Intel Core i5 660 processor review
The LGA1566 processor socket is quietly entering our lives and is becoming a reality on the computers of many users. With the release of the first Intel processors for LGA1156, many advanced users “buried” this connector. The second hit by Intel did not keep us waiting long. Processors have entered the market that are even cheaper, colder and even better overclocked. We’ll talk about one of these processors today. The Intel Core i5 660 (3.33GHz) is one of the older dual-core 32nm Intel family, codenamed Clarkdale. The competition of Intel Core i5 660 will be Inte Core 2 Duo E8600 (3.33GHz), considered the fastest dual-core architecture of Core.
Representatives of Intel at their press conferences constantly repeat it-public about the system "Tick-Tack". The name was chosen as well as possible, and it reflects Intel's real chip manufacturing policy. As we know, Intel processors are usually divided into generations. The Tik-Tak system under review states that Intel devotes two technological processes (two stages) to the development of processors for each generation. The first is the running-in of the new architecture, the so-called "performance boom." When the success of the new generation is consolidated, Intel transfers processors based on the same architecture to a new, finer process technology, thereby winning immediately on several indicators - heat dissipation and overclocking, as well as greater availability and prevalence of the old process technology.
Clarkdale - interesting in that Intel puts it at one of the upper stages in its evolution of processors and chipsets. More recently, we were left without the usual heatsink on the motherboard, cooling the north bridge. Now it is not needed there - the memory controller is integrated into the processor. Following the memory controller, the PCI-E bus controller followed in the brain center of the system. Now in the processor we also get a video card - an integrated graphics core.
The image above shows the Intel Core i5 6xx and Intel H55 from left to right. It is the chipsets with the designation “H” that tell users that they support working with integrated graphics integrated into new Intel processors. Naturally, you can only dream of the crazy performance of the integrated graphics core. Most likely, many people remember the story that circled the entire Internet. The graphics core built into the Intel processor showed very good performance in 3DMark Vantage, beating even discrete low-end solutions. But it was worth renaming the executable file to Vintage (instead of Vantage), as a significant part of the parrots was lost somewhere.
In the line of Clarkdale Intel Core i5 660 takes one of the top positions. An Intel Core i5 661 processor can be considered its analogue, which in its processor characteristics does not differ from the i5 660 at all. But i5 661 has a higher graphic core frequency - 900 MHz versus 733 MHz for i5 660. The heat dissipation level, therefore, due to the lower frequency of the graphic core does not exceed the threshold value of 73W.
It is interesting to compare the new dual-core processors manufactured using the 32 nm process technology with the previous generation of dual-core processors Core, namely with a competitor of equal frequency - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600. The processor, which has gained popularity among many users, can now be beaten. This is exactly what I decided to find out by comparing the Intel Core i5 660 with the Inte Core 2 Duo E8600.
The test bench was based on the Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard, which left a double impression on itself. Incorrect operation with the TurboV utility left only negative emotions, but overall the performance of this motherboard is at a good level.
Test bench (LGA1156):
Intel Core i5 660 processor
Zalman cooling CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 3x2048MB CL9 RAM (two memory slots used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 video card
Enermax Revate5050 power supply G
hard drive Revolution50 10 G hard drive 1050 Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS, 7200 rpm.
Test bench (Socket 775):
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 processor
Cooling Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Rampage Extreme motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 3x2048MB CL9 RAM (two memory slots used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 video card
Enermax Revolution 1050W power supply
500 GB hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7218AS 7200.12003535 ST35.
For testing, we used the operating system Windows 7 Ultimate x86 (32 bit), the driver version for the Catalyst 9.12 video card.
Results.
CineBench R10 is a benchmark based on image rendering. All processing load in processing the task goes to the processor. In this test, the winner is the Intel Core i5 660 due to Hyper-Threading, which this benchmark actively uses. The architecture itself, which is undeniably faster, also plays a small role.
No matter what the memory controller Clarkdale is called, comparing it with older models, he manages to overcome the Core 2 Duo E8600 in the Everest application memory read test.
There were no surprises with the recording either. Core i5 660 is a little faster.
The CPU Test of the popular 3DMark 2006 graphics benchmark also gives its laurels to the winner of Intel's latest product. The matter is again in the notorious Hyper-Threading, the support and optimization of which leaves no chance for the E8600.
HAWK is a popular gaming benchmark, well optimized for working with a large number of cores. But even though the Core i5 660 is a little faster, its victory is not so convincing.
