8.8

Intel Core i5 570 & i7  870 Review

Intel continue their dominance in the CPU industry with two new CPU's, the Intel Core i5 570 and Intel Core i7 870. Moving away from just raw GHz power, Intel continue to maximise their CPU's and unlike their previous Core releases, these two CPU's target both the midrange and high-end users.

With this in mind, it's easy to see that Intel are gunning for AMD and from our results, Intel still has the edge. Both CPU's are quad core processors based on the Lynnfield architecture which uses 45nm for manufacturing process and uses the LGA1156 platform. In turn, both CPU's are quite powerful and use the latest technology to achieve its powerful results.

For midrange gamers or home users, we would definitely recommend the 570, whereas the 870 can be used by professional gamers and those who need CPU grunt. Some great choices for the market.

Both processors use the new Lynnfield platform and the speciation's are listed below;

As you can see from the above specifications, both CPU's are quite powerful, however the most noticeable feature for us is that both are extremely power efficient, not only assisting in the user but also the environment.

Of course, integrating the PCI-Express controller into the CPU will definitely allow some impressive gaming technology down the track. Both CPU's have a turbo mode which can be enabled to increase the core speed that does give a huge boast to performance but of course, it uses more power and runs hotter.

The CPU is also compatible with Intel's P55 Express Chipset that allows support for 6 SATA ports at 1.5 Gbps and 3Gbps with Intel Matrix Storage Manager providing RAID 0/1/5/10. It also includes Intel HD Audio, 8 PCI Express 2.0 (2.5 Gbps) x1 ports and 14 USB 2.0 ports with 2 independent EHCI controllers and finally the express chipset connects to the processor through a 2GB/s interface.

Testing

SiSoft Sandra

SiSoft's Sandra  2009 is one of the world's most definitive and trusted programs as it supports the latest CPU and hardware configurations. SiSoftware Sandra 2009 stands for System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) or Sandra for short. Best of all, results of other configurations and CPU's are also available, ensuring for great comparisons.

SiSoft Sandra
CPU Arithmetic
(72.10)  Intel Core i7 870 - ALU (GIPS)
 (55.5) Intel Core i7 870 - iSSE3 (GFlops)
(64.32) Intel Core i5 750 - ALU (GIPS)
 (33.01) Intel Core i5 750 - iSSE3 (GFlops)

SiSoft Sandra
Multi-core
(35.99)  Intel Core i7 870
(13.21) Intel Core i5 750

SiSoft Sandra
Memory Bandwidth
(19.34)  Intel Core i7 870
(16.12) Intel Core i5 750

The results confirmed our suspicions that the new Core CPU's from Intel are targeting two different markets. The results for the 750  range in the mid to high end scores, whereas the 870 had some impressive scores. For office users, this means that both CPU's are quite capable of running Windows, office programs and the like, with no issues whatsoever for performance. However, the Intel Core i5 750 is definitely a better buy than AMD which is at a similar price range. Of course, the Intel Core i7 870 does shine when compared to the latest AMD CPU's.

3DMark06

3DMark06 is still one of the definitive benchmarking programs available due the variety of systems that it has been run on since its concept. 3DMark is a computer benchmarking tool created and developed by Futuremark Corporation to determine the performance of a computer's 3D graphic rendering and CPU workload processing capabilities.

3DMark 06 - CPU Score
(5691)  Intel Core i7 870
(4298) Intel Core i5 750

3DMark 06 - Overall Score
(14182)  Intel Core i7 870
(13699) Intel Core i5 750

With the testing in 3DMark06, both CPU's performed in the high end of the 3DMark scale that is a plus for gaming and of course other graphical capabilities. Of course, with the right memory and graphic card, it's a great time to be a gamer in this day and age.

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 is the next-generation PC first-person shooter from Ubisoft, discover the real sequel to the award winning PC game. More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry 2 will make you take part in a brand new gaming experience.

Far Cry 2 - 1280x1024
(67)  Intel Core i7 870
(65) Intel Core i5 750

Far Cry 2 - 1680x1050
(62)  Intel Core i7 870
(61) Intel Core i5 750

In regards to frames per second, both CPU's performed quite well, although AMD had an edge in reference to this game. With the results and for midrange gaming, they performed remarkably well. However as these CPU's become more dominant in the market, gaming companies will eventually start to use the benefits of these CPU's, ensuring higher speeds for yet to be released games. Even so, the CPU's are very cool for gaming at the moment.

Crysis Warhead

In Crysis Warhead, players will don the Nanosuit of Sergeant Sykes, also known as 'Psycho', one of the most memorable characters from Crysis. More brash and aggressive than his Delta Force squadmate Nomad, players will experience Psycho's parallel story during the events of the original game, finding that life on the other side of the island is even more intense and explosive than they ever could have imagined. Luckily, Psycho's Nanosuit is just as capable and he's equipped with an even bigger arsenal of fully customizable weapons and new vehicles, giving players access to the tools they need to dominate any situation.

Crysis Warhead - 1280x1024
(61)  Intel Core i7 870
(55) Intel Core i5 750

Crysis Warhead - 1680x1050
(52)  Intel Core i7 870
(48) Intel Core i5 750

Although the scores may appear a little low, Crysis is a very powerful engine and the scores were in the midrange to high-end of the spectrum for this game. We also tested a variety of games such as Aion, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Stokes. All the aforementioned games performed remarkably well, although in essence, gaming these days is about the right video card but these CPU's also help.

Final Words

In conclusion, Intel have definitely given users with a budget another option besides AMD and out performed the competitor on a few tests. For those with more money to spend, the Intel Core i7 870 give the user some true performance when using the operating system, office and of course gaming.

Best of all, these new CPU's are more efficient in terms of power. Both the CPU's can be overclocked slightly, provided you have the correct cooling devices and we did manage to get around 25% improved and stabled performance when overclocked.

If you can afford it, you'll definitely should investigate the Intel Core i7 870 due to the fact that it has hyper threading and performed rather well in our testing. Price wise, the i5 570 is still a very affordable and powerful CPU. With the release of Windows 7, this operating system will also maximise the architecture of both these new core CPU's, ensuring for fast operating speeds and of course performance.

Intel have definitely given the market an interesting choice.