Intel Core i5 660 processor overview
The LGA1566 processor connector is quietly entering our lives and becoming reality in the computers of many users. With the release of the first Intel processors under the LGA1156, many advanced users have “buried” this connector. Intel's second strike did not make us wait long. Processors have entered the market, which are even cheaper, colder and even better accelerated. We will talk about one of these processors today. Intel Core i5 660 (3.33GHz) is one of the older dual-core 32 nm models of the Intel family, codenamed Clarkdale. The competition Intel Core i5 660 will be Inte Core 2 Duo E8600 (3.33GHz), considered the fastest dual-core architecture Core.
Intel representatives at their press conferences constantly tell it to the public about the Tik-Tak system. The name was chosen as well as possible, and it reflects Intel’s real chip manufacturing policy. As we know, Intel processors can be divided into generations. The considered Tik-Tak system says that Intel, when developing processors for each generation, devotes two technical processes (two stages). The first is a running-in of a new architecture, the so-called “productivity boom”. When the success of the new generation is fixed, Intel transfers the processors based on the same architecture to a new, more subtle technical process, thereby winning several indicators at once - heat generation and overclocking, as well as greater availability and prevalence of the old technical process.
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Clarkdale is interesting because Intel puts it on one of the top steps in its evolution of processors and system logic sets. More recently, we were left without a familiar heatsink on motherboards that cooled the north bridge. Now it is not needed there - the memory controller is integrated into the processor. Following the memory controller in the brain center of the system followed and the controller bus PCI-E. Now, in the processor, we also receive a video card - the integrated graphics core.
The image above shows Intel Core i5 6xx and Intel H55 from left to right. It is the chipsets with the designation “H” that tell users that they support the work with integrated graphics built into the new Intel processors. Naturally, you can only dream of the crazy performance of the integrated graphics core. Probably, many people remember the history of the whole Internet. The graphics core integrated into the Intel processor showed very good performance in 3DMark Vantage, beating even discrete low-end solutions. But it was enough to rename the executable file to Vintage (instead of Vantage), as an essential part of the parrots was lost somewhere.
In the line of Clarkdale Intel Core i5 660 occupies one of the top positions. Its analogue can be considered an Intel Core i5 661 processor, which in terms of its processor characteristics does not differ from the i5 660 at all. But i5 661 has a higher frequency of the graphics core - 900 MHz versus 733 MHz for i5 660. The heat generation level, therefore, due to the lower frequency of the graphics core does not exceed the threshold value of 73W.
New dual-core processors manufactured on the 32nm process technology are interesting to compare with the previous generation of dual-core processors, namely, with a competitor equal in frequency - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600. The processor, which has gained popularity among many users, can now be beaten. This is what I decided to find out by comparing the Intel Core i5 660 with the Inte Core 2 Duo E8600.
The test bench was based on the Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard, which left a double impression on itself. Incorrect work with the TurboV utility left only negative emotions, but overall the performance of this motherboard is at a good level.
Test bench (LGA1156):
Intel Core i5 660 processor
Cooling Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Maximus III Formula Motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 32048MB CL9 RAM (two memory bars were used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 graphics card
Power supply Enermax Revolution 1050W
500 GB hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS, 7200 rpm
Test bench (Socket 775):
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 processor
Cooling Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Rampage Extreme Motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 32048MB CL9 RAM (two memory bars were used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 graphics card
Power supply Enermax Revolution 1050W
500 GB hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS, 7200 rpm
For testing, we used the Windows 7 Ultimate x86 (32 bit) operating system, the driver version for the Catalyst 9.12 video card.
Results.
CineBench R10 is a benchmark based on image rendering. The entire computational load in processing the task is sent to the processor. In this test, the winner goes Intel Core i5 660 due to Hyper-Threading, which this benchmark is actively using. Also, a small role is played by the architecture itself, which is unquestionably faster.
No matter what melee is called the memory controller Clarkdale, comparing it with the older models, he manages to overcome the Core 2 Duo E8600 and in the memory reading test of the Everest application.
C record also no surprises arose. Core i5 660 is a little faster.
CPU Test of the popular graphic benchmark 3DMark 2006 also gives its laurels to the winner of the new Intel product. The matter is again in the notorious Hyper-Threading, the support and optimization of which leaves no chance for the E8600.
HAWK is a popular gaming benchmark, well optimized for working with a large number of cores. But at least Core i5 660 is a bit faster, but its victory is not so convincing.
