What are your thoughts on the i7 860?

Anubis_386 · Sep 15, 2009

I'm feeling for to upgrade my main PC (gaming mostly) and with the release of Socket 1156 i5/i7 CPUs and P55 boards aswell as the two XFX 4890's + shiney waterblocks staring at me still (I haven't had the time to strip down and rebuildy loop recently) .. I think the time is right, however I could do do with sum help ..

I was looking at the i7 860 (2.8GHz) to replace my E8600 and was wondering if anyone knows of a review or something that includes an E8600 in it's comparrison to the i7 860. I wanna know if I'll see the performance increase spending this amount is worth ..

Also I had a quick lookat P55 boards (on UK sites) and most were quite vague on the PCI-E slot speeds. I'd prefer to get a board with two PCI-E 2.0 slots both running at 16x. Any idea's??

Any and all input appreciated, cheers! :beer:

hokiealumnus · Sep 15, 2009

You'll not get two PCIe slots with 16x on a P55 platform. The PCIe lanes are coming off of the CPU itself and are limited to a total of 16 lanes. If you run SLI or CF on them, it splits the lanes and the cards each run at 8x. Some boards include an NF200 chip that enables three GPUs, but the third also operates at 8x. Sorry to disappoint.

Joeteck · Sep 15, 2009

hokiealumnus said:
You'll not get two PCIe slots with 16x on a P55 platform. The PCIe lanes are coming off of the CPU itself and are limited to a total of 16 lanes. If you run SLI or CF on them, it splits the lanes and the cards each run at 8x. Some boards include an NF200 chip that enables three GPUs, but the third also operates at 8x. Sorry to disappoint.

So the best thing to do is to get a SLI-in-one card to get better gaming performance when using the P55 if you need too...?

I too have been looking at the i5 and i7 chips.... I think its more than enough power to do gaming...

hokiealumnus · Sep 15, 2009

You won't lose very much with an SLI/CF configuration, but you'll loose some. Here's a comparison article. If you want a completely lossless scenario, that is correct, a single card with two GPUs is the best bet.

Neuromancer · Sep 15, 2009

hokiealumnus said:
You'll not get two PCIe slots with 16x on a P55 platform. The PCIe lanes are coming off of the CPU itself and are limited to a total of 16 lanes. If you run SLI or CF on them, it splits the lanes and the cards each run at 8x. Some boards include an NF200 chip that enables three GPUs, but the third also operates at 8x. Sorry to disappoint.

I was looking at the arch on the i5s. Where does the NF200 chip connect to the CPU? Only places I saw available were PCIE onboard and DMI bus (limited to 2GB/s and shared with SATA drives PCIE 1x lanes USB ethernet and audio.

hokiealumnus · Sep 15, 2009

I've wondered the same thing myself and can't seem to find anything on the subject. Everything I see just says it's on the board or it's not on the board with nothing broaching the topic of how it's connected.

Evilsizer · Sep 15, 2009

hokiealumnus said:
I've wondered the same thing myself and can't seem to find anything on the subject. Everything I see just says it's on the board or it's not on the board with nothing broaching the topic of how it's connected.

looking at the board layout of the EVGA classified 200. it appears the NV200 chip is directly in linked to the DMI buss.

i hope we can get confirmation on how it is done. to me the most logical is linked to the DMI buss.

jaymz9350 · Sep 15, 2009

hokiealumnus said:
If you want a completely lossless scenario, that is correct, a single card with two GPUs is the best bet.

Wouldn't that be pretty much the same as 2 cards at 8x each since it's 2 GPU's sharing 1 16x?

hokiealumnus · Sep 15, 2009

jaymz9350 said:
Wouldn't that be pretty much the same as 2 cards at 8x each since it's 2 GPU's sharing 1 16x?

You know, I just spent a long time trying to find a good answer to this and can't seem to do it. Anyone know more about this stuff than I do? ...because that question has me stumped.

Were I to make an argument based solely on logic, I'd say that it's not the same. Two cards needs to process all of the data of one card, twice; then send it blazing through the PCIe slots to be combined. One card with two GPUs processes the same data as one card otherwise would, it just splits the load while it's on the card and does it faster, then re-combines it and spits out the same amount of data that one card would have put out.

But that's just talking out my rear, because I really have no idea.

EDIT - It really may not make a whole heck of a lot of difference for normal users anyway. Have a look at this post @ EVGA. For people going Tri-SLI for benching, sure you'll lose a couple hundred points and will probably want to go with X58. But for any every day user, it looks to be a moot point.

jaymz9350 · Sep 15, 2009

hokiealumnus said:
You know, I just spent a long time trying to find a good answer to this and can't seem to do it. Anyone know more about this stuff than I do? ...because that question has me stumped.

Were I to make an argument based solely on logic, I'd say that it's not the same. Two cards needs to process all of the data of one card, twice; then send it blazing through the PCIe slots to be combined. One card with two GPUs processes the same data as one card otherwise would, it just splits the load while it's on the card and does it faster, then re-combines it and spits out the same amount of data that one card would have put out.

