Intel core i7 860 review: The Intel Core i7 860 Review

Specification

Packaging and contents

The Intel Core i7-860 processor is supplied in almost the same packaging as the younger model Intel Core i5-750, only instead of the Intel Core i5 logo, the Intel Core i7 logo flaunts on its front, and the name of the processor inside is indicated in the lower right corner .

In the upper part of the package, as expected, there is a window through which you can see the processor, thereby making sure that it is present and reading the label to be sure.

On one of the sides there is a special sticker that contains, in addition to various barcodes, a list of all the main characteristics of the processor: a clock frequency of 2.80 GHz, a cache memory of 8 MB, a version in the Socket LGA 1156 package, a requirement for the power supply system of the motherboard PCG 09B.

The reverse side of the package contains one more «viewing window» through which the sticker on the cooler is visible, and it has the same marking as the one included with the Intel Core i5-750 — E41759-002.

Smoothly, we came to the consideration of the contents of the package. Complete with an Intel Core i7-860 processor, you can find:
— Cooler E41759-002;
— Three year warranty and quick installation instructions;
— Body sticker.

The sticker with the series logo is on the back of the manual and will help the owner of the Intel Core i7-860 to show off the presence of one of the most modern and productive processors inside the system unit.

Of course, keeping in mind the not very high efficiency of the E41759-002 cooler when it is used on the Intel Core i5-750 processor, we should talk more seriously about the cooling system, so we put the study of its efficiency in a separate review block, but for now let’s move on to the processor itself.

Processor Intel Core i7-860

On the heat-distributing cover of the retail Intel Core i7-860 processor, in addition to the model indication, almost all of its characteristics are applied:
— clock frequency 2.80 GHz,
— 8 MB cache memory,
— requirement for the PCG 09B power system.

The processor also supports a number of proprietary technologies:

Enhanced Halt State (C1E) disables some processor blocks while it is idle, thereby reducing power consumption and heat dissipation; Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology allows you to reduce the supply voltage and clock speed during low processor load; Execute Disable Bit — support for a hardware-software buffer overflow protection mechanism, a mechanism used by many malicious programs to damage or penetrate the system; Hyper-Threading Technology — each of the four cores of the Intel Core i7 processor supports the simultaneous execution of two program threads, allowing up to 8 «independent threads» of code to be executed in parallel; Intel Turbo Boost Technology — allows you to increase the processor multiplier for one or more cores depending on the load, stopping unused ones, providing acceleration without changing the thermal package; Intel Virtualization Technology allows virtual machines to access hardware resources, which provides them with higher performance and is actively used by Wibdows 7.

It is also worth noting that the specification notes decipher some of the functions described above in more detail, and also indicate the presence of another proprietary technology used:

Maximum Intel Turbo Boost Technology frequency per core — 4 core: 2.93 GHz, 3 core: 2.93 GHz, 2 core: 3.33 GHz; 1 core: 3.46 GHz. As you might guess, the maximum frequency of the processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology enabled with the active use of a different number of cores is specified: 2.93 GHz when loading 4 and 3 cores, 3.33 GHz for two cores and 3.46 GHz for a single core. Intel Virtualization Technology for IA-32, Intel 64 and Intel Architecture (Intel VT-x) enabled. Clarifies that Intel Virtualization Technology is enabled, with software support, for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems in any mode of use. Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel VT-d) enabled. The processor for Intel Virtualization Technology supports virtual machine direct access to system resources. Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT) enabled. The processor supports Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT), which is designed to even better protect your PC from viruses at the hardware level. It is a further continuation of the NX-bit idea, but with the use of encryption of allocated memory areas, which will not even allow another application to infiltrate them or read any data purposefully. Moreover, I / O streams can also be encrypted, which will “make life difficult” for keyloggers and other applications that “steal” confidential information.

The CPU-Z utility correctly displays the main characteristics of the Intel Core i7-860 processor, as well as the properties of the updated memory subsystem.

The processor’s built-in northbridge, including an integrated DDR3 memory controller, operates at 2.4 GHz.

