"Gulftown" Power Consumption

[AD-15]

hello,

Recently, I have been looking at purchasing one of the very popular D0 920 Cor i7 CPU's.

However, I decided to wait until Intel's release of the Gulftown Core i9 CPU instead, as it will clearly perform significantly better.

With a lot of series of CPU's, the die shrinks have resulted in lower power consumption, better thermal performance etc. This is one of the main reasons I decided to wait; I could probably do some significant overclocking on the Core i9 without requiring risky water cooling.

But is it likely the move to 32nm with these chips will bring about this kind of improvement? I'm thinking of the difference 6 cores as opposed to 4 will make. Will the power consumption of the extra cores likely cancel out the improvements brought by the shrink to 32nm?

[shaithis]

My guess would be that the extra 2 cores would add more power requirements then the die shrink removed.....or at best, even it out.

4 > 6 cores is ~ 50% increase in power....which means that the die shrink would need to drop the like-for-like power consumption by around 33% to break even.

[ajones]

Wouldn't +50% power be a worst case scenario? Don't these new processors have all sorts of energy saving logic, so you'd only see the max power draw when you're firing data at all the cores simulataneously...?

[shaithis]

Well, I am ussuming your going to be using the processing power you've paid for.....

Any modern CPU is fairly efficient if it's not doing anything and you have EIST/C1E etc enabled

[AD-15]

hello,

Thanks for your input.

I will try to OC it as much as possible, so my main concern is heat, rather than the actual power consumption (although the total power requirement will be pretty close to my PSU's 620W capacity).

The only reason I'm going for this upgrade (from the system listed in "AD-15's System", which is very good) is I wish to be able to run a program called FSX. TBH, almost everyone has had problems with this program ( a flight sim) and it's performance. It is a MASSIVE CPU resource hog. Further, I have a lot of "expansion pack" software which I use to improve the realism of the sim, which increased the reliance of the sim on the CPU dramatically. The sim always maxes out all the cores.

I would have to disable EIST and C1E, as I intend to overclock the chip.

At first, I thought it would be worth waiting for the chip as the extra money I'd end up paying for the CPU, I'd save from not having to purchase a water cooling kit. But if the TDP is going to end up being the same, I may aswell just go for the i7.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

hello,

Thanks for your input.

I will try to OC it as much as possible, so my main concern is heat, rather than the actual power consumption (although the total power requirement will be pretty close to my PSU's 620W capacity).

The only reason I'm going for this upgrade (from the system listed in "AD-15's System", which is very good) is I wish to be able to run a program called FSX. TBH, almost everyone has had problems with this program ( a flight sim) and it's performance. It is a MASSIVE CPU resource hog. Further, I have a lot of "expansion pack" software which I use to improve the realism of the sim, which increased the reliance of the sim on the CPU dramatically. The sim always maxes out all the cores.

I would have to disable EIST and C1E, as I intend to overclock the chip.

At first, I thought it would be worth waiting for the chip as the extra money I'd end up paying for the CPU, I'd save from not having to purchase a water cooling kit. But if the TDP is going to end up being the same, I may aswell just go for the i7.

I would look at upgrading the CPU to a Q9550 TBH. It is faster clock for clock than your existing CPU and is meant to be a decent overclocker too although of course YMMV. It is a 45nm CPU too meaning it should run cooler and consume less power per mhz than the Intel 65nm quads.

Your motherboard supports it:

http://www.abit.com.tw/cpu-support-l...5_ip35-pro.htm

It will cost you under £170 too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel...che-85x-Retail

I would probably do a full system upgrade when the 32nm Core i5 and Core i7 processors come out next year. There is noise about Intel and even AMD releasing 6 core processors.The current Core i5 looks pretty decent too and has lower power consumption it seems than the Core i7:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...st-review.html

However I do not think that most Core i5 processors come with multithreading though although I could be wrong here.

[Fraz]

so my main concern is heat, rather than the actual power consumption

Two sides of the same coin...

[AD-15]

Two sides of the same coin...

Indeed, but what I meant was my PSU can handle the increased power requirement. But I might not have the required cooling for the new CPU.

BTW, looking at wikipedia, it is reported the Gulftown CPU will have a TDP of 130W.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_W....22Westmere.22

Does this mean the CPU is likely to have the same power requirements/heat output?

Something I neglected to mention previously BTW, is my budget. I am not prepared to spend more than £300-400 on the CPU. The same wikipedia page as above lists the price of the new CPU as over $1000. Does this sound realistic?

If this is the case, I may as well just forget about core i9 and research the core i7/alternatives a little further.

Thanks again,

Odai.

[shaithis]

The Extreme parts will cost $1000.....I fully expect there will be non-Extreme parts that are significantly cheaper.

[Zak33]

The only reason I'm going for this upgrade (from the system listed in "AD-15's System", which is very good) is I wish to be able to run a program called FSX. TBH, almost everyone has had problems with this program ( a flight sim) and it's performance.

if I were to be so bold, I'd also say that you'll struggle to ever reach the edges of Fight Sim X's requirements. It's, to be fair, always gonna want more!

More cpu yes... and more ram,,,, and more video cards... and a better motherboard with faster access to the ram etc....

I'm ALL for upgrading for your favourite games, but with this one, a modicum of restraint would be advised of you'll end up pawning your house, family and pets just to get the frame rate up

[Phage]

of you'll end up pawning your house, family and pets just to get the frame rate up

Too late !

[AD-15]

The Extreme parts will cost $1000.....I fully expect there will be non-Extreme parts that are significantly cheaper.

Are you saying there will be other CPU's in the core i9 series? I thought core i9 referred only to Gulftown?

if I were to be so bold, I'd also say that you'll struggle to ever reach the edges of Fight Sim X's requirements. It's, to be fair, always gonna want more!

More cpu yes... and more ram,,,, and more video cards... and a better motherboard with faster access to the ram etc....

I'm ALL for upgrading for your favourite games, but with this one, a modicum of restraint would be advised of you'll end up pawning your house, family and pets just to get the frame rate up

Noted.

I see I've turned this into basically another CPU reccomendation thread. In this case, anyone have any ideas on whether LGA1366 will be the socket Intel bases most of it's future higher end chips on?

[shaithis]

Gulftown is the "codename" like the first Core2 CPUs were called Conroe and the current i7 line are called Nehalem.