Review: Core i5 7640X

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Jul 12, 2017.

  1. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    In this review we'll show you the performance the 242 USD quad core Core i5 7640X from Intel offers. This 242 USD Kaby Lake-X processor is the the most affordable one for the X299 platform. But witho...

    Review: Core i5 7640X
     
  2. LEGendARY

    LEGendARY New Member

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    Thanks for the review.

    I think Intel is just trying to confuse the market with all these processors ...

    Not gonna work!
     
  3. Ricepudding

    Ricepudding Master Guru

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    If they took of a good 50-70 dollars of this chip, it would make sense about what intel said about a starting chip to get onto the x299 platform... it makes more sense than the 350 dollar i7 thats awkwardly placed anyway.

    Though i am still in the camp of why a quad core is on the HEDT platform
     
  4. joshk

    joshk Active Member

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    This is going more and more hilarious.Now i am waiting for i3 hedt.It is like buying 2k$ Armani suit and 2$ "starting" chinese shoes.WTF?
     

  5. Kaarme

    Kaarme Ancient Guru

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    I'll never understand that "starting chip" thing in the first place. Does somebody actually start to build a HEDT dream machine, and then suddenly run out of money when they are buying the most essential part of all, the CPU? If you haven't got the money, save a little longer. Good luck trying to sell this stupid chip to someone when you are finally ready to get a real HEDT processor. How much loss would you need to swallow that could have been used sensibly elsewhere?

    The only tiny sense would lie in somebody ending up with an X299 mobo dirt cheap, likely secondhand. Needing a CPU for it to have a whole machine, but the person would have absolutely no need for a HEDT PC, so this CPU would be perfect for reading emails, writing documents, touching photos, and browsing the net.
     
  6. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    The whole platform is a mess, seriously.
     
  7. Guru3dreader

    Guru3dreader Member

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    I am puzzled with the "Guru3D recommended" badge in the end of the article. I could understand or maybe swallow the 7740X being recommended, but this? On a 299 platform? The conclusion does try to explain the problems with this processor on this ultra expensive platform in 2017, but I think the "Guru3D recommended" badge is more like the minimum badge an Intel hardware is allowed to get.

    Don't get me wrong. I don't say that Guru3D is Intel friendly here. I think it's more of a matter of psychology and the inability to persuade ourselves to give low grade to Intel hardware, especially a processor after so many years of Intel dominance. I would had the same problem doing this review.

    The 7640K can be considered a first step in the X299 platform with the thought of upgrading in 2-3 years. But in reality it makes no sense. It takes only seconds to realize that this idea is the wrong idea. Even if we ignore the existence of Ryzen, someone can go and buy a 7700K and a 1151 motherboard for probably much less than the 7640K and a X299 motherboard. In two years there could be 8-10 cores on mainstream Intel platform (we already know that Coffee will have 6 cores), or just better Ryzen options. It makes no sense to pay $200 or more in front, just so you can upgrade by just changing the processor instead of going for a more modern CPU+mobo combination. I could understand the recommendation if X299 was using DDR5 for example and DDR4 was becoming old news next year, but right now, it makes no sense.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2017
  8. Raider0001

    Raider0001 Master Guru

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    There might be something wrong with the "Corona Ray Tracing" scores specifically i5 6600k score, according to what i'm seeing it did worse (6.49) than my 6600 non k running DDR3
    look
    [​IMG]
     
  9. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    You are absolutely right in thinking that. In the end though, this is a processor review and not platform or mobo review.

    The 7640x is by all means not a bad proc. Contrary, it gives great game perf, offers good single threaded perf, is showing good temps and can be tweaked really well. So as a processor I can recommend it (despite the fact that I feel hexa and octa cores are the new quads). So that is why I feel it deserves a recommended award. But purely as proc.

    As a processor within this platform however, well I find it to be a puzzling mess. And that I mentioned rather clearly in the conclusion. But sure, I hear and can understand what you are saying.


