Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 Preview @ [H] Enthusiast

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FrgMstr

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Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 Preview - Intel today launches the world's first quad-core processor rightly dubbed the Core 2 Quad. What happens when you strap two Core 2 Duo processors onto one LGA 775 processor substrate? As you might imagine, you have CPU power on tap.

If you are the guy that likes to rip and encode movies or make your own movies with applications as simple as Windows Movie Maker, a Core 2 Quad can significantly cut down your encoding times compared to any desktop processor you are using now.
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So far, I'm pleased with the results. After just investing into a core 2 6800. I was pretty upset to learn that quad was right around the corner :rolleyes:. But this preview brings me hope that it will be fine until my next big upgrade. Yet, the patches will no doubt be coming in from big companies such as ID and possibly Bethesda (think oblivion with alot more taken off your initial one or two core setup) to take advantage of those new cores.
 
I'm impressed with the multimedia performance. Multimedia apps that are written to take advantage of multi-core have huge gains, current games do not. I'm really liking what I see with those faster render times in apps such as 3dsmax. If you are a gamer right now a faster clocked dual-core is optimal however.

The future? Well, that is yet to be seen, but games like Crysis and Alan Wake and others sure to follow may turn the tide. It is a wait and see game. Like physics, multi-core CPUs need a killer app as far as gaming is concerned. No game on the shelf yet has proven a need for multi-core CPUs. Unless of course you are multi-tasking such as encoding video while you play a game. One thing quad-core CPUs sure do is put more competition out there as far as multithreading goes for gaming physics.
 
This will make a great folding machine!

one motherboard, one PSU, two sticks of RAM, and behold: four CPU's to fold away for cancer!

Sweet!

:cool:



 
I am deffinatly interested in overclocking results. Really, only because I think this processor would bennifit with a much faster FSB. At least 1333.
 
As I Lay Dying said:
holy good god thats fast.........Also I am pretty impressed with the wattage, not bad for 4 cores.
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Yep considering about a year ago we were spending more watts on a single high end P4. Gotta give Intel big props.
 
USMC2Hard4U said:
I am deffinatly interested in overclocking results. Really, only because I think this processor would bennifit with a much faster FSB. At least 1333.
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Saving OC results for a followup article.
 
USMC2Hard4U said:
Does increasing the FSB with the Quad have a bigger impact than it does with the Duo?
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I don't know, but I should next week. My GUESS is no. I have been focused on some other things that are going to be a bit more tangible to our readers.

That said, I achieved a FSB on a C2D of 200% of stock. And I also came close to 200% of stock clock on an E6300 as well. But that's about all I can tell you on that.
 
I've been waiting for this review knowing the quad's were just around the corner. Great job. I am still sitting on the fence to go core 2 or the quad but I think I can say I've ruled out AMD untill am3 parts ship. I hope with the nvidia's new chips that abit got them already and gonna work their magic. With all the overtime I been sucking up december looks to be the build date, I hope the boards are stable.

:D
 
wow, I guess graphics designers are going to have wet pants :p how about a mac pro with dual quad core cpus >_< ? I'm surprised Intel is launching the quad core so early when they already have a lead over AMD with the Core 2 Duo, my guess would be that K8L is going to be a killer so intel is getting its points in while it can before the next big AMD launch.
 
Great article guys, really appreciated. I decided that I was getting quad-core as soon as it was announced, even though the main application it would have is gaming. But all the new games with multicore support are the games I will be getting, I guess its not too bad.

I'm just waiting on nVidia to release a couple of things into the market first (GPU and chipset), but by the sounds on it Kyle and co might have a bit of light to shed on the subject soon :D

Any idea of a release date in Australia? Haven't got any info on that yet ;)
 
Curious about what exactly "launch" means in regards to this CPU.

I can tell you that I was in line and waiting to purchase the X6800 back on the 27th of July. I think that was the date. And Microcenter could not sell this to me or the few systems they had until 12noon.

I ask this because, I still have a boxed E6700 thats sealed along with the sales ticket that I would like to go in and trade against this new quad cpu.

Kyle, do you have any dates that this CPU should be available in stores?

