High-Performing Notebook and Desktop Processors Arrive Near First Anniversary of Award-Winning Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture
SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 16, 2007 – Addressing demand for even faster laptop computers for hardcore gamers, artists and media enthusiasts, Intel Corporation today introduced its first Intel® Core™2 Extreme mobile dual-core processor -- the world's highest-performing mobile processor1 -- adopting the brand from the company's flagship desktop offerings. The company also introduced new desktop processors and said it expects to announce battery-friendly quad-core processors for laptop computers next year.
The new products come on the heels of the company's 1-year anniversary of introducing server, desktop and laptop processors based on the innovative Intel® Core™ microarchitecture.
"Laptops are the fastest-growing computing market segment, and there is increasing demand from those who crave the ultimate in video, gaming and design computing performance yet want the freedom and flexibility that a laptop brings," said Mooly Eden, Intel vice president and general manager, Mobile Platforms Group. "Due to our innovative technology and design capabilities, we can offer world-class, power-smart performance for the most demanding mobile users, and are proud to offer it under our Intel Core 2 Extreme brand -- a name that has become synonymous with ultimate performance."
The Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 mobile dual-core processor, with both cores running at a brisk 2.6 GHz, also features mobile-specific power-saving features that help Intel's computer-maker customers deliver more energy-efficient and higher-performing designs. For example, the Intel Core 2 Extreme mobile processor X7800 offers up to 28 percent more performance2 than our previous-generation mobile processor. In addition, for experienced enthusiasts who desire more capability, the Intel Core 2 Extreme mobile processor bus ratio locks (overspeed protection) have been removed3. This offers added technical flexibility in customizing the system so OEMs can unleash even more performance.
Flagship Desktop Processor Introduced
For desktop PCs, Intel is announcing a robust set of new processors, including the flagship Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX6850 quad-core processor. Clocked at 3.0 GHz with a new, faster 1333 MHz system bus speed, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 will be welcomed by game developers looking to deliver new features and performance levels. Intel also announced new Intel® Core™2 Duo and Core™2 Quad processors.
"Thanks to the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad core processor, the PC version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter* 2 raises gaming to new heights," said Bo Anderson, CEO, GRIN Development Studio*. "Developed by GRIN and published by Ubisoft*, the game draws upon the power of Intel's next-generation multi-threaded engine to provide amazingly realistic gameplay. Intel's quad-core processor uses one core for physics, one for rendering, one for game logic and one for miscellaneous tasks, which can provide consistently higher and more stable frame rates."
Intel Core Microarchitecture – One Year Later
A year ago this month the company began introducing these innovative and energy-efficient products, and in that year Intel Core microarchitecture and its processors have achieved a number of milestones, including:
Delivering the world's first x86 software-compatible quad-core processor line for servers and PCs, as well as storage and embedded systems. To date, Intel has introduced 14 quad-core processor versions.
Receiving more than 75 independent awards and other accolades from online publications and magazine editors around the world. The full list can be reviewed at www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/core2duo/awards.htm.
Securing nearly half (224) of the 500 top-ranked high-performance computers as measured by the recently announced Top 500 Supercomputers List (www.top500.org).
Doubling the performance of laptops with Intel Core 2 Duo processors while maintaining impressive battery life4.
Paving the way for the biggest change to transistor design in 40 years that will combine the company's 45-nanometer manufacturing process and the next-generation Intel® Core™2 and Intel® Xeon® processors.
New Processor Pricing and Availability
The Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 mobile processor, running at 2.6 GHz with 4 MB of L2 cache, is available to OEMs now at a cost of $851. Notebook systems will appear on the market within the next two weeks. The new Intel desktop processors are also shipping to OEMs now, with product available to end users within the next two weeks. Pricing and specifications for the new desktop processors are as follows:
Processor Number of Cores Frequency Front Side Bus (FSB) L2 Cache Price in 1,000-Unit Quantities
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 4 3.0 GHz 1333 MHz 8 MB $999
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 4 2.66 GHz 1066 MHz 8 MB $530
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 2 3.0 GHz 1333 MHz 4 MB $266
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2 2.66 GHz 1333 MHz 4 MB $183
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2 2.33 GHz 1333 MHz 4 MB $163
For more information and high-resolution images, visit the Intel Core™2 Extreme mobile processor press kit at www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/mobile/core2extreme
Looks like better days are coming for the true and faithful FanBoys. The newer products are going to launch earlier than originally sceheduled. It bodes well for those planning an upgrade, or just want to get their hands wet with the latest and greatest. Ready your wallet boys and girls (image from VR-Zone).
Intel has brought forward the launch of Yorkfield Extreme Edition from Q1 2008 to Q4 2007 bringing pressure to AMD Phenom FX slated for launch later this year. Intel has not determined the final clock speed of Yorkfield Extreme Edition but it will be at least 3.33GHz/1333FSB with 2 x 6MB shared L2 cache. Yorkfield and Wolfdale schedule remains unchanged at Q1 2008 and there are 2 SKUs for Yorkfield and 4 SKUs for Wolfdale.
Yeehaw, watch and see how smooth the game play is with the new Penryn-based quad core system. It's like you're watching a movie rather than playing a game, no stall, hiccups, or stutter whatsoever. This platform rocks. The specs is as follows:metro.cl of xs managed to find a link containing numbers to early Penryn benchmarks. If you are wondering how the chip performs, then check it out. From those images in that forum link, I say it's looking good.Ok got this link by MSN,
Here you can see a lot of screenshots, the ones without a CPU-Z by the side, specially Super Pi 1M, take it with a huge grain of salt.
Wow, I feel like I left everything in the world for granted. But really, the past two weeks has been busy with me. Not anything related to my career or in technology, but more focused on my family. Anyway, now that the challenged has passed, I can now go back to my regular posting. So expect some news posting...
I decided to give overclockers.com to see what the usual doomsday predictor (for both A* and I*) have posted on their site. While I am amused with their article, I never really used them as a "factual" source, but hey, I am not saying they are claiming, it's just my "feelings".There's been a lot of bad news about AMD this year, but a lot of people don't want to hear it.
I'm not talking about fanboys, but those who essentially say, "My God, AMD's got to pull through, because if they don't, that would be bad for me!" (OK, they usually say "us" but it boils down to the same thing.)
nordichardware has a scoop on Intel's future chips and other things on the roadmap. The article is not that comprehensive, but it's an interesting one as it gives bits and info on future products from chipzilla. Expand to read the article...Last week Intel held a press event at its main quarter office in Santa Clara, California. Intel displayed its 1 Teraflops chip whose 80 core design has been discussed in earlier reports. Except from the mighty multithreading monster code-named "tera-scale silicon prototype", there was also a lot of talk about power consumption and efficiency. That the performance increase with every generation is a given, but how the power consumption and power efficiency evolves is not as predictable. Intel is continuously working on new technology to improve the efficiency of the circuits, thus lowering the power consumption and it revealed some of its newest progress at the event.
"A prototype of the technology was demonstrated in a PCI Express card with a chip that consumed one-tenth the power of a card with today's chip technology, or 2.7 milliwatts versus 20 to 30 milliwatts. Reducing power consumption is critical, given that using today's technology to power a PCI Express card with a bandwidth of a terabit per second would require 100 watts of energy, Casper said."
