Intel Lynnfield Core i5-750 & Core i7-870 Processor Review

Conclusion

If you have read this article from beginning to end, our opinion of the Lynnfield processors should be quite evident: two enthusiastic thumbs up! Having said that, we were really dealing with two distinctly different offerings today. On one hand we have the i5-750 that performed extremely well in nearly every single test while not costing an arm and a leg. On the other hand, we have the 750's alter ego; the high-flying i7-870. Both are at their own ends of the Lynnfield spectrum and as such really gave us an interesting take on how things are going to look in Intel's new lineup.

The i7-870 is a 'mainstream offering' by name only given its $562 price tag, which is on the outside looking in to the mainstream segment. Yes, it performs extremely well, matching the $999 Core i7-975 Extreme Edition on several occasions, but we simply can't get over the price. Thankfully, the i7-860 is almost $300 cheaper, and only 133Mhz slower, which makes it the no-brainer choice between the two. It is a multi-threading monster in a mainstream arena with no viable competition in sight.

Realistically, not everyone needs or even has the budget for a $284 processor, and that is where the the decidedly more budget-friendly $199 i5-750 comes into play. Despite having one hand tied behind its back due to a lack of Hyper-Threading, this model put the proverbial smackdown on the Core i7-920, pretty much across the board. It also resoundingly outperformed two close competitors in the form of the Phenom II X4 945 and the Core 2 Quad Q9550. Besides which, as we all know, even in the enthusiast realm truly multi-threaded applications are few and far between even years after the first dual-core processor was released. We see this again and again with a multitude of games that just can't seem to properly take advantage of multiple threads. Sure, it's nice to have the potential for 8 threads in some applications, but to us the 750 is the current darling of the Lynnfield lineup for those of you who want a great performing, power efficient processor with solid overclocking headroom.


Power consumption is something that just has to be mentioned in this conclusion. In a world where "Think Green" has become the new gateway drug for countless make-believe power consumption "technologies" that end up being nothing but snake oil, it is good to see Intel delivering on a promise of increasing efficiency with every generation. The simplification of the P55 chipset as well as countless other advances have contributed to make the Lynnfield chips some of the most efficient around and have set a new benchmark in the performance per watt category.

Intel have successfully brought the Nehalem microarchitecture to the mainstream, and in spectacular fashion. Never before have Intel released a mainstream processor line that overlapped so much with their high-end offerings performance-wise.

So where does this leave Core i7 900 series owners and their X58 motherboards? Well first and foremost, those who built a Bloomfield/X58 setup can rest assured that their system has many years left in the tank. Secondly, they will have exclusive access to Intel's upcoming Core i7 900 series 'Gulftown' 32nm six-core processors, and maybe even some faster quad-core 32nm Core i7 models as well. There is a guaranteed upgrade path for LGA1366, but it likely won't be cheap. On the other hand, the new LGA1156 platform appears to be a bit of a dead end in some ways as the i7-870 will probably be the highest-end LGA1156 processor available for the foreseeable future. Down the road, if you performance levels greater than the i7-870 can provide, you will have to buy a whole new platform.

All in all though, there can be no doubt that Lynnfield will be a great success since it improves upon the last mainstream generation in every conceivable way. It provides substantially better performance when it's needed most, it is impressively energy-efficient, and fairly affordable too when you consider that P55 motherboard's will retail for as low as $100. What's not to love?

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