Lynnfield PCI-Express Gaming Performance

Nice article - I've mostly used single GPUs in my setup so I'll probably be investing in a Lynnfield setup pretty soon.

Why is there such difference in platform performance in regard to game used for the review?
the 775 sometimes performs flawless, another time it suffers greatly; just to point to the most obvious. The new platforms are holding a little better, but it's still obvious.

This new Intel platform is the generation that goes with new ATI 5870 and 5870x2. I think it would be appropriate to repeat the test in a month's time. :D :))

with PCIe 3.0, a new platform will be needed anyway, x58 couldn't use PCIe 3.0.

it's very clear that Intel had achieved a very good strategy, by separating the PCIe buses and sockets, they have managed to get more money out of the enthusiastic. now is the best time to buy an i7 920 platform, any later and you'd have to pay for Intel Extreme processors.

this, again, shows LGA1156 will always be a cut-down version of LGA1336, so the former will always perform that JUST little bit slower than "enthusiastic" hardware. looks like this is how Intel is milking the enthusiastic.

"benchmarketeer"

^ lol.

Very interesting article, but i wonder how a Core 2 quad+790i ultra sli chipset fares against the rest of the lineup?

:edit: I'm not just saying that because if im not mistaken the 790i is the only 775 socket that supports ddr3 right?

790i is the only 775 socket that supports ddr3 right?

Nope. I remember seeing a bunch of P45/43 boards that supported DDR3.

Also, with regard to the article - I believe the LGA775 motherboard should have been an X48 or X38 at least. Also, the term 'Core i7' seems to have been used interchangeably with 'Bloomfield'. That's not strictly true, so it would be less confusing if that were made clearer/.

P45, X48, X38 and P35 all supported DDR3

Damn thats true, lol.
Must not be awake yet, but then at least an x38 should have been used in this review right? to even it out?

Nice article.

I've been contemplating upgrading to a 1165/1336 recently and this has helped me significantly.

Will be sticking with P45 for a while, even the differences at minimum frame rates are not significant enough to warrant upgrading.

I would have liked to have seen a DDR3 775 set up in this article tbh. However, if the components aren't available you just have to make do. Anyroad, I enjoyed the read - it's nice to know that my 775 stands a better chance against 1156 & 1366 than a DDR2 775 based rig.

I'm not one for dual GPUs - don't see the point unless you have a huge monitor (26" minimum). Hmm... PCIe bus overclocking.

o.O

I only saw a single card test for the Nvidia 280's, and not for the ATi cards ?
Is this because the ATI cards have little to no difference in single card mode on all three platforms ?

It just seems to look like a table is missing from each page. Single Radeon on 775/1156/1366....

Originally Posted by Jack_Pepsi
I would have liked to have seen a DDR3 775 set up in this article tbh. However, if the components aren't available you just have to make do. Anyroad, I enjoyed the read - it's nice to know that my 775 stands a better chance against 1156 & 1366 than a DDR2 775 based rig.

I'm not one for dual GPUs - don't see the point unless you have a huge monitor (26" minimum). Hmm... PCIe bus overclocking.

o.O

I tried. I really did!! I set the board up, installed the OS and games, but the board failed on me and we don't have another :(

Originally Posted by Jack_Pepsi
I would have liked to have seen a DDR3 775 set up in this article tbh.

It would've been a fairer comparison. And +1 on the X38/X48 motherboard instead of P45. No one in their right mind would use Crossfire with a P45 motherboard.

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
I tried. I really did!! I set the board up, installed the OS and games, but the board failed on me and we don't have another :(

>.<

Not to worry - maybe, if the GTX285 I won doesn't win me over & I have enough time - I'll have a bash at seeing what I can achieve. If only we had more hours in the day.

>:(

Sooo......
I am in a quandry (sp?).
I was one of the lucky ones that got a 55% off MSI board (the 65, not the 80). I can not afford to upgrade at the moment though, and I am buying bits on a month by month basis. Based on this am I better off ditching the P55 and using the money to buy a 1366 instead?
I faffed about last year *nearly* buying a q6600 on several occaisions before Intel withdrew it. Now I suspect the i7 920 will go before I get enough dough to buy one.

Originally Posted by rpsgc

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack_Pepsi
I would have liked to have seen a DDR3 775 set up in this article tbh.

It would've been a fairer comparison. And +1 on the X38/X48 motherboard instead of P45. No one in their right mind would use Crossfire with a P45 motherboard.

why exactly?

there is a negligable performane difference in the majority of games between 16x/16x and 8x/8x.

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
I tried. I really did!! I set the board up, installed the OS and games, but the board failed on me and we don't have another :(

Ah well thats too bad....

It was nevertheless a nice read and the one about the psus too. Nice articles today.

Originally Posted by Kamikaze-X
why exactly?

there is a negligable performane difference in the majority of games between 16x/16x and 8x/8x.

I would've liked it as the other two machines are running DDR3 - more of level playing field I guess. Even if the performance difference is negligible it'd make more sense relating it to my system than one with slower DDR2 using a P45 chipset.

Originally Posted by do_it_anyway
Sooo......
I faffed about last year *nearly* buying a q6600 on several occaisions before Intel withdrew it. Now I suspect the i7 920 will go before I get enough dough to buy one.

Someone posted a map of what Intel plans to ship over the next year or so in another thread somewhere in these forums. The i7 920 was shown, still being produced right through 2010. I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to get hold of one.

Originally Posted by wuyanxu
with PCIe 3.0, a new platform will be needed anyway, x58 couldn't use PCIe 3.0.

This comment highlights and interesting limitation of Lynnfield processors. When you make an update to the PCI-E spec, you have to update your processor to take advantage, whereas Bloomfield owners would only have to change the motherboard.

What is the reason for benching at only 1680x1050 (with no FSAA in Crysis and Stalker CS) ?

Originally Posted by Goty
This comment highlights and interesting limitation of Lynnfield processors. When you make an update to the PCI-E spec, you have to update your processor to take advantage, whereas Bloomfield owners would only have to change the motherboard.

True. However, chances are they'll incorporate PCI-E 3.0 on a different socket, facilitating a complete platform shift anyway.

Originally Posted by rpsgc

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack_Pepsi
I would have liked to have seen a DDR3 775 set up in this article tbh.

It would've been a fairer comparison. And +1 on the X38/X48 motherboard instead of P45. No one in their right mind would use Crossfire with a P45 motherboard.

LOTS of people do. And common P45 boards are DDR2, not DDR3. I could count the people on our forum who have DDR2 X38/X48 boards on 1 hand.

Originally Posted by BlackBabyJesus
What is the reason for benching at only 1680x1050 (with no FSAA in Crysis and Stalker CS) ?

Time! We picked the most common resolution and no FSAA because it meant more stress on the PCI-Express bus because the GPU was doing less weight of the work.

As has been pointed out, this article (as much as I enjoyed it), really needs a DDR3 X48/X38 board running a single and multi GPU setup.

The results are biased in how much better Bloomfield and Lynnfield peform when they both have DDR3, whereas P45 is only using DDR2.

Owning a Rampage Extreme, the results don't really tell me how much better i5/i7 really are than what I have now.

lol poor bindi. People are never happy no matter what you do XD