The basic idea is that Intel wants every chip to use precisely the amount of power necessary to perform a given task. Intel has been looking at wireless circuits and been able to reduce the power consumption by up to 50% to 70% by shutting off the Wi-Fi circuits when it's not needed.
Over at InformationWeek there is a longer report on Intel's press event where they also bring up the UMPC concept and other ventures.
Conclusions
On all our tests Core 2 Duo E6750 performance was identical to Core 2 Duo E6700, even though it uses a faster front side bus – and we simulated the use of several different types of application.
So what is the advantage of using a Core 2 Duo E6750 instead of a Core 2 Duo E6700? Based on the results from our tests, none.
Then why Intel is launching this new 1,333 MHz external bus? We have two answers for that.
First, on quad-core CPUs the higher external clock rate may increase the system performance. This happens because currently on Intel quad-core CPUs the cores are arranged into two pairs. The cores inside each pair can talk directly to each other, but if they need to talk to a core that belongs to the other pair they need to go to the front side bus and make this connection going thru outside the processor. Increasing the CPU external clock rate increases, at least in theory, the speed each core pair can talk to each other. For a detailed explanation about this subject please read our Intel Quad Core Overview and Roadmap article.
We will have to wait until we review a quad-core CPU based on this new FSB to see if this is really the case.
The second reason we can see is regarding DDR3-1333 memories, which will be supported by the Intel X38 chipset to be launched in July. Using DDR3-1333 memories with a Core 2 running externally at 1,333 MHz you will be able to match the FSB clock with the memory clock, allowing you to achieve the maximum performance with current technology.
In retrospect we must keep in mind that this is the first time in six years that Intel is launching a new front side bus speed with memories matching it. When the Pentium 4 was launched, for example, it used the then-new 400 MHz FSB and there were no 400 MHz memories at the time – this was PC-100 times and DDR-400 wasn’t available yet. The same thing happened when they launched the 533 MHz, the 800 MHz and even the 1,066 MHz external clock speeds. Even to this date Intel chipsets do not officially support DDR2-1066 (even though Intel P965 and P35 can access memories at 1,066 MHz just fine and P35 officially support DDR3-1066). DDR3-1333 availability may be an issue, but that is a totally different story.
xbitlabs has a pretty good info on the new breed of processors from Intel. They have put it thru the test and come out good even with a sound beating and torture from the crew. Check it out...Conclusion
Well, let’s sum up a few things now. Intel’s decision to equip their Core 2 Duo processors with faster 1333MHz bus support is regarded as another move towards higher performance of this processor family. It is partially true. As we have seen today, higher bus speed will obviously boost the performance in most applications. However, unfortunately, this boost will not be as significant as we hoped: it hardly ever gets beyond 3%. But, the changes in the bus frequency are not the only thing that determined the advantage of the new CPUs over their predecessors: different clock frequencies are another reason. For example, the nominal frequency of the top Core 2 Duo E6850 model has now risen to 3.0GHz, while before today the maximum frequency of the existing Core 2 Duo processors used to be only 2.93GHz. This also affects the performance, and together with the faster bus it brings in more confident victory of the top Core 2 Duo CPUs. In other words, the launch of the Core 2 Duo CPUs with 1333MHz bus will become another part of the progress CPUs on Core micro-architecture are making. Although we all wish that they were moving at a little bit faster pace towards the promising Penryn family.
Higher bus frequency is not the only nice thing about the new processors. They are based on the new G0 stepping of the Conroe core that boasts better frequency potential. As a result, the FSB Wall has been pushed farther back and the overclocking results have improved significantly. For example, our overclocking experiments revealed that the new processors can work at 3.6-3.8GHz with traditional air-cooling onboard. Therefore, Core 2 Duo E6850, 6750 and 6550 should become very popular among overclockers, especially since Intel is going to price them very affordably. According to the preliminary data, Core 2 Duo E6850 will sell for $266, Core 2 Duo E6750 - for $183, and Core 2 Duo E6550 – for $163. This attractive price tag will certainly help Intel stimulate the transition to systems with 1333MHz bus.
madshrimps has posted a review of a "relatively" old board. After reading it, I felt that it wasn't about the baord itself but more on the overclocking side of things. I kinda agree with the author about the Dewar + LN2 thing, as this seems to be the most common way to proclaim leetness nowadays. Am I against it? Definitely not, but I am not as excited as before, when I really have to dig out all the crazy mods and stuff like that. Anyway, check it out and sorry for the rant..Conclusive Thoughts:
The P5W DH Deluxe will most likely be retired with honors as an Asus classic. Unfortunately we cannot do much about the boot-strap issue except to try and work with it. With the price of DDR2 4GB kits such as GSkill 2x2GB DDR2-667 for $199 Newegg (CL4-4-4-12 @ 1.8 ~ 19V) this would make for a powerful Gaming system in Crossfire mode, or a great little Server with WiFi and the EZ-RAID back-up. Although reading through the Xtremesystems thread indicates some P5W DH owners have misdirected their dissatisfaction towards Asus, sadly they seem unaware Asus cannot re-design the 975X. Lest we forget this chipset was originally released in 2005 and if any company would find a work-around Asus would given the 865PE pseudo-PAT debacle. When I began this article I wasn't sure where it would lead me and I thought 400FSB was my limit on this board. To see 445FSB performance and then 460FSB + potential I can only hope those frustrated P5W DH owners will go back to the BIOS and try again.
As I stated earlier 8300MB/s is the highest I can recall overclocking any Intel system lately and while it’s not up there with the “Big Boys”, so what. Anyone can buy the most expensive hardware and then break records; I don’t recall the Art of Overclocking ever being about that. Overclocking used to be a community of DIY hobbyists whom aided one another to get more from less. What happened? I can pour LN2 over my head and proclaim to be COOL, all it costs is the price of a Dewar. Although the P5W DH is still fetching a premium price ( $199 at Newegg) the P5W DH still has much to offer and I hope this review has shown just how much. We ran our E6400 at 445FSB passing all benchmarks and this system has been running for 14-days straight at that speed Gaming, multitasking and running SETI BIONIC without incident.
Hmm, I don't know why but I forgot posting it here, wanting to ask for your feedback. But I guess the movie didn't struck me as strong as the previous two.How the title says:
Celeron 430 @ 3ghz vs FX-57 @ 3160mhz
Cinebench
Celeron 430 -> 473
FX-57 -> 435
TGDaily (I know, I have THG's image) posted an interesting article about supercomputing, and Intel. I still have yet to fully digest what the article is, but it delves mostly about multi-threaded programming, and of course, multi-core computing. Expand to read and excerpt of the article and visit their site for the full scoop...Quietly but surely, we are heading into a new computing era that will bring one of the most dramatic changes the IT industry has seen. Acceleration technologies will inject lots of horsepower into the CPU, increasing the performance capability of the microprocessor not just by 10 or 20%, but in some cases by up to 100x. These new technologies, which are expected to become widely available through heterogeneous multi-core processors, create challenges for software developers – but Intel claims to have found a way to make the transition easy.
