Frosty Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 The Nehalem (dual socket i7) will be shipping some time in Q1 '09. We have engineering samples in the lab but are not at liberty to discuss possible performance numbers yet. I can say this: it's freaking fast. That's what I wanted to hear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyang Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Quick question, I don't know the structure of the i7, but when I run a rendering on a i7 940 using 3dsdesign2009, 8 buckets was rendering. Also, I check the performance tab in the window task manager, it is showing 8 cores. Is an i7 running on 8 cores? So a dual i7 would be similar to 16 cores? Out of the box (at stock speeds) the i7 940 is unbeatable as far as bang-buck ratio. If you plan to overclock, then obviously its all about how far you want to push things and what type of risk you are willing to accept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOXXLABS Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 yep - With "Hyperthreading" enabled, dual-quad Nehalem systems coming out in Q1 of 2009 will show up as 16 cores to the OS and apps. *However* - The additional "HT" cores only provide about 20-30% additional performance. These extras cores are still only "virtual". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyang Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Thanks, the 8 buckets still feels nice. yep - With "Hyperthreading" enabled, dual-quad Nehalem systems coming out in Q1 of 2009 will show up as 16 cores to the OS and apps. *However* - The additional "HT" cores only provide about 20-30% additional performance. These extras cores are still only "virtual". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F J Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 http://anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=532 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berra Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I have never used an overclocked PC. I would like to ask forum users if you would recommend an overclocked i7 920 as a workstation PC doing mostly rendering, revit and photoshop at 12+ hours a day? Most of the reviews mention that i7 920's can be easily overclocked to something around 4 ghz with air cooling ( a good CPU cooler, appropriate RAM and motherboard, a good PSU and case...) The performance that will be gained seems to be very nice with respect to extra money given to better components for proper cooling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zdravko Barisic Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 I have never used an overclocked PC. I would like to ask forum users if you would recommend an overclocked i7 920 as a workstation PC doing mostly rendering, revit and photoshop at 12+ hours a day? Most of the reviews mention that i7 920's can be easily overclocked to something around 4 ghz with air cooling ( a good CPU cooler, appropriate RAM and motherboard, a good PSU and case...) The performance that will be gained seems to be very nice with respect to extra money given to better components for proper cooling. I wish you all the luck with OC, but I quit it and would never do that anymore! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted December 28, 2008 Author Share Posted December 28, 2008 I have never used an overclocked PC. I would like to ask forum users if you would recommend an overclocked i7 920 as a workstation PC doing mostly rendering, revit and photoshop at 12+ hours a day? Most of the reviews mention that i7 920's can be easily overclocked to something around 4 ghz with air cooling ( a good CPU cooler, appropriate RAM and motherboard, a good PSU and case...) The performance that will be gained seems to be very nice with respect to extra money given to better components for proper cooling. I know that Boxx uses an over clocked CPU in their special edition PC, it's not an i7 but if they can do it successfully there's no reason the i7 can't be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOXXLABS Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 We have spent TONS of resources on engineering these OC'd systems so that they are 100% stable and reliable for working artists and designers -we understand that you can't afford to be "down" due to a wonky workstation. Overclocking is definitely a "black art" and requires a fairly substantial understanding of how all the components in a computer (need to) work together. Tuning and balancing the system components and settings at higher-than-stock speeds can be maddeningly frustrating. On the other hand, when it's done correctly, overclocking is a great way to increase your applications' performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted December 31, 2008 Author Share Posted December 31, 2008 Adam, when do you think you'll have dual processor i7's available? Will they be able to be overclocked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOXXLABS Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 Hi Devin, Nobody is 100% sure when dual socket Nehalem will ship. -Sometime in Q1... As far as I know (or have seen), the dual socket platform(s) are not overclockable. But even if I did know, I would not be at liberty to discuss... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyang Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 My understanding is the i7 940 is 4 Cores + 4 Hyperthreaded = 8 buckets. excuse my ignorance, what does all this mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted December 31, 2008 Author Share Posted December 31, 2008 It means that the chip will appear to have 8 cores but in reality it only has 4, hyper threading mimics the 4 additional cores but will only give you a 20%-30% boost in speed. So you don't have a true 8 core processor but you get one that is faster than a non-hyper threaded quad core. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOXXLABS Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 Dual socket i7 (Nehalem) will show up as 16 cores to you OS and multicore-aware apps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berra Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Thanks for all of the replies to my question regarding workstation overclocking. I have one more question regarding the amount of RAM. i7 CPU requires DDR3 memories and supports 3 channel. So the optimised memory kits come as 3GB (3x1), 6GB (3x2) or 12GB (6x2). Regarding that 8GB is one of the mostly used in performance based graphic PC builds up to now, which would you prefer for the i7's, 6GB (something less) or 12GB (something more)? Using both 3d MAX and Revit at the same time (and sometimes photoshop) will be a common situation for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 12 GB. My 8GB can't keep up with my 3d stuffing. especially with 3d trees... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Same here, on some scenes I'm using all 8 gigs so there's no way I'd want to go down to 6gigs. That's just the nature of computers, you will always want more not less because as the level of detail and complexity continues to increase so will your system requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffc Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 does anyone have any links to timetable speculations on the 6 or 8 core i7's? I do need to build a second machine sooner than later, but am willing to wait for 6's or 8's without going full xeon. Unless of course they're not coming out for another 6 months and/or too expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 I thought the 6 cores were due out before the end of January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhodesy Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Think i7 Skulltrail boards are also due out soonish. 2 CPU system with desktop CPUs! Sweet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Where did you see that and why would it be a good idea? Skulltrail for Core 2 Quad requires an LGA771 version of an Extreme series chip, which is way too expensive (over $1500 each), a motherboard that's way too expensive ($600) and requires the expensive (nearly $50/GB) FBDIMM memory and an EATX case, so you have all the constraints of a dual Xeon system, but more expensive, and the only benefits are overclockability and SLI, neither of which are popular in businesses. The "dual desktop chips" thing is a bit of a misconception, since the only real benefit of the desktop chips over the server chips is price, and in this case the "desktop" chip loses. So unless they make a major change in the next version there's not going to be much of a case for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Where did you see that and why would it be a good idea? Because Crysis would ROCK during the lunch hour perhaps?? Otherwise, well, no idea??!! WAIT for the next-gen XEON's if it's about work, otherwise buy up now if you're all about lunch-breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Because Crysis would ROCK during the lunch hour perhaps?? Otherwise, well, no idea??!! WAIT for the next-gen XEON's if it's about work, otherwise buy up now if you're all about lunch-breaks. Those teenagers are not gonna spend $5000 to play Crysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 You'd be amazed at what people will pay for a few more FPS in Crysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 You'd be amazed at what people will pay for a few more FPS in Crysis. ...such a rig could help out my HL2 Deathmatch scores too;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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