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Today Intel is officially unveiling their new Core i7 870, 860 and Core i5 750 processors, designed to work on the LGA1156 platform. The Core i5 750 will be the first mainstream Intel processor built using the Nehalem architecture, and at just $200, this is an exciting quad-core part. So get ready for a round of benchmarks, as we put these new processors to the test… The day has finally come, as we officially unveil Intel’s worst keep secret, the LGA1156 platform featuring the new P55 chipset, along with two new Core i7 and a single Core i5 processor. Over the past month or so the internet has been flooded with P55 motherboard images as everyone geared up for the arrival of the mainstream 1156-pin processors.  Intel’s first attack wave will be lead by the Core i7 870 and 860 processors, which are based on the same design as the LGA1366 Core i7 processors, making them an interesting addition to this cut down platform. However it is really the Core i5 750 processor that everyone is interested in. This is because it boasts similar specifications to the Core i7 920, with the exception of Hyper-Threading technology, which is absent. More over, the new Core i5 750 processor will cost just $200 US, making it cheaper than the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, while it will match the current AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition pricing. Clearly just $200 US is an unbelievable price for a quad-core processor that should blow both the Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 955 out of the water, if the Core i7 920 performance is anything to go by. The Core i5 750 processor is based on the Lynnfield (45nm) architecture and features a core clock speed of 2.66GHz with a maximum turbo frequency of 3.2GHz. Therefore the Core i5 750 matches the operating frequency of the Core i7 920, while it also boasts a large 8MB L3 cache. However unlike the Core i7 920, the new Core i5 750 is only designed to utilize dual-channel DDR3-1333 memory, where as the Core i7 900 series makes use of a triple-channel memory controller. In order to cut the cost of this processor and the LGA1156 platform down, Intel has removed one of the memory controllers and replaced the high bandwidth QPI link with the slower DMI chip-to-chip interconnect. This means that the key difference between the Core i5 750 and the Core i7 920 processors will be the memory controller and the bus that connects the processor to the chipset. The Core i5 750 is the first mainstream Intel processor built using the Nehalem architecture, and at just $200 this is an exciting quad-core part. The other quad-core processors being released today include the Core i7 870 and 860, which do feature Hyper-Threading for 8-threaded performance. However with a retail price of $285 US for the Core i7 860 and $555 for the Core i7 870, they are not exactly cheap. The Core i7 860 will come clocked at 2.80GHz (3.46GHz Turbo), while the Core i7 870 will hum along to the tune of 2.93GHz (3.60GHz Turbo). Both are identical to their Core i7 900 counterparts, with the exception of the memory controller which only supports dual-channel DDR3 memory, and of course the use of the slower DMI chip-to-chip interconnect. |
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