The Core i7-870 and Core i5-750 CPUs

Here is a look at the Intel Core i7-870 processor sitting at an idle state on the desktop of our Windows Vista SP2 64-bit test system. Notice that the processor is only running at 1.2 GHz thanks to Intel's SpeedStep technology.  This is key as it will have lower idle power consumption and generate less heat. 

During regular use the Intel Core i7-870 can jump up to the rated clock frequency of 2.93GHz (as shown above) as we had turbo mode disabled.

Here we had Turbo mode enabled and some of the cores were at load, so the Intel Core i7-870 was running at 3.20GHz. The Intel Core i7-870 processor has the ability to go all the way up to 3.6GHz when fully loaded with 5+ threads.

Intel Turbo Boost Technology is very interesting technology and it's impressive to see the core go from 1.2GHz to 3.6GHz depending on the work load that is taking place.

Here is the Core i5-750 processor at an idle state.

Here is the Core i5-750 processor running in a Turbo Boost mode.