Benchmarking the new Core i7 Nehalem processor
Posted by Jon Peddie on December 1st 2008 | Discuss
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This ain’t as easy as we make it look...
The Vantage 3DMark tests were astounding—astoundingly confusing and disappointing. We expected the Intel processors to beat the AMD Barcelona. But we also expected the Nehalem to own the Core 2 Extreme, leave it in the dust, smoke it. It didn’t.
The goal was simple enough, test a new Intel Core i7 3.2GHz (965 Extreme) X58-based machine against previous machines with a couple of different graphics boards. X58 is Intel’s new I/O hub that accomodates the Quickpath interface.
However, we found out the early production version of the Nehalem Core i7 Intel sent us was built before Intel and Nvidia worked out their SLI arrangements, and although it came with two Radeon HD 4870x2s (that’s four GPUs in Crossfire mode), we couldn’t run any Nvidia AIBs in SLI—single yes, SLI no, on this machine.
OK, we’re not easily daunted here at MTTL, we’ll make lemonade.
Core 2 Extreme vs. Core i7 Extreme
For this test we ran the HD 4870 X2s in two high-end Intel-based machines: a Core 2 Extreme and the new Nehalem Core i7 Extreme—I must tell you, there was a real air of excitement around here, we had been looking forward to this for some time.
The Vantage 3DMark tests were astounding—astoundingly confusing and disappointing. We expected the Intel processors to beat the AMD Barcelona. But we also expected the Nehalem to own the Core 2 Extreme, leave it in the dust, smoke it. It didn’t. In fact, in one case it didn’t even do as well.
As shown in Figure 1, using just the CPU tests of Vantage, the Nehalem does in fact win. So, we thought it would be interesting to see how the tests turned out letting the Nvidia GTX 280 off-load the physics.
The results are quite interesting; the Core 2 Extreme doesn’t do as well as the Barcelona without GPU assist and does better than Barcelona with it.
For graphics, we looked at several boards and combinations of them on the Nehalem Core i7.
As the graph shows, three GTX 280s, on a Nehalem Core i7 can deliver the same performance as four RV770s on two HD 4870 X2’s. However, three GTX 280s will cost $1,200, whereas two HD 4870 X2’s will cost $1010. And three at full load GTX 280s will need 710 watts whereas 2 HD 4870 X2s will require 840 watts.
The mosh pit
We tested four AIBs (GF 260 Core 216, GF280, HD 4870, and HD 4870 X2), on three platforms (AMD Barcelona, Intel Core2 duo Extreme, and Core i7 Extreme), in several combinations (single AIB, dual, and three AIBs), and at three resolutions, with AA on and off—in total 84 tests, and when you add the FPS #1 and FPS #2 tests the total becomes 252 tests. The basic resolution test (84 of them) are shown in Figure 4.
We couldn’t test all the combinations of AIB (1, 2, and 3) due to physical or motherboard limitations, or power supply limitations. However, there are enough data points here that you should be able to get a pretty clear understanding of the relative performance of the AIBs and the CPUs.
GeForce 260 GTX Core 216
Figure 1: Comparison of 3D benchmarks using Barcelona, Core 2 Extreme, and Nehalem Core i7 Extreme.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)
Figure 2: CComparison of physics with and without GPU-compute.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)
Figure 3: 3DMark Vantage AIB scores for Nehalem Core i7.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)
Although the tests were about the CPU differences, we couldn’t help but be surprised by how well the new 216 chip from Nvidia performed, coming in just under the GF 280 GTX, and beating a single HD 4870.
Radeon HD 4870 X2
We were also impressed at the scaling of the HD 4870 X2 when compared to one HD4870, and also when compared to two HD4870x2s.
Up next—HD 4850 X2
Not quite in time for this test series, we got two Radeon HD 4850 X2s. They will be tested next and show up in the next issue of Mt. Tiburon Testing Labs.
SLI chipset in Intel Platforms
One of Nvidia’s announcements refers to a solution where SLI is available on Intel’s X58 high-end chip-based motherboards. SLI technology is only available for X58-based platforms that have been certified by Nvidia. Motherboards based on other Intel chipsets (i.e., Intel motherboards) are not part of the licensing agreement. Upon certification, an SLI key is made available for integration into system BIOS (SBIOS) code by the board partner. The Nvidia SLI driver checks the SBIOS for the SLI Certification key and enables SLI if the key is present.
A number of X58-based partner motherboards with native slot configurations will be supporting Nvidia SLI technology in two-way and three-way configurations. Only through the addition of the Nvidia nForce 200 chip can other X58 motherboards supply full-bandwidth x16 connections for three-way SLI. These systems can actually support four x16 PCI Express slots, creating the maximum bandwidth premium systems for three-way SLI with a dedicated PhysX GPU.
When the Nvidia chipset is used in a specific Intel platform (X58) to provide SLI licensing, it has suggested there is no need for an additional general bridge or Lucid’s ASIC in order to support SLI.
SLI and Crossfire have their built-in limitations as described above, and so if an OEM or motherboard builder wanted to offer the highest performance multi-AIB system, with SLI and/or Crossfire, then they would logically use the Lucid ASIC since it offers more performance, and freedom of operation with mixed GPUs and vendors.
What do we think?
Figure 4: Comparison of three platforms, four AIBs in various combinations and at various resolutions.
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)
The Intel Core i7 3.2GHz (965 Extreme) X58-based system was stellar, combined with a pair of speedy SDDs and 3GB of DDR3 the system is fast, cool running, and monstrous. The quad core CPU was backed up with four ATI GPUs or three Nvidia GPUs depending on what we were testing.
As for the GPUs, they were equally amazing and will continue to surprise us. The Nvidia XFX GeForce 260 Core 216 with its 896 MB of memory showed the importance of memory size when running modern DirectX 10 games at max resolution and with all the features turned on.
We’re expecting some 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 AIBs and will report on them and the aforementioned HD 4850 X2 in the next issue.
We’ll also get some of these new games under control so we can give some meaningful measurements on them, which is a function of driver stability, and repeatability in a really stressful scenario—not as easy as it sounds.
