QX9770 Reviewed! It's FAST!

Scotty_SFF

Gawd
Joined
Jun 2, 2006
Messages
590
Full review

Thats one bitching 3.2GHz CPU, with a 1600MHz FSB! and only eating up 1.25 volts?!?!

It's faster than the QX9650 as you would expect, but that 0.20GHz costs alot! Just $1200USD or £750...

With air cooling they took it easily to a round 4GHz.
 
:DHoly....

Bumping up the voltage to 1.4V in the BIOS and increasing the multiplier until failure, we managed an easy-as-pie overclock to 4GHz. Remember, the processor was kept in check by an AKASA AK-965 cooler, and we're adamant that it would go comfortably higher with, say, watercooling.

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"The extra clockspeed provides around 25 per cent extra performance, clearly. "
 
I'd love to have one of those, but I think the QX9650 is a better buy if you are going for any of the Extreme Edition CPUs.
 
The MSRP and the 1600MHz FSB of the QX9770 will limit your motherboard choices.

if i pick up a qx9770 will it just downclock it to 1333fsb? :confused: on my dx38bt.

Do you think theres a chance intel will add 1600fsb suppport to my mobo or is my only option overclocking from 333 to 400.
 
Simply put, any motherboard that doesn't support this CPU will still work, but it will simply underclock the processor down to the supported FSB speed. You can just put the speed up in the BIOS. Whether your FSB can handle the higher speed is a different matter, but 99% of them can anyway.
 
if i pick up a qx9770 will it just downclock it to 1333fsb? :confused: on my dx38bt.

Do you think theres a chance intel will add 1600fsb suppport to the dx38bt? or only option will be overclocking from 333 to 400

1600MHz FSB support will be up to manufacturers to validate. Intel will never upgrade X38 in its' current form to do so. Their own boards will probably follow the specifications to the letter. That doesn't mean that their highest end board won't be overclockable to 1600MHz FSB speeds, but official support won't be added if Intel's past behavior on such matters is any guideline.

You can downclock the FSB of the QX9770 and raise the multiplier to compensate for it, but I for one wouldn't. It just seems wrong to buy a QX9770 and throw it on a motherboard that doesn't properly support it. I'm also not 100% sure that the QX9770 will downgrade it's FSB if installed on X38 motherboards. It probably will, but I'm not 100% sure of that.
 
1600MHz FSB support will be up to manufacturers to validate. Intel will never upgrade X38 in its' current form to do so. Their own boards will probably follow the specifications to the letter. That doesn't mean that their highest end board won't be overclockable to 1600MHz FSB speeds, but official support won't be added if Intel's past behavior on such matters is any guideline.

You can downclock the FSB of the QX9770 and raise the multiplier to compensate for it, but I for one wouldn't. It just seems wrong to buy a QX9770 and throw it on a motherboard that doesn't properly support it. I'm also not 100% sure that the QX9770 will downgrade it's FSB if installed on X38 motherboards. It probably will, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

I don't see any reason why the QX9770 wouldn't work at 333 fsb. Toms hardware did a review of the QX9770 (a real one this time), and they used the gigabyte DQ6 x38 mobo, which intel told them to review the chip with (an x38 chipset). But according to toms, intel won't honor the warranty if you use it on the x38, they will only allow it on the x48, plus im guessing w/e nvidia can come out with that can do 1600 fsb.

If your already spending 1100ish for a QX9650, I don't see why it would be a problem for any of you to spend an extra 100-200 for the QX9770, for the higher FSB. You will prob end up having to downclock it anyways to overclock anyways.
 
I don't see any reason why the QX9770 wouldn't work at 333 fsb. Toms hardware did a review of the QX9770 (a real one this time), and they used the gigabyte DQ6 x38 mobo, which intel told them to review the chip with (an x38 chipset). But according to toms, intel won't honor the warranty if you use it on the x38, they will only allow it on the x48, plus im guessing w/e nvidia can come out with that can do 1600 fsb.

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work either. I'm just saying that it is a possibility. If Toms hard no problem with it, that doesn't necessarily make it so. I'm not sure if their CPU was a retail sample or not.

If your already spending 1100ish for a QX9650, I don't see why it would be a problem for any of you to spend an extra 100-200 for the QX9770, for the higher FSB. You will prob end up having to downclock it anyways to overclock anyways.

Why would you have to downclock the FSB to overclock an Extreme Edition CPU? They are multiplier unlocked. You don't need to adjust the FSB at all to overclock one. In fact even if it did down clock, all you would need to do to compensate for that is adjusting the multiplier upward. My only concern, is that the CPU will require a 1600MHz FSB capable motherboard, and wouldn't necessarily work on a 1333MHz FSB rated board. Again I have no reason to think that it would, but it is a concern of mine. I seem to recall Intel doing this with the first 1066MHz FSB CPUs. I could be wrong, I was doing more work with AMD based machines at that time. As for the price, the QX9650 can be purchased for $1063. The QX9770 will cost at least $1199.99 until the CPU supply gets where it needs to be. Granted if you are willing to drop $1,000 on a CPU why would another $200 make a difference? Well it probably doesn't. I will say that I think the QX9650 is the better buy mainly because it is cheaper, and being that they are both multiplier unlocked, the difference between the two in terms of OC potential is probably minimal if anything.

I've been thinking about buying a QX9650, but honestly I'll probably wait until the QX9770's become readily available. I'll wait until that happens and see what their actual prices are before I decide for sure.
 
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