Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Preview from Taiwan
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Gary Key on June 6, 2006 7:35 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
A few months have passed since our original foray into the world of Conroe, and official naming has been announced for the processor. What we've been calling Conroe is now known as Core 2 Duo, with the Extreme Edition being called Core 2 Extreme. Initial availability of the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors remains unchanged from Intel's original estimates of "early Q3".
At this year's Spring IDF Intel made the unusual move of allowing us and other press to spend some quality time benchmarking its upcoming Conroe processor. Unfortunately we were only allowed to benchmark those games and applications that Intel loaded on the system, and while we did our due diligence on the system configuration we still prefer to benchmark under our own terms.
We're happy to report that we gathered enough parts to build two systems while in Taiwan for Computex. We managed to acquire a Socket-AM2 motherboard equipped with an Athlon 64 FX-62 and a P965 motherboard equipped with a Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz at our hotel, along with two sets of 2x1GB of DDR2-800 (only 5-5-5-12 modules though), a pair of Hitachi 7K250 SATA hard drives, and two NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTXes (one for each system) - it helps that all the major players have offices in Taiwan. Of course we happened to pack some power supplies, monitors, keyboards and mice in our carry-on luggage, as well as copies of Windows XP, Quake 4, F.E.A.R., Battlefield 2, SYSMark 2004 and Winstone 2004.
When faced with the choice of testing Conroe or sleeping , we stayed up benchmarking (we'll blame it on the jet lag later). The stage was set: Intel's Core 2 Extreme vs. AMD's recently announced FX-62, and while it's still too early to draw a final verdict we can at least shed more light on how the battle is progressing. Keep in mind that we had a very limited amount of time with the hardware as to not alert anyone that it was missing and being used for things it shouldn't be (not yet at least), so we weren't able to run our full suite of tests. We apologize in advance and promise we'll have more when Conroe launches, but for now enjoy.
The Test
In case we weren't clear: we acquired, built, installed and tested these two test systems entirely on our own and without the help of Intel.
| CPU: | AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 (2.80GHz) Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2.93GHz) |
| Motherboard: | nForce 590-SLI Socket-AM2 Motherboard Intel P965 Motherboard |
| Chipset: | NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Intel P965 Chipset |
| Chipset Drivers: | nForce 9.34 Beta Intel 7.3.3.1013 |
| Hard Disk: | Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 |
| Memory: | DDR2-800 5-5-5-12 (1GB x 2) |
| Video Card: | NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA ForceWare 91.28 Beta |
| Desktop Resolution: | 1280 x 1024 - 32-bit @ 60Hz |
| OS: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
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peternelson - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
"once Core 2 Duo is available"who said it was going to be AVAILABLE ? ROFL
Maybe for Christmas? After Dell and Alienware get their orders to the front of the queue.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Almost makes you want to grab one of the cheapest Dell systems just to get the CPU, then sell off the rest. Almost. I would guess Core 2 Duo will be available in the retail market, but just with prices 20-50% higher than what we're currently listing. Over time, the prices will drop to more reasonable levels. Probably post-Christmas is when widespread availability at normal prices will occur.bob661 - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
That sucks for the early adopters. I guess my wife will get an upgrade next summer.peternelson - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Yeah buying a Dell is desperate but could work.But then how do you know they took proper anti static precautions building it ?
Furen - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
If the CPUs will be in short supply you can bet Dell will price these quite high. Dell will still have crappy Celerons and Pentium Ds to throw into cheat systems.NeonAura - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Guess that's the nail in the coffin for AMD's current revision. Intel looks to have the top.neweggster - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
In regards to that what would you think could give AMD any performance lead? If im right by all the benchmarks. Intel is the crown here, how can AMD catch what steam has been converted into pure power for Intel here? I don't see anyway AMD can be crowned anything in performance, or are you refering to some benchmarking that really doesn't effect gamers and high end performance junkies?
I am a bit concerned for AMD here as intel is actually pulling so hard ahead of AMD in performance on its new cores that im afraid poor old AMD can't catch up. If you look at what Intel is providing now vs AM2 its clear that every new release of new tech from intel is far advanced and performing well ahead in the benchmarks.
Regs - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
This is actually good. The CPU desk top market has been so stagnant lately. I'm tired of the same old 5% performance boost upgrades. Of course, when you over clock an architecture -- scalability isn't in your vocabulary. Who here upgrades a 2.0GHz A64 to a 2.4GHz A64? Doesn't happen often.AMD's future is looking brighter than ever today actually then when it was holding the huge performance crown (presently still does). In a business sense a fast performing car can only get you so far when there is a blind man behind the wheel.
Do not doubt AMDs performance envelope has ended. They have plenty of room to improve and show how far they can take their intuitive designs.
AnnonymousCoward - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
It's not that dire. Remember when the Athlon 64 was released, and AMD had a 20% advantage in Half Life 2 performance over similarly priced Intel CPUs? Intel still came back. AMD is a big company, and it's not like one processor that finally beats AMD (an Intel first in ~4 years) will put AMD in serious trouble.Calin - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
Intel had the advantage over AMD in laptop performance/watts (and marketing oomph with Centrino). Now, Intel will have the advantage in desktop and laptop performance. As long as AMD keeps their advantage in the servers arena (where real money are), AMD is not in trouble.When the Conroe will transition to servers, people will think: "Better performance and lower thermal? At lower price? From Intel? Where do I sign?". That will be trouble for AMD