Conclusions

Let us first start with the i7 CPU and X58 Mainboard  from Intel.   The stock level supply of mainboard, CPU and cooler are very good indeed. Some may say very basic, though for stability and reliability then look no further as here DX58SO Smackover has been well smacked over with what we have thrown at it and it still plugs along daily without fail.    Therefore for the first time buyer you do not need to worry about any fancy frilly supporting HSF's, its all there for you.   Intel's own stock CPU cooler gives you 2 options of "quiet" and "performance" for those wishing to push the system that little bit harder then you can with the simple flick of a switch improve the CPU cooling.   The triple channel memory controller most certainly has the required power needed, once more you can insert faster memory.   However, take heed of what the fastest memory speeds Intel do recommend.   The unequivocal evidence shown within todays results just goes to prove how much raw performance is hidden under the hood.  

The need for speed.  Yes its there, as the facts within are indisputable that this is without doubt a much faster CPU and the significant gains are to be seen.  Many though will argue that price is a contributing factor, not so as there is only approximately £45 UKP or €50 Euros difference and when we are shelling out this amount of monies and to gain the ultimate performance output - price should not be a factor.  The beneficial gains with the new i7 3.33GHz CPU are without a doubt - colossal. 

The plethora of benchmarks available in this arena; one could spend all day in producing results if the time permitted, paralysis by analysis!  In order to make this a factual hard hitting article we looked carefully at what the community really needs to see, many now have their own in house tests.  Before moving forward with these in house tests they still rely heavily upon the industries professional benchmarks.   Therefore to recap briefly on the scores from within from both SPEC Viewperf® 10 and Cinebench 10

SPEC Viewperf® 10 Summary

Red is faster in all instances.

Within SPEC Viewperf 10 we see in nearly all instances a major leap forward which is to be expected.  Within certain viewsets the limitations now of the benchmark are becoming obvious and its not long now before we should be seeing the next release of this fabled benchmark.  This in turn means more accurate reporting of both the professional cards and system performance.  

The biggest leap forward today, was that of the SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007.  A wholly huge leap in overall system performance output.  We will be imagining a few champagne corks will be flying at ATI HQ today when they see these final results.  Heaven knows what sort of mind boggling results we could have gained if we had a nice pair of SSD's into Raid 0.  Therefore for now, Western Digital - front and centre.

ATI has worked very hard these past 8 months in maturing their drivers for the FirePro series of cards.  In some areas of today, whilst the CPU has had a huge impact in certain points, others are down to the maturity of the FirePro driver.  Therefore kudos must go to the FirePro driver team for their outstanding achievement.

Today is not ATI's day at the races but Intel's.  Intel has shown with this new CPU that the limits of the bar can be raised very successfully indeed.  The evidence shown today has provided us with a clear insight into how much performance gain the individual and studio can most definitely gain.  Is it all worth you ask.  Then yes would be our answer.   This just could be an answer to many walks of life looking for the ultimate in system performance, maximising complete productivity output - after all that is what we all strive for.

Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - Miscellaneous Tests
Page 3 - Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 Scenes
Page 4 - Professional Benchmarks
Page 5 - Conclusions