Intel's Latest Six-Core Gulftown Chip Still Breaks the Bank
Intel's Latest Six-Core Gulftown Chip Still Breaks the Bank
Posted 07/19/2010 at 9:18am
| by Paul Lilly
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Let's start off with the good news. Intel's newest six-core chip, the Core i7 970, has started showing up in retail, giving DIY system builders a lower priced option to choose from if sticking with Intel. Ready for the bad news? The price isn't all that much lower.
Newegg is selling the Core i7 970 for $900, just $100 less than the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition. That isn't much of a savings, but then again, you're not giving up a whole lot in terms of specs, either. The new 970 comes clocked at 3.2GHz compared to 3.33GHz on the 980X, and it doesn't have an unlocked multiplier. Otherwise, both chips sport 12MB of L3 cache, a 32nm manufacturing process, 6.4GT/s QPI, a 130W TDP, and of course six processor cores.
Will the hundred dollar price break matter? We have our doubts, and Intel could have made the 970 a more compelling option by pricing it at $750 or $800. As it stands, the decision to roll six-core comes down to paying a hefty premium for unrivaled performance (Intel), or saving a bundle for a less potent architecture (AMD).
Anyone feel compelled by the Core i7 970's price point?
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Machinia
July 20, 2010 at 10:31am
I just bought a mobo, 6 core Phenom, 8GB of ram and a 4890 for less than the price as that chip. I'm just a poor gamer, I can't afford to blow that much on a single component.
kdainxtreem
July 20, 2010 at 6:46am
Still too rich for my blood AMD much more attractive for 6core. If you can spend $900 on the proc why not just spend 1k and get the unlocked part? Makes no sense IMO.
sealeraph
July 19, 2010 at 12:08pm
If I am not mistaken the i7-970 has a QPI of 4.8
as quoted on Intel's own website
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/corei7/sb/CS-029906.htm
Also, what about the L2 ? The i7-980X states 6 x 256kb. Does the i7-970 even have L2 ?
Baer
July 19, 2010 at 11:21am
I do not think that the $100 lower price will make much of a difference. I am running an OCed 920 and it performs freat. I would go with a 6 core but as was written, the price would have to be in the $750 range however. If I were going to pay $900 I may as well pay $1K.
i7 920 DO @ 3.64, Asus Rampage II, Vertex 2 SSD boot and OS, 2 V-Raptors in RAID-0 programs, 1 Tb RE3 Data, GTX 285 OCE driving 2 24" Samsung 244T's, 12 Gb Dominator GT, 1 KW Corsair GTX, Asus Xonar D2X, Optical drives Etc.
quickone
July 19, 2010 at 10:48am
One won't see the difference between .13 GHz except in benchmarks anyway, you're only getting the unlocked multiplier but considering the people who are going to be buying these that might be worth it,
~~The difference between insanity and genius is merely succes~~
Remoth
July 19, 2010 at 9:59pm
This severely disappointed me... I was really hoping for a 2.66 ghz locked version down around $500... Somehow I knew intel would do this, but you cant blame a guy for hoping.... I really dont suggest intel to anyone anymore unless they have a crazy budget for the best of the best.
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