A friend sent me a very nice modding artwork for a Dell* LCD. I know I wouldn't do anything something close to that as I am: terribly bad with art, I don't have the guts to do it, and I don't even have the money to buy myself such a nice monitor. Anyway, check out the site, as they have a very neat documentation on how they did it:The Steampunk Keyboard looked terribly anachronistic sitting in front of my Dell 1907FP flat panel monitor and while I hesitated to tear open a $300 monitor that was still under warantee, art must be served.
The folks over at FrostyTech busy themselves with a new Asus heatsink. I really like the heatsink, well, the looks is a killer. The reviewer found the cooler performs well, though it is not the king when it comes to bringing the lowest temperature in their own database. Expand to read out an excerpt of their article...Ultimately the Asus Arctic Square heatsink is a good lower noise thermal solution with the capability of handling higher heat loads from modern day multi-core processors, or for adequately cooling single core chips from either AMD or Intel. Its bulky shape may prevent it from being used with some motherboards that have large heatsinks mounted to the MOSFETs or northbridge, but otherwise the Asus Arctic Square heatsink is easily recommendable.
It's a bit late to post this, but still very interesting newbits. Over at JPR, they have a table that shows the MSS of Intel vs AMD head-to-head. In Q3'05, AMD is steadily gaining MSS at this segment, from 6.6% to 13.3% on Q2'06. But on Q1'07, AMD's MSS is reduced to 8% and Intel enjoys 92% of the MSS. Expand to read the full story..EDITOR'S NOTE: Excerpts from the JPR Workstation Report and expert interviews are available on request.
AMD’s presence in workstations plummets in Q1’07, reports Jon Peddie Research
TIBURON, Calif—June 13, 2007—Times change, and they can change fast. As 2006 began, Intel’s Xeon was in a tailspin, while AMD’s Opteron could do no wrong. In the robust market for workstations, the roles have since reversed, with first quarter results reported from Jon Peddie Research showing Xeon has grabbed back much of the share it had lost to Opteron.
The workstation market remains strong
Overall, the workstation market continues to pleasantly surprise. As expected, quarterly growth rates have subsided a bit from the 25% to 35% increases (year-to-year) JPR had seen in late ’05 and early ’06, but they remain strong. All told, the industry shipped 674 thousand workstatioßns in the first quarter of 2007, up 15.2% over the same quarter of 2006. ASPs held flat, allowing revenue to also increase a healthy 15% to around $1.7 billion.
Intel stealing back the share it had lost
In workstations, Opteron had been steadily draining share from Intel’s Xeon, peaking at over 13% of dual-socket platforms for Windows-compatible workstations in Q2’06. But Q2’06 not only market the peak of Opteron’s incursion, it marked the beginning of a significant fall. JPR reports that in Q1’07, AMD’s share of the dual-socket capable segment (where Opteron was strongest) didn’t simply flattten but actually dropped by over 50% year-to-year.
Vendor
Q3CY05
Q4CY05
Q1CY06
Q2CY06
Q3CY06
Q4CY06
Q1CY07
Xeon
93.4%
90.9%
87.6%
86.7%
89.1%
88.9%
92.0%
Opteron
6.6%
9.1%
12.4%
13.3%
10.9%
11.1%
8.0%
Table 1. Xeon vs. Opteron in market for dual-socket, Windows-compatible workstations
“We’d expected AMD’s share to moderate or level off by the time Intel improved its dual-socket Xeon platform in mid ’06, but we hadn’t anticipated the decline we’ve seen,” commented analyst and JPR Workstation Report author Alex Herrera. “The extent of Intel’s rebound will put that much more pressure on AMD to deliver quad-core Barcelona soonand with better performance than Xeon.”
In the overall workstation market (including higher-volume single-socket systems), AMD had risen to a peak of 3.6% in Q2’06, contracting to 2.0% in this last quarter.
About the JPR Workstation Report
Now in its fourth year, JPR’s Workstation Report - Professional Computing Markets and Technologies has established itself as the essential reference guide for hardware and software vendors and suppliers serving the workstation and professional graphics markets.
Subscribers to the JPR Workstation Report receive two in-depth reports per year providing a comprehensive analysis of the vendors and technologies driving the workstation platform. Clients also receive four quarterly reports detailing and analyzing market results for each calendar quarter. For information about purchasing the JPR Workstation Report, please call 415/435-9368 or visit Jon Peddie Research at http://www.jonpeddie.com.
About Jon Peddie Research
Dr. Jon Peddie has been active in the graphics and multimedia fields for more than 30 years. Jon Peddie Research is a technically oriented multimedia and graphics research and consulting firm. Based in Tiburon, California, JPR provides consulting, research, and other specialized services to technology companies, including graphics development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product development. Jon Peddie's Market Watch and First Look are quarterly reports focused on the market activity of PC graphics controllers for mobile and desktop computing.
HardOCP has a new motherboard review up for your scrutiny. This bad ass motherboard sports the latest chipset from Intel and supports the latest Intel processor and can overclock well too. It didn't get the highest Gold honor, but still, a pretty cool board if you're a kind of geek who always wanted to try things out first thing they came out on the stor. Expand to read the conclusion...The Bottom Line
The ASUS P5K3 proves to be another motherboard founded on stellar engineering culminating in great stability, excellent performance, and solid overclocking prowess. This is an expensive motherboard however and once you factor in the cost of DDR3 modules you are going to find yourself easily above a $600 upgrade investment.
Had we seen it outpace other motherboards in top end CPU bus overclocking it certainly would have been worthy of a Gold [H] Award. Still the levels of overclocking shown on the P5K3 are nothing short of awesome and will likely fill the needs of any overclocker other than the super-hardcore.
THG has an article posted about a AMD's 4x4 platform. We all know that this platform sucks and some of you might be thinking why post AMD things. Well, I am a Fanboy and if I see Intel products beating AMD's crap to a pulp, you'll see me post it here for sure. And this one is pretty good, if you're an AMDroid who is a masochist who likes torturing yourself, then get this platform. Otherwise, rejoice and just go a single-chip solution quad-core from Intel and have fun poking at the poor green bloke. Expand to read what THG has to say, or just read this excerpt:We can't fault Vigor for building a system using inferior processors when these are the best an AMD enthusiast can buy. Instead, we'll put the blame on AMD for not keeping pace with the competition, and hope for a quick turnaround as new products are released.
Conclusion
If one were to add up everything Vigor Gaming put into its Vigor Force Recon QX4, its $4,900 price appears reasonable. Yet the 54% performance gain from Dell cost only 46% more. For anyone with an extra $2300 to spend, the Dell appears to be a better deal without even considering peripherals.
The Vigor Force Recon QX4 doesn't include a monitor it its base price. The Dell we tested included its 2407WFP 24" LCD monitor, a $670 value. Deducting that, the Dell system actually cost only 33% more, for a 54% performance gain.
We can't fault Vigor for building a system using inferior processors when these are the best an AMD enthusiast can buy. Instead, we'll put the blame on AMD for not keeping pace with the competition, and hope for a quick turnaround as new products are released.