FarCry2 changes the balance of power in the fight for the winner's laurels. A game that actively uses cache memory is more supportive of the E8600. Still, 6 MB of cache versus 4 MB of i5 660 do their job.
Crysis - a game that has conquered a large number of people, it is famous for its stringent requirements for iron. Architecture still takes up, albeit with a very meager advantage.
Extreme overclocking of Intel Core i5 660.
Recently, the Internet is full of information about the successful overclocking of processors over 6 GHz. I decided to check this information on my own by cooling the processor with liquid nitrogen.
An important factor affecting overclocking is coldbug. Coldbug - such a temperature of the processor, below which it stops working, and the system stops showing signs of life. So Clarkdale processors are famous for the fact that they have Coldbug at very low temperatures, close to the boiling point of liquid nitrogen -196 degrees Celsius. But at one of the foreign forums devoted to extreme overclocking you can find information that such temperatures are subject only to Evga motherboards. One of the developers of the company shares a secret mod that allows you to stoop to such low temperatures.
In fact, all of the words I listed above turned out to be true. The Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard was down at -80 degrees Celsius. This temperature is not enough to high frequencies.
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=907841 The resigned
frequency is 5528 MHz. The voltage set at the same time in bios was 1.7 V. Well, not the most successful attempt to disperse. Blame should not only the processor instance itself, but also the motherboard. Initially, I planned to overclock the processor with Asus TurboV. But when changing any bios parameter, for example, processor voltage, the system freezes. Therefore, I had to limit myself to bios.
At a frequency of 5477 MHz, we managed to pass the multi-threaded test wPrime 32M. The result is 8.736 seconds.
To pass the long test wPrime 1024M had to go down another 100 MHz. 4 min result 44.232 sec.
Result 43767 3Dmarks - this is the result of 3DMark05. This test was passed at a processor frequency of 5477 MHz, the frequencies of the Radeon HD5970 graphics card were set at 970/1200 MHz, respectively, for the core / memory.
Conclusions.
Impressions of the Intel Core i5 660 processor were very positive. It can be a good choice, both in the home gaming computer and in the media center. At the heart of a powerful working machine, it can also be very easily imagined by adding to it a motherboard based on Inte H55 and H57 chipsets that allow working with the integrated graphics core. At the moment, the price of i5 660, in my opinion, is somewhat overstated. Especially when you consider the fact that Intel is promoting this line in mainstream. Let's hope that over time, prices will stabilize, and modern applications will receive even more optimizations, which will leave the old Intel dual-core systems a lot.
Representatives of Intel at their press conferences constantly repeat it-public about the system "Tick-Tack". The name was chosen as well as possible, and it reflects Intel's real chip manufacturing policy. As we know, Intel processors are usually divided into generations. The Tik-Tak system under review states that Intel devotes two technological processes (two stages) to the development of processors for each generation. The first is the running-in of the new architecture, the so-called "performance boom." When the success of the new generation is consolidated, Intel transfers processors based on the same architecture to a new, finer process technology, thereby winning immediately on several indicators - heat dissipation and overclocking, as well as greater availability and prevalence of the old process technology.
Clarkdale - interesting in that Intel puts it at one of the upper stages in its evolution of processors and chipsets. More recently, we were left without the usual heatsink on the motherboard, cooling the north bridge. Now it is not needed there - the memory controller is integrated into the processor. Following the memory controller, the PCI-E bus controller followed in the brain center of the system. Now in the processor we also get a video card - an integrated graphics core.
The image above shows the Intel Core i5 6xx and Intel H55 from left to right. It is the chipsets with the designation “H” that tell users that they support working with integrated graphics integrated into new Intel processors. Naturally, you can only dream of the crazy performance of the integrated graphics core. Most likely, many people remember the story that circled the entire Internet. The graphics core built into the Intel processor showed very good performance in 3DMark Vantage, beating even discrete low-end solutions. But it was worth renaming the executable file to Vintage (instead of Vantage), as a significant part of the parrots was lost somewhere.
In the line of Clarkdale Intel Core i5 660 takes one of the top positions. An Intel Core i5 661 processor can be considered its analogue, which in its processor characteristics does not differ from the i5 660 at all. But i5 661 has a higher graphic core frequency - 900 MHz versus 733 MHz for i5 660. The heat dissipation level, therefore, due to the lower frequency of the graphic core does not exceed the threshold value of 73W.
