Core i7 960 vs i5 2500

[IronByte]

I’m getting ready to upgrade my home built PC, specifically CPU and mobo. I plan to keep most of my other components including my video card which is a 9800 GTX+. After a little research I settled on the Core i7 960 for its price and performance (~$300 and passmark 6688. Then I noticed the i5 2500 with an almost identical passmark of 6521 but $90 cheaper. Before this I thought the i7 was superior to the i5. Comparing the specs on Intel’s website, some of the differences are that the i5 has many video and graphics capabilities that the i7 does not, and the i7 supports Hyper Threading which the i5 does not, among others.

So, the question is this; Are the similar bench marks due mainly to the Integrated graphics and video capabilities of the i5? I thought the video card capabilities was the true indication of graphics performance. How does the i5 new technology affect real world performance?

Bottom line, all else being equal, am I really going to get the same performance out of either chip?

[David (PassMark)]

The CPU benchmarks don't look at any video card functionality.

Intel's CPU naming is a mess. And only getting messier.

Some of the new i5's are in fact better than the slightly older i7's.

The new i5's and i7's are part of the Sandy Bridge range.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge
But the only compatible motherboards had a fault and were recalled. So you might find it hard to buy a machine with a i5 2500 for a few more weeks.

Bottom line, all else being equal, am I really going to get the same performance out of either chip?

It will be similar. But Sandy Bridge will be cheaper, use less power, have some additional features for video editing, and thus would be a better choice, if you can get one.

[IronByte]

Thanks for the info, and the heads-up.