RickGeek of Geek.Com posted an interesting opinion about native versus mcm. In his post, the author cited many advantaged/disavantages of Clovertown MCM versus the competition's so called offering. And the truth isn't very hard to see, Intel has been shipping millions of quad core processors while AMD has yet to ship one. And I don't mean sample, Intel is shipping retail products, just in case you're not aware yet, and AMD is still delaying their Barcelona release. This processor better perform or it will be a major dissapointment even for a FanBoy like me...OPINION
When I first heard about AMD's decision to make a native quad-core processor--that is a single piece of silicon comprising all four cores--I thought it was an excellent idea. I began to think of the advantages four-way HyperTransport has over the shared bus architecture of Intel's design. I also saw the significance in the larger shared cache, especially when all four cores are working closely on some particular task, and I didn't really see any downside. However, the more I think about it, the more I am realizing how much better Intel's solution is.
Clovertown is a single-package solution comprising two dual-core Core 2 processors within. It uses a shared bus architecture and is somewhat slower in off-chip communication, but because the die is so much smaller, they can create a larger shared cache for each dual-core, thereby making up for much of that loss.
AMD is not at the same place in manufacturing prowess that Intel is. It has been reported that Intel's yields are also very high, typically 90% or higher with some reports saying 95% or higher. AMD's yields have never (to my knowledge) been publicly disclosed, though I'm going to make a probably very incorrect assumption that they're around 80% for current processors. Even assuming they were 95% for current processors, we know that the number of potential defects goes up by the square of the surface area, so as we move from K8's current 183 mm^2 dual-core 65 nm 512 KB L2 processors, we would see a significant degredation in potential yield due to an additional 100 mm^2 per die alone. That also does not include the potential loss of high-binning parts due to even small defects not making the chip unusable, but rather making them less clockable at higher speeds.
We now know that Barcelona's die will be 283 mm^2, and that Clovertowns are comprised of two 143 mm^2 dual-core dies. Using my Wafer program, we find that AMD could fit a maximum of about 212 Barcelonas per 300 mm wafer, while Intel could fit about 430 dual-core Core 2 processors on a single 300 mm wafer. Now, assuming a 90% yield for Intel, that's about 388 dies per wafer, or 194 Clovertowns. In order for AMD to make as many Barcelonas per 300 mm wafer, its yield would have to be 92%, and by all accounts that's not something AMD will be able to do 1) based on its unconfirmed history of lower yields, 2) based on the natural increase in defect rate due to the larger die size and 3) that defects of any kind which do not render the chip inoperable will render it operable only at slower speeds.
AMD is facing several realities here with its native quad-core design, and it would seem that it does not have the manufacturing prowess to pull it off. Some at Intel even admitted recently that the company would have a hard time doing a die that large with high yields. Note also that Intel's Itanium at its largest on an 180 nm process technology was about 473 mm^2, quite a bit larger. I believe that also might explain why Intel targeted the highest-end markets with Itanium--because those processors sold for so much that very low yields would still be profitable.
As we stand today, with a pricing war going on between Intel and AMD, this native quad-core does not seem to provide enough financial incentive for AMD to have gone with it, even with its potentially much higher performance and scalability.
I see no two ways about it; I think AMD has made a significant mistake in going with the native quad-core design. Had it gone with an approach similar to Intel's, the company could've already had single-package quad-core parts out the door, and their yields would've been greater, their processing power would've only been slightly slower, and they could've been more price competitive.
As it stands, I just don't see the advantages of a native quad-core design. However, I'd very much like to hear your opinions.
Please post your thoughts below.
Independence Day today! Enjoy what you need to do today, or whether you celeberate this day or not, I hope you have a good day today. Holiday was done already anyway, so this day kinda loses its meaning to me (sad, I know).
An interview with Intel GM for Server Platforms Group is posted by Digitimes and in that interview, the GM mentioned his thoughts about the competition's native quad core future offering. Expand to read the Q&A...Shawn Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Friday 8 June 2007]
With AMD and Intel pushing their quad-core server processors at Computex Taipei 2007, Digitimes got a chance to talk to Boyd Davis, general manager of server platform group marketing of Intel to discuss Intel's plans and thoughts about the new quad-core processors.
Q: What was the main factor that caused Intel to bring its 45nm Harpertown server processor forward to this year?
A: Intel's product launch is directed by the demand of clients, which has nothing to do with the competition in the market. Currently, product development is almost complete therefore it is natural for the company to launch the Harpertown processor ahead of schedule. The company expects to mass produce the processor in the fourth quarter this year.
Q: In the current server market, competition among CPU makers over semiconductor technology has boosted the migration rate of new platforms. Can the enterprise market catch up in technology?
A: In the past, the server product lineup had a slow migration rate due to the long research time in developing the processor. However, with the assistance of nanometer processing, CPU technology now can advance faster, which shortens the product manufacturing time, sequentially. Intel used to have CPU as the unit for server migration in the past, but is now using platforms. The current platform is expected to last until Penryn processor launches in the fourth quarter.
Q: What are Intel's thoughts about the delay of AMD's native quad-core processor Barcelona?
A: AMD's so-called native quad-core processor has a difficult challenge in technical and manufacturing terms and even Intel would have difficulty facing such challenges. Intel currently still adopts two dies on one chip for its Harpertown processor. The technology is much easier, the product has higher yields and performance is almost the same as the native quad-core processor. Therefore, Intel will continue to use this design in 2007.
Q: With the server market currently crossing over several different fields, besides the enterprise sector, in what markets do you expect to see good performance?
A: Other than the enterprise market, HPC (high-performance computer), blade server and workstation sectors are all expected to have good performance. In the past, middle and small enterprises had the highest server adoption rates, but now demand for HPCs, blade servers and workstations is increasing due to demand from multimedia and Internet search engines and the Internet communication markets. These fields are expected to perform better than others.
HotHardware posted a review of a new board from MSI* with the newest P35 chipset from Intel. The author is pleased with the results, check it out if you are itching to upgrade your current motherboard.Three years ago, Intel launched the 925X / 915 chipsets and were criticized by some for introducing some new technologies before the market demanded them. This time around, however, with the launch of Bearlake, Intel has scored some points. The P35 chipset brings with it a handful of new technologies, like official 1333MHz bus speed support and DDR3 to just name a few. But unlike 925X and 915G, P35 comes in both DDR2 and DDR3 flavors, making the platform all the more attractive to price sensitive end users looking to save a bit on their memory expenditures.
Not only does the MSI P35 Platinum, which is one of the first Intel P35 motherboards on the market, have an excellent feature set, it also showed that it has the raw horsepower to keep up with the EVGA nForce 680i SLI and in some cases, we even saw the MSI P35 Platinum outperform the 680i SLI, albeit by very small margins.
It’s also nice to see that MSI is once again trying to implement new and interesting ideas like their ‘roller coaster style’ motherboard heat pipe cooling technology. Not only does it look cool, it even stays relatively cool to the touch without a fan due to its effective heat dissipation.
The BIOS was also generally good, with a large number of customizable features that allow for some decent overclockability.
The only issues with the board that came up during the review process were the inaccuracy of the motherboards debugger and the fact that it was quite difficult to read. The board also only has four SATA ports, which because of today’s dirt-cheap hard drive market and more common SATA optical drives, may not be enough for even a motherboard targeted toward the more mainstream computer builder.