Thanks in advance, Ralph and Kristina
 
SixFootDuo said:
Curious about what exactly "launch" means in regards to this CPU.

I can tell you that I was in line and waiting to purchase the X6800 back on the 27th of July. I think that was the date. And Microcenter could not sell this to me or the few systems they had until 12noon.

I ask this because, I still have a boxed E6700 thats sealed along with the sales ticket that I would like to go in and trade against this new quad cpu.

Kyle, do you have any dates that this CPU should be available in stores?

Thanks in advance, Ralph and Kristina
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This is not a hard launch like NVIDIA has made standard. We should see product by the 15th in etail and in retail by the end of the month. SIs are already starting to roll out review systems with Quad as well, so they will not be far behind.
 
Sunin said:
YOU SUCK! I'm highly interested in OC results. I also expect that they won't be as stellar as teh Core 2 Duo's but still respectable. All of this is in anticipation of the 45nm Quad cores in Q3 of 2007 or before!
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I would suggest you will see QX6700 OC almost as well at a E6600. Do take into consideration that shedding the heat efficiently is going to be a bigger deal given a basic 2X power consumption. Not going to be a bunch of easy and huge air cooler OCs with Quad IMO.
 
Sunin said:
Yeah but when you consider these things are at the levels of P4's wattage wise I don't see why some of the top of the line Air cooling (Zalman, Scythe, etc) that one won't be able to get a decent OC. I'm not saying awesome, but respectable. Honestly if I can take a Yorkfield processor and squeak another 20-30% out of it, I'd be very happy. Also the Yorkfields are 45nm so wattage should again drop to more manageable levels. Now if only 9 mos would fly by so I can reinvest. 90nm single core to 45nm quad core should be a huge performance boost.
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Hey bro, if you are comfortable with running your $1000 CPU at 120 watts under load with air, more power to you. Given that your motherboard and power supply are likely to die first from you dumping all that heat into the case and that the CPU will throttle down the processor has little chance of breaking.

And yes, a huge die shrink traditionally has huge power usage impacts, it goes without saying, but that is not what we are discussing here.
 
Sunin said:
I fail to see how the P4 overclocking at full loads and the Quad is much different.
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Never said they were....watts are watts and surface area is surface area. You can look back and see we did little to evangelize P4 overclocking after the 2.4C.
 
Good article, but I was wondering why you didn't include the AMD Dual core processor (X2) in the comparison as well?
 
Great preview. This is looking like it will be a great cpu for graphic artists and video production.

Now that it looks like Vegas 7b is a perminant benchmark is it possible to add one more benchmark that will give a much better result in terms of realworld rendering instead of just a simple video render?

The 2006 Render Test from VASST is in HD and requires no video, just the 120KB veg file. It will really test all aspects of a system and was built to stress multicore systems. To put it in terms of gaming benchmarks, using straight DV video is like doing a game performance benchmark using Quake, when we really want to see how it does in Crysis. :)
 
Good read, but realy no surprises.

How about motherboard compatibility? Is it going to be a large number of core2 board will support this or do they need a later revision?
 
seriously, that early?

shit, I wouldnt have guessed...

seems a bit early to me.... but if they can squeeze a quad core intel proc into a 12 inch notebook with DX10 capable GFX... I'll buy it :)
 
Sunin said:
So am I taking your comments incorrectly then?
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At this point, I really have no idea what you are taking or how you are taking it. Please feel free to email me about your issues so we can try to get the thread back on topic.
 
LynxFX said:
Great preview. This is looking like it will be a great cpu for graphic artists and video production.

Now that it looks like Vegas 7b is a perminant benchmark is it possible to add one more benchmark that will give a much better result in terms of realworld rendering instead of just a simple video render?

The 2006 Render Test from VASST is in HD and requires no video, just the 120KB veg file. It will really test all aspects of a system and was built to stress multicore systems. To put it in terms of gaming benchmarks, using straight DV video is like doing a game performance benchmark using Quake, when we really want to see how it does in Crysis. :)
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I think most of our testing did a great job at stressing real world gains that could be accomplished by the systems being tested using common desktop applications found in homes throughout the USA.
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
quad core laptops? I'd say Q1 2009 the earliest

edit: ok, late 2008 maybe...
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I dont know about that, technology is making leaps and bounds these days.
 