But that's just talking out my rear, because I really have no idea.

EDIT - It really may not make a whole heck of a lot of difference for normal users anyway. Have a look at this post @ EVGA. For people going Tri-SLI for benching, sure you'll lose a couple hundred points and will probably want to go with X58. But for any every day user, it looks to be a moot point.

yeah by that the difference shown is very minute and that's 3 cards at 8x vs (im assuming) 3 at 16x. I'm not sure the bandwith used by current gen cards but unless it's over the speed of the 8x slot it won't make much of a difference as your link shows.

Brolloks · Sep 15, 2009

Anubis, I happen to have an E8600 here and off course my latest i7-860 , lmk what kinda comparison I can run to help you make a decision.

Aynjell · Sep 15, 2009

jaymz9350 said:
yeah by that the difference shown is very minute and that's 3 cards at 8x vs (im assuming) 3 at 16x. I'm not sure the bandwith used by current gen cards but unless it's over the speed of the 8x slot it won't make much of a difference as your link shows.

This more or less settles it for me. I'm going P55 SLI + 860 as it's the best bang for the buck.

I'd go P55 FTW, but that 4 pin hdd connector right next to the 1x slot I'd plug my sound card in bothers me more than I'd care to admit.

GrimX9 · Sep 15, 2009

Onboard PCI controller allows for faster speeds AFAIK. I would personally go for a I7 920, because they are cheaper

Aynjell · Sep 15, 2009

GrimX9 said:
Onboard PCI controller allows for faster speeds AFAIK. I would personally go for a I7 920, because they are cheaper

If you live near a microcenter.

For me it 's more expensive. :bang head

Unless somebody wants to go cherry pick a D0 for me and send it to me unopened. :burn:

georgelogy · Sep 15, 2009

Aynjell said:
I'd go P55 FTW, but that 4 pin hdd connector right next to the 1x slot I'd plug my sound card in bothers me more than I'd care to admit.

It's totally optional to plug anything into that molex 4-pin connector, it's really only for a bit extra PCIe power if you're really pushing your video card overclock, or have PCIe cards that require a particularly high amount of power for some reason.

Aynjell · Sep 15, 2009

georgelogy said:
It's totally optional to plug anything into that molex 4-pin connector, it's really only for a bit extra PCIe power if you're really pushing your video card overclock, or have PCIe cards that require a particularly high amount of power for some reason.

I'll re-consider the P55 FTW, for the sake of it maybe giving a bit better performance. I somehow doubt that the extra pwm phases will make a huge difference, or the little pcb remove thing for that matter.

Looks like better caps supposedly. I'm waiting to see actual overclocking results on these boards to make a true decision.

Shiggity · Sep 16, 2009

The only real tangible benefits you'd get from the CPU upgrade would be lower power consumption. Gaming performance really won't change, even though the 860 is an awesome CPU, a 4GHz C2D will keep 2 4890's plenty busy. The DX11 engine is supposed to be really good for multicore CPU's, but who knows when those games are going to come out, there might be a couple this year that you'd be interested in buying.

I would keep your C2D, upgrade your GPU's (ATI 5xxx very soon!) or buy an SSD. I think you'd fall in love with an SSD and from the looks of your system, I think it would prove to be the best upgrade.

I'm waiting for westmere (32nm Nehalem). It shouldn't even be that long either, Intel is accelerating their 32nm stage and is already producing them in their Oregon fab. Westmere could be out as early as Christmas or early 2010.

Aynjell · Sep 16, 2009

Shiggity said:
The only real tangible benefits you'd get from the CPU upgrade would be lower power consumption. Gaming performance really won't change, even though the 860 is an awesome CPU, a 4GHz C2D will keep 2 4890's plenty busy. The DX11 engine is supposed to be really good for multicore CPU's, but who knows when those games are going to come out, there might be a couple this year that you'd be interested in buying.

I would keep your C2D, upgrade your GPU's (ATI 5xxx very soon!) or buy an SSD. I think you'd fall in love with an SSD and from the looks of your system, I think it would prove to be the best upgrade.

I'm waiting for westmere (32nm Nehalem). It shouldn't even be that long either, Intel is accelerating their 32nm stage and is already producing them in their Oregon fab. Westmere could be out as early as Christmas or early 2010.

Well, what's everybody's thought on my move to i7, bad, or good? I got 3 of the 4 sticks of ram already, it's just a matter of buying a board/cpu. And half of the deal is getting the 3rd pc so I can convert my old box into a media center PC.

Shiggity · Sep 16, 2009

Hehe I know what it's like to have the money burning a hole in your pocket while you keep waiting

Anubis_386 · Sep 16, 2009

Brollocks .. If you can pull one of your comparrison threads out of the air then I love you .. lol .. I'm still looking around, reading bits .. There's a big argument for "if your goin Crossfire then go X58" because of bandwidth .. I could stretch to a i7 920, and the Phenom II X4's look quite good aswell ..

What are your thoughts on the i7 860?

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