Intel i7 870 Performance Test
Conclusion
Once again we see that when games are configured to run at their highest playable settings, the graphics card determines the performance level, often to the point of completely bottlenecking the system. An i5 750 at stock speed is absolutely overkill for the 22 games I tested today.
The settings I used aren’t theoretical or random either; I actually use them when I play these games, in many cases having played them from start to finish. In fact, I recently finished Far Cry 2 for the second time and I logged 60 hours into the game, making sure to explore thoroughly. Getting a GTX480 has given me a huge benefit in that game while the benefit from an i5 750/i7 870 has been slight at best.
A gaming rig should have the fastest graphics card and the biggest monitor with the highest resolution you can afford. Then you should configure your games to their highest playable settings. Every game is different, but it’s definitely worth spending the time tinkering to get things just right.
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Those i7s are nice, intel did good with its last cpus (or maybe amd just disappointed abit?). I used to always recammend people buy amd for value, but with the i3/i5 s intel has pretty darn good value.
Athlon II 640 or i3 530? same differnce.