FarCry2 changes the balance of power in the struggle for the laurels of the winner. A game that actively uses cash memory is more supportive of the E8600. Still, 6 MB cache vs 4 MB i5 660 do their job.
Crysis is a game that has conquered a large number of people, it is famous for its stringent requirements for iron. The architecture still takes up, albeit with a very tiny advantage.
Extreme overclocking Intel Core i5 660.
Recently, the Internet is full of information about the successful overclocking of processors over 6 GHz. I decided to verify this information on my own by cooling the processor with liquid nitrogen.
An important factor in overclocking is coldbug. Coldbug - such a temperature of the processor, below which it stops working, and the system stops giving signs of life. So Clarkdale processors are famous for the fact that they have Coldbug at very low temperatures, close to the boiling point of liquid nitrogen -196 degrees Celsius. But at one of the foreign forums dedicated to extreme overclocking you can find information that such temperatures are subject only to Evga motherboards. One of the developers of the company is sharing a secret mode that allows them to drop to such low temperatures.
In fact, all the words I listed above turned out to be true. The motherboard Asus Maximus III Formula lost its performance at a temperature of -80 degrees Celsius. This temperature is not enough to high frequencies.
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=907841
Conquered frequency - 5528 MHz. The voltage exhibited in this case in bios was 1.7 V. Well, not the most successful attempt to disperse. Blame should be not only the copy of the processor itself, but also the motherboard. Initially, I planned to overclock the processor using the Asus TurboV utility. But when changing any bios parameter, for example, processor voltage, the system hung. Therefore, I had to restrict myself to bios.
At a frequency of 5477 MHz, we managed to pass the wPrime 32M multithreaded test. The result obtained - 8,736 seconds.
To pass the long test, the wPrime 1024M had to drop another 100 MHz. Result 4 minutes 44,232 seconds.
The result is 43767 3Dmarks - this is the result of 3DMark05. This test was passed at a frequency of 5477 MHz, the frequencies of the Radeon HD5970 video card were set to 970/1200 MHz, respectively, for the core / memory.
Findings.
Impressions of the processor Intel Core i5 660 remained very positive. It can be a good choice, both in the home gaming computer and in the media center. At the heart of a powerful working machine, it can also be very easily represented by adding to it a motherboard on Inte H55 and H57 chipsets, which allow you to work with the integrated graphics core. At the moment, the price for i5 660, in my opinion, is somewhat overestimated. Especially when you consider the fact that Intel is promoting this line in mainstream. Hopefully, over time, prices will stabilize, and modern applications will get even more optimizations, which will leave the old Intel dual cores not destiny.
Intel representatives at their press conferences constantly tell it to the public about the Tik-Tak system. The name was chosen as well as possible, and it reflects Intel’s real chip manufacturing policy. As we know, Intel processors can be divided into generations. The considered Tik-Tak system says that Intel, when developing processors for each generation, devotes two technical processes (two stages). The first is a running-in of a new architecture, the so-called “productivity boom”. When the success of the new generation is fixed, Intel transfers the processors based on the same architecture to a new, more subtle technical process, thereby winning several indicators at once - heat generation and overclocking, as well as greater availability and prevalence of the old technical process.
')
Clarkdale is interesting because Intel puts it on one of the top steps in its evolution of processors and system logic sets. More recently, we were left without a familiar heatsink on motherboards that cooled the north bridge. Now it is not needed there - the memory controller is integrated into the processor. Following the memory controller in the brain center of the system followed and the controller bus PCI-E. Now, in the processor, we also receive a video card - the integrated graphics core.
The image above shows Intel Core i5 6xx and Intel H55 from left to right. It is the chipsets with the designation “H” that tell users that they support the work with integrated graphics built into the new Intel processors. Naturally, you can only dream of the crazy performance of the integrated graphics core. Probably, many people remember the history of the whole Internet. The graphics core integrated into the Intel processor showed very good performance in 3DMark Vantage, beating even discrete low-end solutions. But it was enough to rename the executable file to Vintage (instead of Vantage), as an essential part of the parrots was lost somewhere.
In the line of Clarkdale Intel Core i5 660 occupies one of the top positions. Its analogue can be considered an Intel Core i5 661 processor, which in terms of its processor characteristics does not differ from the i5 660 at all. But i5 661 has a higher frequency of the graphics core - 900 MHz versus 733 MHz for i5 660. The heat generation level, therefore, due to the lower frequency of the graphics core does not exceed the threshold value of 73W.