     
  10. Robbo9999

    Robbo9999 Ancient Guru

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    Wow, this processor makes EVEN less sense than the i7-7740X - didn't think that was ever gonna be possible! Ha!
     

  11. The Edge

    The Edge Active Member

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    Can someone explain to me how does the 6950X gets such a high FPS in games when its max frequency is only 3,5 GHz ? How is that CPU beating much higher clocked Intels ?
     
  12. rl66

    rl66 Ancient Guru

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    on other hand i have been in armani with flip-flop shoes :)

    but yes i am with you on this point.

    On high end, intel used to have some "extra" on their entry level processor, extra lanes or memory channel over the equivalent on mainstream chipset...

    But here you have nothing... why not a celeron with single core and single memory channel then???

    At a point doing less for reducing price may discredit the quality of the 2066 that will seem too expensive compared to Z270 with I5k for the same (or less) performance...

    Personaly i pass this 2066 and stay in 2011 v3 for now.
     
  13. Crazy Serb

    Crazy Serb Master Guru

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    I think we need some kind of "wrong platform badge" as well.
    Even if CPU is good enough, it does not mean it is made for suitable platform. You still need that expensive motherboard (half of MoBo?!).
     
  14. rl66

    rl66 Ancient Guru

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    because the clock is only to compare CPU fom same fork and brand...
    the architecture, the instruction set, the chipset, the GPU... all of that matter.

    Exemples:
    on intel 775 the Pentium D at 3.4Mhz (800$ lol) were outperformed by the core2 at 2.0Mhz (150$)

    other exemple on other way on G3258 once OC were faster in game than entry i3 despite the HT and extra instruction set.
     
  15. labidas

    labidas Guest

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    change in cache size? the 7xxx series has things changed a bit.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2017

  16. wantobe

    wantobe Member Guru

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    Sorry, just can't see why this CPU is Recommended, performance - single core is where it should be in 2017 and in the rest of the graphs its below average for not a good value at all and no integrated graphics. In my opinion lasting value of this CPU is very bad. Also 6600K did not have a recommended badge. Anyway, as always thank you for the information!
     
  17. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

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    This and the 7740X must be the most pointless cpus i have ever seen in my life!!! No point in buying this kind of cpus in such an expensive platform.
     
  18. Raplapla

    Raplapla Member

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    I agree that the recommended badge is a bit strange, because for the total 517€ (looking at prices on the French store topachat.com) for a Core i5 7640X + mobo, you can get instead a Ryzen 1600X + Asus PRIME A320M-K for only 340€, and the 1600X is better or much better than the i5 in all non-synthetic non-game benchmarks, and only slightly worse or equal in all games benchmarks!

    The difference in motherboard prices is amazing: 70€ for the A320 chipset (AMD), 244€ for X299 (Intel)! (I took the cheapest mobo available in both cases.) I don’t know what the difference is between A320, B350 and X370 chipsets, but even taking a Gigabyte AORUS AX370-Gaming K3 at 155€ only brings the price up to 425€, still much cheaper than the Intel offering.

    One thing the i5 has going for it is power consumption: the 1600X is using about 40W more at full load, and 8W more at idle based on guru3d reviews. (Counting 14 hours of idle and 2 hours at full load per day, that would amount to 8 additional euros of electricity bill per year where I live.)

    That said, thank you for insisting in the article on the fact that Intel likes to milk their customers by changing their sockets/chipsets often. I’m happy with my current i5, but my next CPU will most likely be AMD!
     
  19. RzrTrek

    RzrTrek Guest

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    AMD may indeed provide the regular user with far more value for the money (often twice or more), but when was the last time they made anything reliable?
     
  20. Kaarme

    Kaarme Ancient Guru

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    When was the last time Intel made anything reliable? When was the last time anything in the whole computer world was entirely reliable? Such a time never existed in the first place. If you want something reliable, go to a decent hardware store and buy a quality hammer and axe, for real HEDT, get a solid anvil as well! They are simple enough to be reliable, with thousands of years of history. Although even they will deform and wear out after years and decades of use.
     

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