This time I took the fastest CPU from the Core 2 family - the Core 2 Extreme QX 9770. It runs at 3.2 GHz and is the only Core 2 using FSB at 1600 MHz. On the other side I picked the fastest model of the first Core i7 generation - the Core i7-975 Extreme. Bac in 2008/2009 when Nehalem was new, the reviews didn't show much improvement in gaming performance, so let't see how it is today.
All the test scenes are 100% CPU limited. Testing resolution is always 1920x1080 with 16xAF and vsync off. All the videos are recorded using dedicated PC with capture card, there is zero performance impact on the tested CPUs.
CPUs tested:
Core 2 Extreme QX9770 [4C/4T, 3.2 GHz]
Core i7-975 Extreme [4C/8T, 3.46 GHz] http://hw-museum.cz/cpu/480/intel-xeon-w5590
Just a note - I used C2Q9550 overclocked to 3.2 GHz in stead of the real QY9770. And Xeon W5590 instead of the Core i7-975 Extreme. Still, both are identical performance wise, only different name. All core turbo frequency of the i7 is 3.46 GHz, it never runs at the base clock. Core 2 QX9770 has no turbo and runs at fixed frequency of 3.2 GHz.
0:00 Introduction
0:25 Black Mesa
1:40 Call of Duty: World at War
4:07 DiRT Rally
5:56 Rise of the Tomb Raider
7:14 Power consumption
GPU used for all benchmarks - GeForce GTX 1080 (391.35 driver).
The power consumption of the CPUs is measured by my own wattmeter designed for this purpose. It also has interface to integrate the power figures to HWinfo64 and therefore also to MSI Afterburner and RTSS. The whole system power consumption measurement is provided by Corsair RM1000i and HWinfo64.