The Core i7 processor

More resistors inside means a larger die, so the processor socket size has to be increased. Instead of the 775 pins we are used to, we now use 1366 pins for the main component in our system. The Core i7 is actually quite an interesting product from Intel since they've now integrated the memory controller inside the processor, whereas it used to be inside the Northbridge. Also, with the re-introduction of Hyperthreading, users now have 8 threads running instead of the 4 on a regular Core 2 Quad processor. 8 Threads require more memory bandwidth, so Intel also decided to add a third memory channel to feed the 8 threads with all the necessary bandwidth.

As you can hear: a lot of new technology, but how does it scale?


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I believe it doesn't come as a shock to anyone that an increase in raw CPU frequency gives you the best performance increase. In 3D applications, we see that the increase in performance can be upto 75% with an increase of 131% in cpu frequency, which is far from bad. Superpi and Wprime are almost scaling 1:1 with CPU frequency.