just how good is the i7 860 chip in imac

[dudeofblokes]

i have read a view reviews there to my new imacs core i7 860 and see its considered a budget i7 model id had thought apple wouldnt have used a budget chip in their high end imac, so how great of a chip is this does it have a budget performance? i have went from a 8-core 2.8 2008 mac pro to this but im very happy with how it looks and its build, minus the missing parts i posted about earlier, and expect a performance dip but is the i7 any good? and is it truly a budget model of the chip

[TMRaven]

Not really budget, but more of a mainstream i7 chip for performance desktops. Most benchmarks will have it performing on par with the first i7 chips Intel first intro'd-- the i7 920s. What it lacks in memory bandwidth it makes up in higher clocks and higher turbo boost bonuses.

It's really powerful anyways, only extreme edition cpus are stronger.

[dudeofblokes]

cheers just trying to understand what exactly i have in my new machine.
thank you

[Hellhammer]

It's pretty similar to 2.93GHz quad core Mac Pro in terms of performance. It's the fastest chip (well there is 870 and 880 but they cost +500$) that can be used in iMac so it's VERY fast. Your Mac Pro might win it in multi-thread performance (when +4 threads are supported) but iMac should win in other things due turbo and better architecture.

[dplxy]

is a good chip
and is not a "budget" i7
is very fast

[dudeofblokes]

im really happy with my purchase and appreciate the information and help from you guys

[johnnyfiive]

im really happy with my purchase and appreciate the information and help from you guys

Might want to change your sig. It's quad core with hyper threading, so 8 threads, not 8 cores. Just letting ya know, congrats on the new purchase!

[Hellhammer]

Might want to change your sig. It's quad core with hyper threading, so 8 threads, not 8 cores. Just letting ya know, congrats on the new purchase!

He has 8-core Mac Pro too I think ;)

i have went from a 8-core 2.8 2008 mac pro
8-core mac pro 2.8ghz,2320gb hdd

[dudeofblokes]

yes i had the 8-core mac pro until about six hours ago