It is interesting to compare the new dual-core processors manufactured using the 32 nm process technology with the previous generation of dual-core processors Core, namely with a competitor of equal frequency - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600. The processor, which has gained popularity among many users, can now be beaten. This is exactly what I decided to find out by comparing the Intel Core i5 660 with the Inte Core 2 Duo E8600.
The test bench was based on the Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard, which left a double impression on itself. Incorrect operation with the TurboV utility left only negative emotions, but overall the performance of this motherboard is at a good level.
Test bench (LGA1156):
Intel Core i5 660 processor
Zalman cooling CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 3x2048MB CL9 RAM (two memory slots used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 video card
Enermax Revate5050 power supply G
hard drive Revolution50 10 G hard drive 1050 Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS, 7200 rpm.
Test bench (Socket 775):
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 processor
Cooling Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Rampage Extreme motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 3x2048MB CL9 RAM (two memory slots used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 video card
Enermax Revolution 1050W power supply
500 GB hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7218AS 7200.12003535 ST35.
For testing, we used the operating system Windows 7 Ultimate x86 (32 bit), the driver version for the Catalyst 9.12 video card.
Results.
CineBench R10 is a benchmark based on image rendering. All processing load in processing the task goes to the processor. In this test, the winner is the Intel Core i5 660 due to Hyper-Threading, which this benchmark actively uses. The architecture itself, which is undeniably faster, also plays a small role.
No matter what the memory controller Clarkdale is called, comparing it with older models, he manages to overcome the Core 2 Duo E8600 in the Everest application memory read test.
There were no surprises with the recording either. Core i5 660 is a little faster.
The CPU Test of the popular 3DMark 2006 graphics benchmark also gives its laurels to the winner of Intel's latest product. The matter is again in the notorious Hyper-Threading, the support and optimization of which leaves no chance for the E8600.
HAWK is a popular gaming benchmark, well optimized for working with a large number of cores. But even though the Core i5 660 is a little faster, its victory is not so convincing.
FarCry2 changes the balance of power in the fight for the winner's laurels. A game that actively uses cache memory is more supportive of the E8600. Still, 6 MB of cache versus 4 MB of i5 660 do their job.
Crysis - a game that has conquered a large number of people, it is famous for its stringent requirements for iron. Architecture still takes up, albeit with a very meager advantage.
Extreme overclocking of Intel Core i5 660.
Recently, the Internet is full of information about the successful overclocking of processors over 6 GHz. I decided to check this information on my own by cooling the processor with liquid nitrogen.
An important factor affecting overclocking is coldbug. Coldbug - such a temperature of the processor, below which it stops working, and the system stops showing signs of life. So Clarkdale processors are famous for the fact that they have Coldbug at very low temperatures, close to the boiling point of liquid nitrogen -196 degrees Celsius. But at one of the foreign forums devoted to extreme overclocking you can find information that such temperatures are subject only to Evga motherboards. One of the developers of the company shares a secret mod that allows you to stoop to such low temperatures.
In fact, all of the words I listed above turned out to be true. The Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard was down at -80 degrees Celsius. This temperature is not enough to high frequencies.
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=907841 The resigned
frequency is 5528 MHz. The voltage set at the same time in bios was 1.7 V. Well, not the most successful attempt to disperse. Blame should not only the processor instance itself, but also the motherboard. Initially, I planned to overclock the processor with Asus TurboV. But when changing any bios parameter, for example, processor voltage, the system freezes. Therefore, I had to limit myself to bios.
At a frequency of 5477 MHz, we managed to pass the multi-threaded test wPrime 32M. The result is 8.736 seconds.
To pass the long test wPrime 1024M had to go down another 100 MHz. 4 min result 44.232 sec.
Result 43767 3Dmarks - this is the result of 3DMark05. This test was passed at a processor frequency of 5477 MHz, the frequencies of the Radeon HD5970 graphics card were set at 970/1200 MHz, respectively, for the core / memory.
Conclusions.
Impressions of the Intel Core i5 660 processor were very positive. It can be a good choice, both in the home gaming computer and in the media center. At the heart of a powerful working machine, it can also be very easily imagined by adding to it a motherboard based on Inte H55 and H57 chipsets that allow working with the integrated graphics core. At the moment, the price of i5 660, in my opinion, is somewhat overstated. Especially when you consider the fact that Intel is promoting this line in mainstream. Let's hope that over time, prices will stabilize, and modern applications will receive even more optimizations, which will leave the old Intel dual-core systems a lot.