Intel Lynnfield; Core i5 750 and Core i7 870 Evaluation

Real World testing

LightWave 3D 9.6 x64
Our first real world test is LightWave 3D. This is an industry standard 3D Animation and rendering software from Newtek. For our testing runs we chose a sample scene from the Lighrtwave 8 content file that is installed with the new 9.6 version. Out tests were of the Moonbase scene frame 32. Settings were 1080 resolution, 7-Pass PLD, Gaussian Sharp reconstruction filter, and 512MB segment memory.

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Now we really see the performance hit taken by the lack of the extra channel of memory. As it stands but the Core i7 870 and the Core i5 750 were very slow here. They still outperformed the AMD Phenom II X4 955. But even when overclocked could not compete with the 1366 i7s.

AutoGK is a compilation of transcoding applications wrapped up into a very nice installer and front end application. It is a great “one-stop” for transcoding or even re-encoding files. For our testing we transcode a 2-hour movie at 100% quality and record the time it takes to complete.

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Again we see a performance hit from the loss of that extra memory channel. Only the i7 920 and the Phenom II performed worse than the two Lynnfield CPUs here. Granted they are still fast but you can see the difference. However, once overclocked they do manage to regain some of the speed.

Gaming
Gaming is a very real-world test. We do not use benchmarking scripts but actually play the games though a pre-planned level and record the frame rates using FRAPS. This allows up to see exactly how the CPU benefits [or hinders] performance.

Cryostatis: Sleep of Reason
Cryostasis is an interesting game. It combines heavy physics into a horror/survival game into a sub-zero environment.  You also have to take “sprit journeys” to alter the past. If you change the past it affects your present. Settings used are shown below.

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Gaming in Cryostasis shows us that the CPU does not have the large of an impact on gaming performance at high resolution. We do see the two top Core i7s take a healthy lead but for the i7 870 and i5 750 it is not going to give you that big of a boost over the competition.

FarCry 2
FarCry 2 is a large "sandbox" style game that does not have any real levels. It is all mission based but allows for a great deal of free movement in the environment. You take the role of a mercenary sent to kill "The Jackal" a dangerous gun runner. Unfortunately you are overcome by your malaria and end up serving as an errand boy for a local thug. Settings are show below:

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Again we do not see much of a difference between the CPUs in terms of high resolution gaming performance.

Wolfenstein
A title from id Software Wolfenstein takes you back to World War II and the paranormal. The game has some interesting graphics and AI but unfortunately also has a frame rate cap at about 60 FP/s. Setting are shown below.

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As you could have expected; not much to see here in terms of performance difference at high resolution.

Gaming recap
It has become more and more apparent that the CPU has little impact on high resolution gaming. Yes it can get you a couple of FPS more, but on the whole it is not going to affect frame rate so much. Where you see the difference is in AI, and other none graphical areas. It is not easily measureable and is often notes as a "more fluid" game experience. Unfortunately there is nothing that can measure that yet.