New Features in Intel® Core™ i7 Processors

¹ "Meet the 100+ club" is based on SPECint_rate_base2006* scores. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance.

β SPECint*_rate_base2006 and SPECfp*_rate_base2006 are capacity-based metrics used to measure throughput of a computer that is performing a number of tasks. This is achieved by running multiple copies of each benchmark simultaneously with the number of copies set to set to the number of logical hardware cores seen by the operating system. SPEC* CPU2006 provides a comparative measure of compute intensive performance across the widest practical range of hardware. The product consists of source code benchmarks that are developed from real user applications. These benchmarks depend on the processor, memory and compiler on the tested system. SPEC, SPECint, SPECfp, SPECrate are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. For more information go to: www.spec.org/spec/trademarks.html.

Φ SiSoftware Sandra* 2009 (System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is a diagnostics utility and synthetic benchmark test suite that includes several tests for measuring the performance of the processor, video adapter, memory controller and on-board devices. We use Sandra 2009 to measure memory bandwidth performance.

Δ POV-Ray* is a high-quality, freely available ray-tracing software package. The workload used here is the built in benchmark test included by the POV-Ray developers to evaluate total system performance using all of POV-Ray's features and is available for download at www.povray.org/download/benchmark.php. Sample scenes should not be used to benchmark POV-Ray because the sample scenes were written to debug the software and often only utilize part of the rendering features.

Θ Autodesk 3DS Max* 2009 allows users to perform animation modeling, rendering and design visualization. The workload consists of a scene of a Dragon_Character_Rig.max rendered at 1920x1080. One frame is rendered. The render options set are atmospherics, effects and displacement. The advanced lighting options are also set.

Σ Cinebench* R10 is a benchmark tool used to measure the CPU and graphics capability for 3D rendering. The scenes use cpu-intensive features such as reflection, ambient occlusion, area lights and procedural shaders. The results shown are based on running the multi-core CPU rendering test.

Warning: Altering clock frequency and/or voltage may: (i) reduce system stability and useful life of the system, processor and other system components; (ii) cause the processor and other system components to fail; (iii) cause reductions in system performance; (iv) cause additional heat or other damage; and (v) affect system data integrity. Intel has not tested, and does not warranty, the operation of the processor beyond its specifications. Intel has not tested, and does not warranty, the operation of other system components beyond their industry standard specifications. Intel assumes no responsibility that the processor and other system components, including if used with altered clock frequencies and/or voltages, will be fit for any particular purpose.

Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel® products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Buyers should consult other sources of information to evaluate the performance of systems or components they are considering purchasing. For more information on performance tests and on the performance of Intel products, visit www.intel.com/performance/resources/benchmark_limitations.htm.

Relative performance for each benchmark is calculated by taking the actual benchmark result for the first platform tested and assigning it a value of 1.0 as a baseline. Relative performance for the remaining platforms tested was calculated by dividing the actual benchmark result for the baseline platform into each of the specific benchmark results of each of the other platforms and assigning them a relative performance number that correlates with the performance improvements reported.