Performance testing

The following Processor Test Bench was used during testing:

During testing, the Stand for testing Processors No. 1 was used (the configuration has not changed since 01-05-2009).

Repeated testing makes it possible to say with confidence that a slightly higher clock speed and the inclusion of Hyper-Threading technology allow, under successful circumstances, the Intel Core i7-860 processor to be 30-40% faster than the Intel Core i5-750 with, in general, the same core. When using modern optimized software, this speedup is quite comparable to the difference in cost.

Again we note some equality in terms of performance of the Intel Core i7-860 and Intel Core i7-9 models20: due to a slightly higher clock frequency, the former turns out to be even faster in many tasks, but applications that are very resource-intensive and demanding on RAM bandwidth prefer the latter. Thus, taking into account the difference in platforms, the processors, even taking into account the very close cost, are not direct competitors, because if you need to build a really powerful computer, the Intel LGA1366 platform is still preferable, and if you need to get a fast and versatile computer, the Intel LGA1156 will be more suitable option.

As for the competition with AMD products, in terms of performance even the most powerful Phenom II X4 965 loses in most cases, however, its cost is about 1/3 lower. The latter does not allow direct comparison of these platforms, because the final cost of systems based on them will be different and AMD products may benefit in terms of price / capabilities, although if it is necessary to complete a high-performance PC, the Intel LGA1156 platform will be preferable.

Performance impact of Hyper-Threading Technology

We have already checked the prospects of enabling Hyper-Threading on different processors and even on the Intel Core i7-860 engineering sample, noting the need to use software that is guaranteed to be optimized for this processor mode. But then we were using a non-final product in conjunction with a non-final version of the firmware for the motherboard, so we decided to repeat the experiment by disabling Hyper-Threading support in the BIOS.

Still, many tasks barely noticed a difference whether Hyper-Threading was enabled or not, and some even sped up. Therefore, it remains only to repeat that we hope for the appearance in the near future of improved support for multithreading and, specifically, optimization for Hyper-Threading in the vast majority of software products, games and the operating system itself. Now, Hyper-Threading can only be of real benefit when using professional graphics and video editors, as well as frequent video encoding with some popular codecs.

Intel Turbo Boost Technology Efficiency

As has been noted more than once, Intel Turbo Boost technology is a mechanism for intelligently adapting processor characteristics to the owner’s needs, providing the highest possible performance without a noticeable increase in power consumption, and hence heat dissipation, which affects the noise of the cooler.

Recall that the idea of ​​technology is quite simple. Having a quad-core processor in the system, the user does not always use programs that can fully load all the cores with work, and the simultaneous execution of several resource-intensive tasks is not often practiced. At the same time, some cores are idling part of the time, only consuming electricity, turning it into excess heat. It turns out that in many cases there is less benefit from a multi-core processor than we would like. Therefore, Intel engineers developed Turbo Boost technology, which allows you to accelerate all or individual processor cores when necessary, while turning off unused ones, thereby ensuring the same power consumption and heat dissipation.

So, in theory, the Intel Core i7-860 processor is capable of turning off three cores if necessary, and the remaining one will operate at a frequency of 3.46 GHz instead of the nominal 2.8 GHz, which should noticeably (≈24%) speed up the execution of non-optimized for multithreaded applications.

But since something is running in the background almost all the time in the Windows Vista operating system, in practice we could not catch the moment when the processor runs at a frequency higher than 2.93 GHz, although subsequent tests have confirmed that this is the case.

As you can see, most of the tasks were accelerated only by increasing the processor clock speed to 2. 93 GHz without disabling one or more cores. But the test package CINEBENCH R10 in the scene rendering mode allowed us to feel the beauty of Intel Turbo Boost technology, which provided an acceleration of almost 26%.

Thus, we recommend that you always keep Intel Turbo Boost technology enabled, which will allow you to perform almost all tasks 1-4% faster, and in some cases get a really noticeable increase in performance, and almost for free. Although nothing is completely free — the payoff for activating Intel Turbo Boost will be an increase in system power consumption by several watts and an increase in processor temperature by another degree.