But overall, the MSI P35 Platinum is a solid motherboard. It is a solid performer, has good features and is overall, pretty well rounded. If you’re looking for a new motherboard for your next Intel Core 2 system and want the latest motherboard technology at a reasonable price, the MSI P35 Platinum is definitely a product to consider.
FUGER of XS posted some really neat pictures he has taken when he attended Computex 2007. He had a good pics with Fatal1ty and they are really funny.
Rojakpot, err, TechARP has a pretty neat article about the most common myths about hard drive. I really find this helpful for noobies or clueless. Back in early 95s/96s, I was once thinking that too much formating will reduce my hard drive life span. Had it not for a friend, I would have always believed that, yay. Check it out...This guide was written in response to the numerous fallacies about the hard disk drive that are still being propagated in many forum discussions. Although many articles have covered these topics, it is apparent that hard drive urban legends are still more popular than the simple truth.
So, let's get down to basics and examine some of these common fallacies or myths and debunk them!
LostCircuits rarely posts articles, but when they do, they usually have a very comprehensive article. Their latest content is about an 8-way monster from Intel and they have a pretty good look at this system. Expand to read the conclusion...Final Thoughts
Eight cores on two processor packages or four dies and all of that in a single system. Needless to say that all components are standard shelf parts that can be purchased at any major computer part retailer. So what in the world has happened to good old computing as in emails and typewriter substitute?
The answer to that question is actually relatively simple, we are living more and more in the digital age, where content creation is taken for granted, whether it is good or bad content, doesn’t even matter, it is essentially the fact that it is available and, because of the ease of its creation, it becomes disposable. As somewhat of an oldtimer in the computing scene, it is hard to appreciate the fact that there is no more collection of files, everything is available somewhere somehow and even if the quality is a tad degraded, who cares, it is like reading a paperback instead of a hard-cover. Well, that gets a bit off topic but really what it comes down to is how fast can we create disposable digital media and does it matter whether we have to do it over again? With the system at hand, the answer is a clear no, just power it up, pay the electric bill and let her rip. In so far, the “Octopussy” system we reviewed here is possibly the penultimate cruncher for DVDs, MP3s and whatnot.
On the other side of the fence are the designers, using the same tools to create a digital reality in the first place in the form of CGIs. Time is money in that business and that alone justifies the use of extended numbers of cores, as long as the software supports them. Then there are the “other” designers, those who are running simulations of hardware designs, whether it is silicon or plastic or metal works or the simulation of thermals in complex designs of hybrid materials. Even though we did not run any of these simulations as benchmarks, this field is huge since machines are getting ever more complex and efficient at any task and it is a matter of time until the last human “idiot savant” who has a “feeling” for one or the other technology will have to submit to the growing power of electronic data crunching. The “Octopussy” is just another milestone on that path.
All of this said and done, during the time we were working on this article, an important decision was made at Intel to no longer really support the FBDIMM architecture except for use in ultra high-end servers. Power issues were the primarily cited factor in this decision. For my own part, I probably won’t miss them but if history has taught me something, it’ll be another 5 years and then we will see the next iteration of the same concept. This is not meant to say that the FBDIMM is fundamentally bad, it is just not good enough from a power and cost perspective to compete in a market where pennies on any item are escalated to multimillion $ cost over head or savings in the grand picture.
To finally come to the end of this article, it’s been fun working with this “Octopussy” and see what she can do. And that’s still what it all comes down to.
Wow, it's an interesting feeling, having seen him on the video streams, web casts, update meetings, tech review sites, magazines, and then he's there right in front of me. I shook hands, and he's very polite to say "Nice to meet you". I know I forgot what I was about to ask, it's a good thing I have my copy of questions printed just in case I got overwhelmed by his presence.
DailyTech posted a scoop on the i975x chipset replacement, in the form of X38. It seems many manufacturers are jumping in to this bandwagon and are really beefing up their line up of motherboards based on this chipset. I am excited to see how it will perform, on stock and in overclocking. Expand to read the news post...ntel's 975X Expess gets the "Bearlake" upgrade
Intel will unveil the high-end version of its Bearlake-family next month – the Intel X38 Express. The new Intel X38 Express replaces the 975X Express, which launched over a year ago with Intel’s Presler Netburst processors. The new chipset introduces new features to Intel’s high-end enthusiast and workstation platform such as PCIE 2.0 and DDR3 memory.
New to the Intel X38 Express is support for dual full-speed PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. The dual PCIe 2.0 slots are compatible with AMD’s CrossFire technology for multi-GPU graphics processing. Motherboard manufacturers are also free to equip Intel X38 Express based boards with a third physical PCIe 2.0 x16 for triple-play physics. Due to chipset limitations, the third physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot has lesser lanes, with most manufacturers opting for four lanes.
DDR3 is the only officially supported memory for the Intel X38 Express. Intel touts DDR3-1333 memory for X38 Express motherboards. DDR2 memory support has been removed officially from the X38 Express, however, the memory controller can still function with DDR2, just without Intel validation. The DFI LANParty X38-T2R will pair DDR2 support with the Intel X38 Express chipset.
The Intel X38 Express also supports upcoming Intel Penryn-family dual and quad-core processors with front-side buses up to 1333 MHz. The new Penryn family is Intel’s first 45nm processor family, expected to launch in Q1’2008 for consumer desktops. Desktop Penryn-family Core models will launch in early 2008.
ASUS, Biostar, DFI, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI have X38 Express-based motherboards on display at Computex 2007. ASUS plans to release an X38 Express-based workstation board. The upcoming ASUS P5E3 WS Professional pairs the X38 Express with the ICH9R south bridge. The board supports dual-channel DDR3-1333 memory, with no mention of ECC support. The P5E3 WS Professional does not have a third physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot. ASUS opted for a vanilla orange PCB with the P5E3 WS Professional.
Biostar is preparing the TX38D3-A7 Deluxe with three PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. Two of the PCIe 2.0 x16 slots operates at full speed while the third slot has four lanes. Biostar also adds one PCIe x1 and two PCI slots into the mix. The TX38D3-A7 also features onboard power and reset buttons for the tweaking-inclined.
DFI has two X38 Express-based models in the pipeline – the LANParty X38-T2R and the X38-T3R. The two models differ in the memory support department. The LANParty X38-T2R supports DDR2-800 memory while the X38-T3R supports DDR3-1333. The upcoming X38-T2R and X38-T3R feature genius BIOS and CMOS Reloaded technologies. New to the LANParty X38-T2R and X38-T3R is the DFI Bernstein 8-channel theater-level audio solution.
Gigabyte is taking the same route as DFI, with two X38 Express based motherboards – the GA-X38T-DQ6 and GA-X38-DQ6. Both boards have similar feature sets, with the GA-X38T-DQ6 offering DDR3 support while the GA-X38-DQ6 supports DDR2. Gigabyte takes DDR3 further than other manufacturers by claiming support for DDR3-1600 memory. Gigabyte has opted to equip its GA-X38x-DQ6 motherboards with two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. New to the Gigabyte X38 Express-based motherboards is the Realtek ALC889A high-definition audio codec, offering a 106dB signal-to-noise ratio.
