Hardware Intel Core i7-970 CPU Review

That's how it usually works yes, but this is just a stepped down version of the 980X without the Extreme Edition frills. The problem is that it's almost the same price, yet nowhere near as good.

 

One retailer in the US was selling the 980X last week for only $799

 

Sweet, I hope you bought three and sold the other two on ebay?

 

And there's a UK seller selling the 980X new for £659 he's sold 3 so far.

 

Clearly Intel doesn't want to sell too many of these chips and kill their quadcore market. Untill they have shifted those 45nm quads and found a new use for those production lines, there won't be a 6-core under this pricepoint.

 

at such a price its probably refurb chips or some other scam. Just go by the good old too good to be true rule...

As for the 970, fail on intels side with the price, worse, we even know they can do better, just look at the I5 760.

 

Nope its brand new oem and deff not a scam as me and some mate's have bought from him in the past.

 

Who.. in their right mind, is going to pay £700+ on a CPU, then say "Should I pay another £85 for an unlocked version?.... nah... I'd much rather have my £85"? LOL Ain't gonna happen. If I was in the market for a CPU of that price, I'd be mental to not get the EE. I mean.. why not?

I don't see the point of this chip.

 

Lets face it Intel will get the message and drop the price v. quickly. They aren't going to be stupid and try to flog a dead horse... Still I wouldn't pay more than 300.00GBP for a 6-core core i7. I'm still glad I got one of those Core i7 920 retail 'grey imports' for 180.00GBP recently...

 

I'm almost getting 980X, but what about the 990X ?

Any better ETA around?

 

Odd that they didn't lower the price.

Guess they didn't want the rest of their range to be better value..

 

simple facts are clearly being missed.

intel produce gulftown chips

gulftown up until now has been marked as extreme editions

cpu manufacturers speed bin chips.

therefore the lower binned parts are not being labled as 980x and instead are being marked as locked multi 970 cpus

this is the reason they dont overclock as well.

on the flipside to this, there is the other argument from a current 970 user...

bit techs overclocking and review methodology is questionable.

i have a 970 sample at the moment that does 4.2 easily with 2000mhz memory. if you are going to say a chip is rubbish because it doesnt clock, then at least try three different cpus rather than base your whole opinion and review on the clocking ability of one cpu

the 970 has a multi of 25
pair that with a 200bclk motherboard and that gives you 5ghz

take a look at this picture


oh wait, that is a 970 doing the exact same as the 980x you tested.
yes the 970 needs a little more voltage than most 980x chips
you obviously have a duffer

good work bit tech

 

rjkoneill - given that you've bought an i7-970 and a GTX 480 you obviously have a history of buying the wrong product, but heh ho, that's your choice.

As to this particular review:

We tested an i7-970, reported its stock speed performance, found it wouldn't overclock as well as any of our i7-980X EEs and found that at higher voltages it overheated and throttled.

Therefore, given that (percentage wise) it's barely cheaper than the i7-980X EE, we don't recommend it.

All of which the review says.

Case closed

 

For Lord's sake, hands up how many have the money to buy one? Intel is a greed obsessed company, always has been, always will be. Prices will drop when Intel is dragged kicking and screaming by AMD; when Intel feels it's either drop prices, or bleed market share.
Gulftown is cheaper then all of Intel's line-up, [save the kludge that is Clarkdale.]
they are just taking the proverbial. Still, with the resurgance of AMD with Thurban, price cuts in some of Intel's range must be very near.

 

I really want to know, why haven't intel released a Gultown that's cheaper?

 

Well, 'cos they think that don't have to. It's a little to a lot faster then a thurban, so Intel will just pocket the massive, and I do mean massive profit level. If people are frankly stupid enough to pay this kind of price, Intel is very happy to rob them.

 

My guess is Intel had a load of mediocre Gulftown parts that didn't meet quality control for the 980X, so they're selling them rather than leaving them sat in a warehouse somewhere. They're not really fussed though; the reputation of the 980X and the integrity of the quad-core market are far more important than the pocket change they can make from selling "Club EE" rejects. Setting the price this high ensures no interference with other market sectors but still allows them to make a bit of cash; some will sell despite the terrible value for money this CPU currently offers.

 

Well it looks like AMD simply can't match intel with regards to their latest 6-core processors (Phenom II). Guess we'll just have to wait till the price of the 980 comes down. Personally I will not budge until it goes below £500.

 

Being an owner of this processor, which by the way easily overclocked to 4.3ghz, and I pushed it to 4.5, just need to tweak it a little more, I would argue that instead of this "under performing" that this review is just that.. "under performing."

An overclocked system is only as good as the components that make it up. A crappy motherboard, generally doesn't do that well. Currently @ 4.312 ghz, x25 multiplier, 172 Base clock. They raised it to 200 and failed miserably @ 180 base clock, it puts me at 4.512 ghz, memory just around 2133 (which the memory is rated for, that helps.) I had to utilize the board's full power calibration.

System Specs:
CPU: i7-970 @ 4.3ghz (O.C)
Ram: 12gb(3x4gb) DDR3 2133 (O.C.) Triple Channel
MB: Asus Rampage III Extreme <--- Tops out Gigabyte boards.
Cooler: Corsair H70 (CPU runs under a full load @ 58c, idle 38c.)

Just a bad review, it happens. Performance speaks otherwise. Image showing clock speed, temps, super pi.

 

Update to previous post.. used the wrong image! Same system running @ 4.5ghz. Found that a little boost in power to the controllers boosted system stability.