Intel put out some numbers to show that Core i7 and Core i5 are viable options and performs better than the older Core 2 Quad.

In a series of five tests (some very old) we see the Lynnfield i5 @ 2.93GHz outperforming the C2Q 9650 @ 3.0GHz by a minimum of 9%.

This is not unexpected as the new CPU has 8 threads per cycle to play with across four cores. But what is a little disturbing is that the i7 950 @ 3.06GHz was not much faster than the i5 @ 2.93GHz and in a couple of tests was actually slower.

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According to Intel, in Sysmark 2007 that should represent business applications a Lynnfield clocked at 2.93GHz with four cores and eight treads is some nine percent faster than the Q9650 3GHz Core 2 Quad. In the same test Core i7 950 clocked at 3.06GHz scores 11 percent better, or some two percent faster than Lynnfield 2.93GHz.

In audio MP3 Encoding, again in rather old iTunes 7.4.3, Lynnfield 2.93GHz is some 14 percent faster than Q9650, while Core i7 950 is 13 percent faster than Q9650, but one percent slower than Lynnfield 2.93GHz.

In HD Video Encoding TMPGEnc Xpress 4.4 test, Lynnfield 2.93GHz is 24 percent faster than Q9650 while Core i7 950 is some 27 percent better than Q9650 and only three percent faster than Lynnfield 2.93 GHz.