Intel also plans to join in on the X38 Express festivities with the successor to the D975XBX2 BadAxe2. The new DX38BT Bonetrail features three physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. The DX38BT is one of the few enthusiast X38 Express motherboard currently on the Computex show floor without an elaborate heat-pipe cooling setup. Instead, Intel sticks with a simple aluminum cooler.
Lastly is MSI with the X38 Diamond. MSI manages to squeeze four physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots into the X38 Diamond. Two of the PCIe 2.0 x16 slots are full-speed while the other two slots are half-speed. MSI also squeezes in support for DDR2-800 and DDR3-1333 memory on the same board.
Expect Intel to officially launch the X38 Express next month, coinciding with the upcoming Core 2 Duo E6x50-series.
Oh dear, Corsair* just announced their fastest memory DDR3. The future of Intel chipset looks to be even brighter for the enthusiasts who crave for bigger, better, faster memory. The timings/latencies seems to be high right now, i.e. loose, but hey I am sure they'll improve with time. Check it out...Optimized for Current and Future Intel Platforms, Corsair demonstrates production-ready DDR3-1600 DOMINATOR and previews next generation speed grade at DDR3-2000
COMPUTEX – Taipei, Taiwan (June 4, 2007) – Corsair® http://www.corsair.com, the worldwide leader in high performance computer and flash memory products, today unveiled the world’s fastest production DDR3 memory rated at a blazing-fast 1,600MHz (PC3-12,800) and the world preview of the Corsair DOMINATOR memory running at 2,000MHz (PC3-16,000). Live demonstration of the new DOMINATOR memory will be on display in the Corsair VIP suite (#1334) at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The TWIN3X2048-1600C10D DOMINATOR is the latest addition to the Corsair line of high-performance memory modules. Also on display is the upcoming generation of DDR3 DOMINATORs, ranging from 1GB modules running at over 2,000MHz and 2GB modules showing performance promise for 64-bit based applications. All DDR3 products have been developed to support the new Intel® P35 and X38 Express platforms, ensuring customers of an extreme user experience whether for gaming or applications with high computing needs.
The TWIN3X2048-1600C10D DOMINATOR will be available shortly after Computex. Both XMS3 DHX and XMS3 Classic products are currently available through Corsair’s worldwide authorized dealer channel:
FAMILY PART NUMBER SPEED LATENCIES
DOMINATOR TWIN3X2048-1600C10D 1600MHz 10-8-8-24
XMS3 DHX TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX 1333MHz 9-9-9-24
XMS3 CLASSIC TWIN3X2048-1333C9 1333MHz 9-9-9-24
TWIN3X2048-1066C7 1066MHz 7-7-7-21
All DDR3 modules operate at lower memory voltages to deliver better performance with the same amount of power when compared to DDR2. Dynamic I/O Signal Termination and On-die Dynamic Termination (ODT) reduce the reflective signals transmitted to standby RAMs, thereby enabling support for higher memory frequencies. A larger prefetch means more data is immediately available for the processor and the differential data strobe reduces noise while accessing data, especially at higher frequencies.
“Corsair is supporting the industry’s transition to DDR3 with a full line of highly-engineered memory solutions. Our partnerships with leading technology companies and suppliers have allowed us to be first-to-market with the world’s fastest production DDR3 memory and demonstrating our next generation DOMINATOR running at 2GHz,” said Jack Peterson, VP of Marketing at Corsair. “DDR3 memory technology brings scalability and features that DDR2 cannot deliver. The fact that we are able to realize 50% more memory speed rating at launch compared to the standard DDR3-1066 specification is simply stunning.” continued Peterson.
Like their DDR2 brethren, DDR3 DOMINATOR and XMS3 DHX feature Corsair’s patent-pending DHX technology - an innovative quad-layer heat sink design that optimizes memory performance and reliability by maximizing thermal dissipation. With DHX Technology, heat is removed via two paths – the leads of the BGA chips into the PCB (convective cooling) and the back of the BGA packages into the custom designed extruded aluminum heat sinks (conductive cooling).
“The enthusiast community demands solutions that push the envelope and are capable of delivering the highest level performance experience, and very fast DDR3 is the next step in delivering cutting-edge computing,” said Steve R. Peterson, Director of Chipset & Graphics Marketing, Intel. “We work closely with Corsair to help deliver a cutting edge experience for the enthusiast power user. Corsair’s release of the new DDR3-1600 DOMINATOR memory, combined with an Intel P35 or X38 Express chipset based motherboard, plus an Intel Extreme Edition CPU, shows just how exciting platforms based on DDR3 will be.”
This week will be interesting as Computex 2007 rolls out. I am hoping that announcements of the upcoming products from different manufacturers drives down the cost of their current product line up in the market today. Anyway, be ready to check out different top tech sites for the coverage...
I'm lagging behind posting new content so I'll post contents from other sites, yay. Anyway, the newest member of processors from Intel, named Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 and Pentium E2140, are reviewed by the trusty XBitLabs crew. The find it overclocks well, and are happy with how it performs. Check out the conclusion...Conclusion
All in all Pentium E2160 and E2140 processors made a great entrance. They have pushed the performance of budget solutions to a totally new level. With the price of less than $90 and promising Core micro-architecture these processors can become a great basis for contemporary low-cost systems. From this standpoint they look much better than the Pentium D processors on NetBurst micro-architecture that used to be the only offering for this segment.
Of course, the performance level of Pentium E2160 and E2140 processors doesn’t look as mind-blowing as that of their Core 2 Duo counterparts. Their relatively low clock frequencies and L2 cache cut down to only 1MB do their “dirty deed”. However, in the majority of real applications these processors outperform all alternative solutions. Although I have to specify something here. When we speak of comparatively high performance of these new processors, it is important to keep in mind that they still lose to the youngest Athlon 64 X2 models in most games where the size of L2 cache memory matters a lot.
However, the results of our overclocking experiments can make all your doubts vanish. Since Pentium E2160 and E2140 are based on Allendale L2 core stepping these CPUs will overclock approximately to the same frequencies as Core 2 Duo E4000 series. As a result, if you are lucky enough you may be able to get your new processor to work as fast as the top of the line dual-core Core 2 Extreme processors, which is a very good deal considering it will cost you less than $100.
TGDaily (yeah, I know the logo is THG) posted about a pretty cool technology that is about to hit us soon! I never expected it to be long due to be honest, since I have already seen a "similar" if not exactly the same thing for almost a year ago. Microsoft already put up a site for this technolgy and they have a pretty cool effect. Anyway, back to TGDaily, check out what they have to say on this...When I was briefed on Surface (previously code-named Milan) a few days ago, I was incredibly impressed. Having gotten used to disappointments like Origami, Zune, and even the Media Center PC where Microsoft didn’t actually finish the offering, this product was a breath of fresh air, largely because it was complete.