SorienOR said:
Good read, but realy no surprises.

How about motherboard compatibility? Is it going to be a large number of core2 board will support this or do they need a later revision?
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Quoting from page 2.

Core 2 Quad Features


What about the front side bus speeds? The Core 2 Quad QX6700, like the Core 2 Extreme X6800, is running on a 1066MHz front side bus. And the other stuff? Since the QX6700 is a Conroe derivative, all the great features we’ve seen Intel introduce into their chips over the last few years are already incorporated into the Kentsfield core. Execute Disabled Bit security, SSE3 SIMD extensions, and Intel EM64T support are all included under the hood. The CPU is built on a LGA775 (Socket T) platform, and will work in every motherboard that supports Conroe based chips, with some of the older boards simply requiring a BIOS update.


As you may have heard, Intel has already launched their latest revision of the Intel 975XBX2 Bad Axe 2 motherboard, the motherboard we used for testing the Core 2 Quad QX6700. The new revision includes several BIOS updates and enhanced support for DDR2 800 memory.
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Kyle -

At the end of the article you mention "Pulling out our crystal ball, we might suggest you wait around a week and see what NVIDIA has up their sleeves in terms of their new nForce chipset for Intel Core 2"

Are we to expect a review of the newchipset (Maybe reference board?) from [H] along those same timelines?
 
SorienOR said:
Good read, but realy no surprises.

How about motherboard compatibility? Is it going to be a large number of core2 board will support this or do they need a later revision?
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Most of currently available Conroe motherboards should support Quads with nothing more than a BIOS update... Gigabyte confirmed that most of their Conroe lineup will support Quads... Me = happy Gigabyte mobo owner... :D
 
moetop said:
Kyle -

At the end of the article you mention "Pulling out our crystal ball, we might suggest you wait around a week and see what NVIDIA has up their sleeves in terms of their new nForce chipset for Intel Core 2"

Are we to expect a review of the newchipset (Maybe reference board?) from [H] along those same timelines?
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Front page: ASUS Striker Extreme Sneak Peak

The new enthusiust mobo from ASUS has the nVidia 680i SLi chipset on it. Looks like an upcoming release on the new chipset very soon, and I am thinking that it will be a better match to the quad core than current motherboards, if only for the added features and niceities it will bring.
 
VRMan said:
Good article, but I was wondering why you didn't include the AMD Dual core processor (X2) in the comparison as well?
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Because unfortunately for AMD they have nothing to compare to Intel's high-end Conroe's, let along Quads.... :eek: Visit Anandtech's site if you wanna see that carnage... :cool:
 
This thing is gonna be a beast for servers. I'm never gonna build one unless I really needed to or if I was going to be a doctor or something.
 
VRMan said:
Good article, but I was wondering why you didn't include the AMD Dual core processor (X2) in the comparison as well?
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The FX-62 is a dual core processor. It's the top of the line AMD dual core processor and is the closest AMD processor (performance and price wise) to the Intel chips reviewed.
 
whrswoldo said:
The FX-62 is a dual core processor. It's the top of the line AMD dual core processor and is the closest AMD processor (performance and price wise) to the Intel chips reviewed.
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Holy s#it!!! I was looking at the graphs and didn't even notice AMD's chip... I'm either blind or FX-62 seemed to "slow" for me to even pay attention to.... :eek: ;) j/k
 
Kyle,

We got a ton of numbers showing pure dominance.

How does the setup feel when it's getting battered?
 
I'm trying to imagine how a two quad-core Mac Pro setup will perform.


(runs quickly and shields face from debris thrown from fellow [H]'ers !!) :p :p
 
Now that I can finally talk about it - we've seen 3.2GHz overclocks on Kentsfield with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7...and that was just our initial testing. We haven't done extensive testing on air - just a few hours of Prime95 and loops of 3DMark06, but all seems well so far...you definitely need exotic cooling to get up past 3.46, though...which is what we've done the bulk of our testing on for the length of time we've had access to these processors.
 
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