Intel Core i7 initial memory limitations

sixer9682

sixer9682

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Sep 29, 2008
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I was reading the specs for the new Intel Core i7 chips coming out on Monday (reportedly), and the DDR3 memory controller in all of the initial chips to be released is limited to 1333mhz. with DIMM voltage topping out at 1.65V.

Tom's hardware was doing comparisons of the new chips with the Yorkdale 9450 and the chips & chipsets (X58) got beat hands down on damn near every application tested and especially in games with a little overclocking of the 9450 and even the core 2 duo 8400.

I just don't see the point in upgrading any time soon in this case. The chips might be faster, but here again the hardware has outpaced the software since current applications and games won't be able to take advantage of the Intel Core i7 features. That plus being limited to DDR3 133-you can keep the Intel Core i7 for now.

Several companies already have DDR3 1600 at 1.5-1.65V out on the market. At least I can use those with my current X48 setup. It just seems like such a dissapointment. So much for seeing real time gains in games or anything.
 
Most games don't take advantage of eight cores. Let alone two cores. You think a new chip would be ahead of the rest the hardware. This could make you spend and upgrade again spending more money in a shorter amount of time.
 
Heck, I'm still finding it difficult to justify upgrading my Opteron 170 which runs at 2.7ghz on DDR1...

From the tests I've seen, the benefits at 1920x1080 are miniscule, especially for dropping $400 on a mobo+CPU+mem.

I think I'll wait even a bit more.

The only coolness would be video transcoding speedups which I do once in a while, but not often at all.
 
To update the original post, I have been reading some more articles and reviews and the MB manufacturers claim they can get higher speeds of memory (beyond 1333) to work with the new processors. Mind you, I have not seen a single review where this actually was shown. I'd be interested to see if they can pull that off.

Still, it seems kind of pointless to upgrade to these chips anytime soon.
 
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