A friend sent me the link from Geek.com BLURB post about the new processor from Intel, Intel® Xeon® 3230 that overclocks well. Not that I am surpised about it, but I thought the comments are really informative. Check it out...BLURB
Let's skip past all the niceties and just cut to the chase on this one. Intel is prepping a Barcelona response, and it looks to be amazing. The processor is a Xeon 3230, which is of the 65 nm Clovertown variety. It is officially spec'd to see 2.66GHz with a 1.066GHz FSB, up one step from the 2.4GHz Xeon 3220. However, the tester of this quad-core machine was able to get it to boot into Windows at 3.4GHz with a 1.67GHz FSB. It would POST at 3.8GHz with a 1.7GHz FSB, using memory timings of 3-3-3-5 on DDR2 800 at 2.25V. No kidding! SiSoft's Sandra saw a memory benchmark int he 8.7GB/s range.
Imagine a quad-core machine with such high overclocking potential on unreleased silicon--especially in the Xeon lineup. Quite an impressive demonstration of manufacturing prowess.
Read more and see a CPU-Z screen shot at The Inquirer, and post your thoughts below.
PCStats posted an article about the newest board from Gigabyte. Not surprisingly, the board sports the newest chipset from Intel and it performs as it should. Expand to read the verdict from PCStats. P35 Performance Verdict: Similar to P965, but just a bit faster
In terms of performance The Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 and the Intel P35 Express chipset are slightly faster than the previous generation P965, but the differences between the platforms won't truly be appreciated till quad core processors are readily available. Quad core CPUs will benefit from the added bandwidth the P35 Express delivers. As it is now, if you're a gamer you will notice a slight performance boost when moving to the P35 platform over a vanilla Intel P965 Express. There's little to no difference though for basic workstation tasks.
The Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 showed the awesome overclocking potential of the Intel P35 Express chipset, hitting a very nice speed of 482 MHz FSB! We're positive the motherboard had more in it, but the E6600 processor was most likely holding things back. Those of you with water or phase change cooling systems will definitely like what Gigabyte has to offer here. When it comes to overclocking, you'll love the awesome voltage options!
The Intel P35 Express has a bright future and probably is the best way to go if you plan on upgrading to a Core 2 Quad processor. The Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 is a little quicker than comparable P965 motherboards, full of features and fast, but it comes with a steep price tag.
Find out about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS latest reviews right here.
Looks like there will be lots of overclocking session in the upcoming Computex 2007 event. I am looking forward to seeing new innovative products from different vendors, from the typical to the extra ordinary. Anyway, I am getting a bit carried away, XS team is invited and will be at the site for some live demonstration power of overclocking. Check out the thread at XS.
Last week, I blogged about a V8 8-core system beating a Barcelona 16-core system. However, at the link posted, I am a bit lost since there was no mention of the Barcelona benchmark on the YouTube video, and there was no link about Barcelona hard numbers from the source. Anyway, I just got another email last Saturday (sorry, I just got time to blog it now) that apparently, there is indeed a Barcelona benchmark.
It seems that I am really lagging behind posting some items on my Blog. Anyway, I just want to share the 50% overclock of the quad core Kenstfield under the Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 branding. At this speed, all I can say is that it's awesome and the CPU fan is silent even at full load.
I know it's not much of a news, but hey, it's still a new toy to be happy about. The processor should be attractive to overclockers who are looking for high frequency with low FSB. The good thing with this processor is that, some motherboards, like Asus' P5B-Deluxe, can have the ability to lower down the multiplier making the processor very flexible with adjusting the multi and FSB. Click on the image for the CPU-Z Validation...
This must be one of the best move OCZ can do this year, aside from introducing uber RAMs. OCZ has been very agressive with the PSU market, yet they still can't compete with PCP&C when it comes to stability and reliability. Sure, their existing OCZ PSUs do rock, but the enthusiast favorite has always been the server-grade PCP&C. Expand to read the full press release...Sunnyvale, Calif.—May 25, 2007—OCZ today announced immediate plans to bring PC Power & Cooling into the OCZ Technology Group. As a worldwide leader in high performance computer hardware, OCZ acquired PC Power & Cooling to utilize their keen expertise in power management and take the organization to the next level. This compelling partnership between the two like-minded companies will create a powerful fusion of patented technologies, innovative, high quality PC components, and improved accessibility of premium solutions for customers worldwide. All parties, including the consumer, will benefit from the acquisition; the combined company is now situated to deliver ground-breaking power solutions to meet the growing demand for efficient, high performance components to power the computing needs of gaming, enthusiast, and mission-critical systems builders alike.
With OCZ and PC Power & Cooling joining forces, the result is a solid partnership aimed at delivering superior solutions to end-users. Combining technical strengths, R&D resources, and complementary proficiencies, the new OCZ Technology Group intends to go above and beyond consumer expectations in quality, service, and hi-tech leadership. As the time-honored frontrunner in best-in-class power solutions, only PC Power & Cooling can redefine and develop the market’s standards of performance, as it has done for the past twenty-two years since its inception in 1985. Previously, PC Power & Cooling solutions were only available to US customers through their online store and a few select resellers and retail outlets. Under the OCZ Technology Group, PC Power & Cooling products will gain the exposure of the established OCZ global channel, maximizing the availability of the reputable line to customers everywhere.
All OCZ and PC Power & Cooling product lines will benefit from the new collaboration efforts. Moving forward, PC Power & Cooling’s complete line of power supplies will become the premium-grade PSU collection from OCZ, and will continue to be branded under the PC Power & Cooling brand. In addition to combining current product lines, the focus of OCZ and PC Power & Cooling is to take innovation and industry leadership to new heights. As the founder and CEO of PCP&C, Doug Dodson, moves into the position of Chief Technology Officer at OCZ, the integration of his expertise will set new standards for OCZ product development and innovation. OCZ’s popular high performance memory modules, PSUs, and flash memory will continue to evolve ahead of the times and stay attuned to the needs of the industry. The outcome is a greatly differentiated range of OCZ and PCP&C solutions available worldwide that addresses the complete spectrum of applications.
“OCZ and PC Power & Cooling are both technology leaders that share a common passion for delivering premium solutions to consumers,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. “By bringing these two established companies together we are able to leverage the strengths of each organization and accelerate the development of cutting edge products for a variety of markets. We believe that collectively OCZ and PC Power & Cooling will build on our combined heritage to revolutionize high end computing."
"As an expansion partner, I believe we have found in OCZ the ideal fit for the culture and approach of PC Power & Cooling," said Doug Dodson, founder and CEO of PCP&C. "In my new role as Chief Technology Officer, I will focus on maintaining PC Power's lead in proven ultra high-performance with the Turbo-Cool line, and in value and quiet computing with the Silencer line, as well as provide guidance for the continuing improvement of OCZ's power management solutions. I am excited about the improved accessibility of PC Power & Cooling products and I am confident that our rich tradition of reliability and innovation will continue to strengthen as a part of the OCZ Technology Group."
Building on a shared understanding and mutual enthusiasm for leading-edge computer technology, OCZ and PC Power & Cooling will seamlessly unify to represent the pinnacle of performance. Look for all of OCZ Technology Group's current and future products in its worldwide network of distributors, e-tailers, and retail stores.
