Overclocked performance
We're looking at a selection of eight benchmarks and are including the Core i7 930 running at the overclocked settings delineated on the previous page, that is, the chip wafting along at 4,007.9MHz.| HEXUS.PiFast - calculation to 10m places | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 32.49 | 30.11 | 28.92 | 21.45 |
HEXUS.PiFast is 25.8 per cent faster at 4GHz.
| 7-zip v4.65 internal benchmark | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 12622 | 16358 | 16771 | 22507 |
Whilst 7-zip's metric is 34.2 per cent higher.
| wPrime v2.02 multithreaded - 1024M calculation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 378.87 | 318.02 | 298.27 | 218.65 |
Priming runs 26.7 per cent faster.
| CINEBENCH R11.5 - 64-bit - multi-CPU | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 4.01 | 4.78 | 5.03 | 6.83 |
And 35.8 per cent here.
| x264 HD benchmark - pass one | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 71.95 | 65.38 | 68.91 | 91.55 |
| x264 HD benchmark - pass two | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 21.9 | 25.83 | 27.44 | 36.68 |
32.9 per cent and 33.7 per cent faster in the media-encoding test.
| Far Cry 2 - 1,024x768 - medium (DX9) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 147.11 | 154.75 | 159.42 | 183.77 |
| Far Cry 2 - 1,680x1,050 4xAA 16xAF | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 930 OC |
| 83.5 | 81.72 | 81.82 | 83.55 |
15.3 per cent faster in the not-so-practical 1,024x768 test and, tellingly, only 2.1 per cent at decent-quality levels.
Summary
Assuming the application is partial to scaling with frequency, a 4GHz-clocked Core i7 is up to 36 per cent faster than the 2.8GHz (2.93GHz with TB) Core i7 930. That difference is tangible and genuinely worthwhile in most cases.
We know of only one processor which is faster; it returns a x264 HD benchmark metric of 46.1fps for the second pass, easily besting a 4GHz Core i7. You'll have to wait a few days to find out what it is.