New dual-core processors manufactured on the 32nm process technology are interesting to compare with the previous generation of dual-core processors, namely, with a competitor equal in frequency - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600. The processor, which has gained popularity among many users, can now be beaten. This is what I decided to find out by comparing the Intel Core i5 660 with the Inte Core 2 Duo E8600.
The test bench was based on the Asus Maximus III Formula motherboard, which left a double impression on itself. Incorrect work with the TurboV utility left only negative emotions, but overall the performance of this motherboard is at a good level.
Test bench (LGA1156):
Intel Core i5 660 processor
Cooling Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Maximus III Formula Motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 32048MB CL9 RAM (two memory bars were used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 graphics card
Power supply Enermax Revolution 1050W
500 GB hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS, 7200 rpm
Test bench (Socket 775):
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 processor
Cooling Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Asus Rampage Extreme Motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX2000C9D3T1K3 / 6GX 32048MB CL9 RAM (two memory bars were used)
AMD Radeon HD4890 graphics card
Power supply Enermax Revolution 1050W
500 GB hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS, 7200 rpm
For testing, we used the Windows 7 Ultimate x86 (32 bit) operating system, the driver version for the Catalyst 9.12 video card.
Results.
CineBench R10 is a benchmark based on image rendering. The entire computational load in processing the task is sent to the processor. In this test, the winner goes Intel Core i5 660 due to Hyper-Threading, which this benchmark is actively using. Also, a small role is played by the architecture itself, which is unquestionably faster.
No matter what melee is called the memory controller Clarkdale, comparing it with the older models, he manages to overcome the Core 2 Duo E8600 and in the memory reading test of the Everest application.
C record also no surprises arose. Core i5 660 is a little faster.
CPU Test of the popular graphic benchmark 3DMark 2006 also gives its laurels to the winner of the new Intel product. The matter is again in the notorious Hyper-Threading, the support and optimization of which leaves no chance for the E8600.
HAWK is a popular gaming benchmark, well optimized for working with a large number of cores. But at least Core i5 660 is a bit faster, but its victory is not so convincing.
FarCry2 changes the balance of power in the struggle for the laurels of the winner. A game that actively uses cash memory is more supportive of the E8600. Still, 6 MB cache vs 4 MB i5 660 do their job.
Crysis is a game that has conquered a large number of people, it is famous for its stringent requirements for iron. The architecture still takes up, albeit with a very tiny advantage.
Extreme overclocking Intel Core i5 660.
Recently, the Internet is full of information about the successful overclocking of processors over 6 GHz. I decided to verify this information on my own by cooling the processor with liquid nitrogen.
An important factor in overclocking is coldbug. Coldbug - such a temperature of the processor, below which it stops working, and the system stops giving signs of life. So Clarkdale processors are famous for the fact that they have Coldbug at very low temperatures, close to the boiling point of liquid nitrogen -196 degrees Celsius. But at one of the foreign forums dedicated to extreme overclocking you can find information that such temperatures are subject only to Evga motherboards. One of the developers of the company is sharing a secret mode that allows them to drop to such low temperatures.
In fact, all the words I listed above turned out to be true. The motherboard Asus Maximus III Formula lost its performance at a temperature of -80 degrees Celsius. This temperature is not enough to high frequencies.
valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=907841
Conquered frequency - 5528 MHz. The voltage exhibited in this case in bios was 1.7 V. Well, not the most successful attempt to disperse. Blame should be not only the copy of the processor itself, but also the motherboard. Initially, I planned to overclock the processor using the Asus TurboV utility. But when changing any bios parameter, for example, processor voltage, the system hung. Therefore, I had to restrict myself to bios.
At a frequency of 5477 MHz, we managed to pass the wPrime 32M multithreaded test. The result obtained - 8,736 seconds.
To pass the long test, the wPrime 1024M had to drop another 100 MHz. Result 4 minutes 44,232 seconds.
The result is 43767 3Dmarks - this is the result of 3DMark05. This test was passed at a frequency of 5477 MHz, the frequencies of the Radeon HD5970 video card were set to 970/1200 MHz, respectively, for the core / memory.
Findings.
Impressions of the processor Intel Core i5 660 remained very positive. It can be a good choice, both in the home gaming computer and in the media center. At the heart of a powerful working machine, it can also be very easily represented by adding to it a motherboard on Inte H55 and H57 chipsets, which allow you to work with the integrated graphics core. At the moment, the price for i5 660, in my opinion, is somewhat overestimated. Especially when you consider the fact that Intel is promoting this line in mainstream. Hopefully, over time, prices will stabilize, and modern applications will get even more optimizations, which will leave the old Intel dual cores not destiny.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/80731/
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