Intel's Core i7-875K and i5-655K processors review

jmke · 28th May 2010, 15:11

In CPUs, it's good to be king, because the king gets to decide things. If you're not king, you may be able to get away with all sorts of shenanigans, but you ultimately serve at the king's pleasure.

Take, for instance, AMD's recent resurgence in desktop processors. Although Intel has held the overall performance crown in an unbroken run since the introduction of the first Core 2 Duo, AMD has been able to stay on the radar of PC enthusiasts through cunning and guile. When it had no hope of catching up to the fastest Intel chip in a given price range, AMD cooked up its Black Edition processors that removed clock speed caps and made overclocking dead simple—without the huge price premium traditionally commanded by Extreme Edition and FX processors. Even though Intel's CPUs were more attractive by most conventional standards, folks wanting value and performance suddenly had to weigh another variable. When it couldn't keep pace with Intel's quad-core processors using four cores of its own, AMD uncorked the Phenom II X6 and priced it directly opposite Intel's Lynnfield quads. You were quite literally getting more chip for your money from AMD, and the X6's strong value proposition was enough to earn it positive reviews.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18988

28th May 2010, 15:11	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	Intel's Core i7-875K and i5-655K processors review In CPUs, it's good to be king, because the king gets to decide things. If you're not king, you may be able to get away with all sorts of shenanigans, but you ultimately serve at the king's pleasure. Take, for instance, AMD's recent resurgence in desktop processors. Although Intel has held the overall performance crown in an unbroken run since the introduction of the first Core 2 Duo, AMD has been able to stay on the radar of PC enthusiasts through cunning and guile. When it had no hope of catching up to the fastest Intel chip in a given price range, AMD cooked up its Black Edition processors that removed clock speed caps and made overclocking dead simple—without the huge price premium traditionally commanded by Extreme Edition and FX processors. Even though Intel's CPUs were more attractive by most conventional standards, folks wanting value and performance suddenly had to weigh another variable. When it couldn't keep pace with Intel's quad-core processors using four cores of its own, AMD uncorked the Phenom II X6 and priced it directly opposite Intel's Lynnfield quads. You were quite literally getting more chip for your money from AMD, and the X6's strong value proposition was enough to earn it positive reviews. http://techreport.com/articles.x/18988 __________________