I just got this info from a friend, apparently, uberplus err uberpulse managed to snag a benchmark of a whooping 16core-based Barcelona. I am not really sure I understand the video interview, but they compared a Penryn with Kentsfiled, I have yet to see why Barcelona was even mentioned. Check it out...At the Microprocessor Forum, Intel demoed its V8 workstation running the POV-Ray benchmark. The machine is equipped with Intel's Workstation Board S5000XVN, 2 quad-core Xeons 5365, clocked at 3GHz and 16GB RAM. And the results are simply impressive: Intel scored over 4,900 pixels per seconds versus a little bit over 4,000 for AMD's 4 sockets quad-core (Barcelona) system. Again, this is an AMD 16 cores system versus Intel's 8 cores V8 machine.
If you take 16 cores at 1.8Ghz, divided by 2 and add 60% to get to 3.0Ghz, it gives POV-Ray score of 3600 for 8 cores. Meaning that at 3.0GHz, Barcelona still lose by quite some compare to an 8 cores Clowertown system.
"Why do you need 16 cores, when you can do better with 8. Our 8 core system is 30% faster than the 16 core machine AMD showed to the press yesterday. I just don't understand how they can claim to be 40% faster", said Francois Piednoel, an Intel engineer present at the show.
Well, now AMD has some explanation to do and sooner rather than later. Because if they can't figure out what happened with those POV-Ray results they showed us, that's the end of it. At the show, Intel also demoed a system with a 45nm Penryn quad-core processor (shipping by year end, about the same time than Barcelona!) that is 40% faster than the top of the line quad-core generation, the Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800. Wow!
BitTech has posted a review of the new board from Asus*, based on Intel's newest chipset in town, supporting DDR3. While the crew at BitTech gave it a perfect 10 in features, the "value" is at low score of just 5. Over all, they gave the board a 7, but I am not really sure if it reflects the experience, as the score seems to be the "average" of (10 + 6 + 5) / 3 thingamajig. Check out the Final Thoughs by expanding this news post...Final Thoughts
Apart from the ton of features and excellent stability, the board doesn't offer any spectacular performance and is far more expensive than the competition, or even other Asus boards. You'd be far better off investing in anything DDR2, rather than forcing yourself down and extremely expensive upgrade path. It will allow some future proofing, but by that time in 12-18 months, you might as well upgrade the motherboard with a newer chipset which will undoubtedly support faster DDR3 modules and newer features as well.
It's a really weird situation because it's genuinely a really good board, but there's absolutely no reason to buy it. Get the P5K Deluxe or something P965 or nForce 680i (LT) SLI instead... oh and a ton of performance DDR2, a large monitor, a better graphics card and perhaps a new car or apartment as well. You know, the same kind of money you would have spent on the P5K3 Deluxe and DDR3.
It you're after CrossFire support to match a couple of Radeon HD 2900 XTs you've just bought (I'm assuming you run Vista here) and are dying for an updated chipset rather than the antique 975X, then you've either got to settle for the DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200 T2R/G, or wait until September for X38. However, X38 will also be DDR3, sooo I'd just buy the DFI...
It's a slow news day today so I am just sharing a preview done by XBitLabs on the "V8" platform (isn't it annoying that AMD have a "FASN8"). Anyway, XBitLabs are impressed with the performance. But if you are a regular FanBoy TechWeb visitor, you'll know that I have done a quick benching of this system for quite some time already. I first post about Clovertown 2xQuad-Core (total of 8 cores) here and posted initial benchmark here. Expand to read the article from XBitLabs...Conclusion
Our experience with Intel V8 platform made an unforgettable impression. The obtained benchmark results are so high that we do not hesitate to call it the today’s world’s fastest system for multi-threaded work. This desktop and workstation platform with two quad-core Xeon processors demonstrates unattainable performance in all SMP optimized applications.
However, everything we have just said is true mostly because there are no other eight-core systems in the market today that could compete with Intel V8. Therefore, when the new AMD FASN8 with quad-core CPUs on K10 micro-architecture comes out, situation may change. Especially, since Intel V8 has a few disadvantages originating from its server roots.
First of all, the FB DDR2 memory subsystem in the eight-core monster from Intel is implemented in not the most optimal way. Its latency is too high, which affects the system performance in some widespread applications. Secondly, i5000X based workstation mainboards used for Intel V8 systems cannot suit enthusiasts in the best possible way. They have a lot of functions that no enthusiasts will ever use, but at the same time offer nothing for processor overclocking. And thirdly, Intel V8 platform limits the user’s ability to create a high-performance video subsystem. There are very few mainboards on i5000X chipset that offer slots for two graphics cards, but even they do not allow to use SLI and Crossfire configurations in full power, only as PCI Express x16 + PCI Express x4.
That is why before we make any final conclusions about the future of Intel V8 platform as a great eight-core solution for enthusiasts, we would like to wait a little bit until we get a chance to test the AMD FASN8 platform featuring two next-generation quad-core processors. New Phenom FX CPUs (known under Agena FX codename) are expected to arrive in Q3 2007, so there is not much waiting left. Besides, from what we know already we can say that AMD Quad FX as well as the upcoming FASN8 will be more enthusiast-friendly judging by their features.
Anyway, we will be able to dot all i’s only when we get our hands on the new competitor in this segment, and right now Intel V8 deserves the laurels of an ultimate leader.
The lucky folks over at HotHardware managed to get themselves some cool motherboard and memory to play with. They have tested DDR3 and the newest motherboard from Asus with the latest chipset from Intel. They are pretty much happy with the results, check out the conclusion...Performance Summary:
Over the course of our testing, we saw the new Intel P35 chipset and DDR3 memory combination offer up gains in the 2 - 5% range in various applications. This was largely attributed to the new Intel MCH and its improved access latency characteristics. There were several occasions where the P35 chipset driven Asus P5K3 Deluxe out-paced its 965 counterpart with the same DDR2 memory running in its DIMM slots. In terms of DDR3 memory, it's obvious the technology is still maturing somewhat but at its higher clock speeds, especially with a correspondingly higher FSB, there are significant gains to be had.
Intel's new Bearlake chipset family is off to a great start with the P35. Our first time out with this new chipset showed surprisingly good stability and performance with obvious headroom for growth. One look at a 1733MHz DDR3 clock speed and you can't help but get a little bit excited for what the future holds. The only caveat will be how quickly latency settings can be brought in line.
At this point in the game, if you were building a new system for work or pleasure, its probably doesn't make sense to spring for a DDR2 driven version of one of these new P35 motherboards, like the Asus P5K we tested. The product simply will have a more finite life-span with the inevitable migration to DDR3. In addition, DDR3 has a bit of growing-up to do for the next few months, so we'd recommend users wait and see what second generation products coming down the pipe will offer perhaps. Refinements in motherboard design are bound to be forthcoming, as well as tighter timings for DDR3.
Though, if you're itching for something to tinker with and spending a little extra cash on being an early adopter isn't out of the norm for you, we'd say jump in, the water is just fine. The P35 chipset with its snappy new memory controller impressed us more-so than many chipset product launches of late and we've seen plenty. What's perhaps more exciting is the upcoming X38 chipset with PCI Express 2.0 technology and a few extra lanes integrated with the chipset to boot. It's always hard to judge the entry point with a new platform but these are good problems to have.
