Fireblade
01-11-2007, 12:35
It's a few days old now, but PC Pro (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/133613/intels-penryn-core-2-processor-the-first-results.html)'s review of it (dated 29th October), makes for interesting reading nonetheless...
Our test CPU was the top-end quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX9650, running at 3GHz.
Bus speed and preferred chipset are identical to the current top-end part, the Core 2 Extreme QX6850, with a 1,333MHz front-side bus running on either a P35 or X38 chipset-based board.
That allowed us to undertake a direct, clock-for-clock comparison on performance between the previous part at the same clock speed.
The message from these results is that if you have a current-generation quad-core CPU, you won't gain much performance by upgrading, although you'll almost certainly get a more overclockable part.
The first-generation Penryn is by no means a disaster, but big performance gains will only come once the higher-clocked parts that 45nm will allow are released.
As an indication of its potential... Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/29/intel_penryn_4ghz_with_air_cooling/) have got it to 4Ghz - on air cooling!
Our test CPU was the top-end quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX9650, running at 3GHz.
Bus speed and preferred chipset are identical to the current top-end part, the Core 2 Extreme QX6850, with a 1,333MHz front-side bus running on either a P35 or X38 chipset-based board.
That allowed us to undertake a direct, clock-for-clock comparison on performance between the previous part at the same clock speed.
The message from these results is that if you have a current-generation quad-core CPU, you won't gain much performance by upgrading, although you'll almost certainly get a more overclockable part.
The first-generation Penryn is by no means a disaster, but big performance gains will only come once the higher-clocked parts that 45nm will allow are released.
As an indication of its potential... Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/29/intel_penryn_4ghz_with_air_cooling/) have got it to 4Ghz - on air cooling!