Cooling system and its efficiency

To provide cooling for the Intel Core i7-860 processor, it comes with a cooler E41759-002, the efficiency of which was hardly enough to cool the Intel Core i5-750 processor. Recall what this cooling system looks like.

The heatsink of this cooler has a classic structure of «boxed» Intel coolers — a copper thermal column in the center, onto which the heatsink itself, cast from an aluminum alloy, is «deadly» attached. The height of this design is 18 mm, and the total height of the cooler (including the fan) is approximately 37 mm.

The E41759-002 uses a 75mm fan with a 17mm blade profile. The motor drive is equipped with a PWM converter, which makes it possible to economically control its rotation speed in a wide range. We cannot say that the fan is silent, especially at maximum load on the processor, but it is not really noisy either.

However, the effectiveness of such a cooler for cooling the Intel Core i7-860 processor, even at nominal operating frequencies, is not enough, especially with a long intensive load. And when Intel Turbo Boost technology was enabled, we were able to force the processor to turn off altogether. During the stress test of the Intel Core i7-860, at first there was a fairly rapid increase in temperature, and when it reached 98ºC, the processor has overheat protection. Checking the fastening confirmed the good quality of the pressure, and replacing the thermal paste did not change anything in general, since the standard for Intel coolers theme interface is already quite effective. Thus, it was not possible to use a «boxed» cooler for testing, let alone overclocking, and it was replaced by Scythe Kama Angle rev. B.

Power consumption

Before starting overclocking, we tried to estimate the power consumption of the Intel Core i7-860 processor by measuring it for the entire bench and comparing it in various modes. The results were a little puzzling.

In idle mode, the power consumption of the test bench was only 88 W at a processor core voltage of 0.912 V. Under heavy load, the total power consumption increased to 189 W, and the core voltage became 1.260 V. Turning on Intel Turbo Boost technology and creating a high load on the processor resulted in to an increase in system power consumption to 198 W at a core supply voltage of 1.272 V.

Since the main load, nevertheless, was created precisely on the processor, even discarding some increase in power consumption by the chipset and RAM, and also taking into account the efficiency of power stabilizers, the Intel Core i7-860 processor dissipated about 100 W in Turbo Boost mode. Surely, his logic supported this parameter precisely within the declared thermal package 95 W. Accordingly, the power consumption of the processor itself does not cause any surprise, but the above negative results of testing the «boxed» cooler are substantiated. After all, earlier Intel even equipped processors of the Core 2 Duo E6000 series with a thermal package of 65 W with larger coolers.

Overclocking potential

Since the overclocking algorithm for processors for Intel LGA 1156 is not much different from the already well-known Intel LGA 1366, and this is not the first time we have been trying to make the new Core i5 / 7 work faster than the nominal frequency, there was hope for getting really good results.

With a core supply voltage of 1.384 V, we achieved stability at a frequency of 4021 MHz, which is ≈1200 MHz higher than the nominal frequency and practically repeats the previously obtained result for the engineering sample. Thus, overclocking was about 42%, which is a good result and should significantly affect the performance of the entire system.

Since the performance in all test tasks does not depend only on the processor clock frequency, it is quite expected that the average acceleration due to overclocking was only about 21.5%.

Total

Now we can say with full confidence that the Intel Core i7-860 processor is a really productive and cost-effective element of the system based on the Nehalem architecture in the version of the more affordable Intel LGA1156 platform. Solutions with this architecture in terms of pure performance are noticeably superior to the previous generation and competitor’s offerings even with a higher operating clock frequency. At the same time, processors for Intel LGA1156 are not very demanding on the bandwidth of RAM, thanks to the presence of an effective built-in memory controller, they support many promising technologies, provide intelligent balancing of performance and power consumption, and also have good overclocking potential. A little confusing in the boxed version of the Intel Core i7-860 processor is only the complete cooler, which, in general, does not provide a comfortable temperature regime for the processor and therefore needs to be replaced.

Based on www. easycom. com. ua