Quad core is here and kicking

Just hold tight this year Intel is definitely on AMD’s a**. Intel officially launched the world’s first quad core desktop processor code-named Kentsfield and officially called Core 2 Extreme QX6700 rated at (2.66GHz) :whistle:

Reputed hardware testing site Tomshardware is impressed at the performance of QX6700. The quad core zoomed past all the top of the line processors, biggest advantages being in the Premiere Pro 2, 3dsmax 8, yet still the real potential isn’t felt in the gaming department, especially in the Photoshop CS2 and Quake 4.

From Tomshardware:

Intel certainly beat AMD to the quad-core starting line, but this race is far from over. The market needs tight competition to assure reasonable performance at all price levels, so as we congratulate Intel on a job well done, let’s also hope that AMD is able to catch up quickly.

Yet the scores from Techspot have been more outstanding in few areas such as Adobe Photoshop CS2, measured 25% faster when compared to the Intel Core 2 Extreme x6800. The most notable was in the Pinnacle’s Studio Plus video editing software, where the quad chip jumped to a mind-numbing 78% faster than its dual-core predecessor. And another big leap being in 3D Studio Max which jumped to about 60%.

From Techspot:

Intel has done a fantastic job with their latest Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor and while it was not all gleaming results, the QX6700 did excel where it had to. The thermal output of the QX6700 was very manageable at its default frequency of 2.66GHz though considerably higher than an equally clocked Core 2 Duo processor… As of now, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 looks to be the most powerful processor on the market for use with power hungry Windows apps. When it comes to gaming, the Core 2 Duo E6700 is a much better choice, or for value the E6600 or even the E6300.

Even if opinions are divided, it’s unfair to say this processor is not all rounder. Actually it is way ahead of time. Still games and many applications haven’t been programmed to use dual core features. As soon as developers start making applications to the processors potential we will see the real scores, scores that will simply be jaw-dropping.

Now coming down to the compatibility issues, anyone who has invested in core duo 2 compatible motherboards should be happy that their LGA 775 will happily accept this range of processor, few may need BIOS updates if some problems arise. Oh but you have to shell out some $1000 for this piece of silicon and you also need a monster of a PC to really get every ounce of performance of this beast of a processor.

I’m a poor dude so can’t afford this processor for even testing purpose, can wait and watch rich dudes beefing up there desktops. Still I can hope that game developers like ID, Valve, Microsoft put some coding work and extract more out of this piece of silicon. Till then me just happy with my AMD box.

Core 2 Quadro Ready to Ravage the High-End [Toms Hardware]
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 review: Quad Core is here! [Tech Spot]
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 [Bit-Tech]
Intel core 2 extreme QX6700 Kentsfield Quad Core [hardcoreware.com]