601920 SKU. I have been watching the pricing steadily drop for the last three days and feel that it should be more in line with Intel's MSRP in short order. This processor although not as speedy as the Core i7-965 or 940 still brings quite a bit to the table. To the average consumer the price of the Core i7-920 will be quite satisfactory given the performance gains they can expect in return.

Pros:

+ The third fastest processor currently on the planet
+ The price is definitely right
+ Tri-channel DDR3 offers an average of 33% more memory bandwidth
+ Utilization of SMT (Hyper-Threading) greatly enhances performance
+ Increased parallelism effectively allows 8 threads to be run
+ Finally a turbo mode that does something meaningful

Cons:

- A new X58 based motherboard will be required
- New power efficient memory will likely be required

Ratings:

• Presentation: 9.0
• Appearance: 9.0
• Construction: 9.75
• Functionality: 9.0
• Value: 9.5

Final Score: 9.25 out of 10.

Benchmark Reviews Gold Tachometer Award for Quality Recognition

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