Core i7 Multi-GPU SLI Crossfire Game performance review - 19 - Core 2 Quad Q9770 Extreme versus Core i7 965

Core 2 Quad QX 9770 versus Core i7 965

So once we posted our article, initially our target was to show you the difference between an everyday yet very fast Core 2 Duo based system and Core i7. Last years high-end PC against this new one.

There were however numerous requests from readers who would have loved to see a fast Core based Quad Core processor in our test. I figured that was a valid request, and therefore I quickly assembled a high-end 3-way SLI ready system.

Now, before we begin, some rules: we will only use 3-way SLI (GeForce GTX 280 x3) here. Would we have used two-way SLI GeForce GTX 260 for example, this would limit the results for Core i7. See, the 260 GTX in SLI would be GPU bottlenecked. It's a state where the GPUs can't render any faster, yet the CPU still has plenty of headroom to compute. And a GPU bottleneck is exactly what we are not trying to show.

So I took a 1300 USD Intel Core 2 Quad Q9770 Extreme processor. And the 300 USD nForce 790 SLI Ultra. We put some snazzy DDR3 memory on there with fast timings clocked at 1333 MHz.

This is the very best you can buy in blue colored Intel Core 2 Quad land, really. So we again equip the motherboard with the three GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards in 3-way SLI with exactly the same conditions and drivers as on the Core i7 / X58 platform. What's also nice is that this is a clock for clock comparison as the Intel QX 9770 processor, just like the Core i7 965, runs at 3200 MHz.

Have a look....

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

As you can see, our good 'old' 680i/E8400 system always was pretty nicely tweaked with some snazzy fast memory. The QX9770 processor with 1333 DDR3 memory is definitely faster than that 680i/E8400. It's however not even a close match to the Core i7 965 system.

Call of Duty 4

We see very similar behavior in Call of Duty 4. Though it shows that the QX9770 platform is very fast. But Core i7 965 / X58 again takes a pretty good lead here.

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 is not different. As you can see FC2 is very CPU limited on both the E8400 Dual Core processor yet also on the snazzy QX9770 based platform. But again a massive win on Core i7.

Now this is the stuff you only can discover if you have a massive amount of GPU power under the hood. With 2-way SLI GTX 260 the numbers would be much closer to each other as the 2 GPUs do not need a processor of the caliber that Core i7 965 harbors.

F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. also shows pretty decent scaling though the QX9770 climbs pretty close to the Core i7 965 and hugs it carefully (but only a little, so cute).

3DMark Vantage

Aaah, 3DMark Vantage, this is the standard P mode, 19000+ points for the cards on the QX9770 platform, 25000+ points on Core i7 965.

Crysis Warhead

Last but not least, Crysis Warhead. Again, both the E8400 and even QX9770 stumble into pretty hefty CPU limitation whereas the Core i7 keeps on steaming.

So for the last time I'm explaining this, to get the message clear... you need heaps of GPU performance like 3-way SLI GTX 280 in order to be able to show what the Core i7 can do. Would we have shown GTX 260 in SLI here... the differences would be much smaller as the GPUs can't go any faster.

You could also look at this processor as a good investment for future (much faster) graphics cards.