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Intel Launches Pentium Extreme Edition 955
BSG Man writes "Intel's 3.46 GHz Pentium Extreme Edition 955 dual-core processor launches today, and
HotHardware has a full review with benchmarks on Intel's new i975X Express
based D975XBX motherboard. This processor is based on Intel's 65nm (or .065 micron) Presler core with 2MB of full speed, on-die L2 cache dedicated to each core, for
a whopping 4MB of total L2 cache. As expected,
the new Pentium Extreme Edition 955 scores well in encoding, desktop
business and a few professional rendering tests but overall it's given a run for
its money by AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core processor, especially in gaming
scenarios."
the new Pentium Extreme Edition 955 scores well in encoding, desktop business and a few professional rendering tests but overall it's given a run for its money by AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core processor, especially in gaming scenarios."
Maybe it can help Intel figure out where they're screwing up, of course most processors we've had to look at in the past two years haven't been able to crunch management code with all it's arcane logic through layers of project management, from design to marketing through financial vetting ("What I want to know is, will it in any way harm the value of stock?") around last minute bug fix and a** covering corners to actual production.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Wow, you managed to use "it's" and "its" in the same sentence, and both correctly. A /. first!
Is this a launch launch, or a paper launch?
I kinda got tired of reading about product launches that you couldn't go to a store and buy.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Pentium Processor Extreme 955
Price: $1,112.37 - $1,393.49
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.4GHz, Toledo, Dual-Core, 2x1MB L2 Cache, Socket 939, 64-bit Processor
Price: $780.74 - $1,185.00
More run, less money, it would appear.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
When I read about that 4 MB of L2 cache, I recalled that my Atari ST had 0.5 MB of regular RAM back in 1990. I'm probably too sentimental...
What games actually take advantage of those dual cores?
-------
Warning: Slashdot may contain traces of nuts.
according to TFA and their tests, processor is expensive and there is a noticable advantage in speed/power consumption with AMDs X2 over this new Pentium EE..
I guess it's a spinoff, just to test their new 65nm production process.. I suspect there is something really good cooking there in intel, for new macs heheh.. intel is in limbo for quite some time now, about time something new, "edgy" comes out.. not this.. this looks more like a test product for, er, something?
..2MB of full speed, on-die L2 cache dedicated to each core, for a whopping 4MB of total L2 cache
;)
2 x 2 = 4 ??
Holy crap that is news!!.
Be sure to calibrate your sarcasmeter.
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
With AMD, continuously beating Intel in both price and performance, it just pisses me off to see them exclusively sell Intel processors. Even in their highend gaming rigs, they use the Extreme Edition with no option of getting an AMD processor. That's just pathetic. Think of how cheap their boxes could be if they didn't force you top buy Intel and Windows.
http://religiousfreaks.com/Didn't the whole fad of labelling things "extreme" die off back around the year 2003? http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=xt reme_bullshit
Any use of the word "extreme" with regards to a silicon chip is wrong.
That said, I will withdraw my statement if this processor parachutes off of cliffs.
didnt they get the memo?
the overusage of extreme went out of style two years ago.
oh well, Intel can contine "taking it to the max"
But how fast will it run a DOS version of DOOM?
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
I've had it with Intel CPU's. They're producing too much heat. Consume too much power and the fan makes too much noise (not because it's cheap but because of the heat).
And I don't really wan't to have a 550Watts power unit in my PC just for the sake of an "Intel Inside" sticker.
I'll stay with AMD and the current Mac Generation no matter how loud and shiny their new Ad's are.
No doubt, given that it's a Hot chip.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
and
mod Europe DOWN
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article
About time Intel made a processor that gives the AMD 64 a run for it's money. But even though the new processor is using a smaller process, more L2 cache, and faster clock speeds, the AMD still comes out on top. Makes you realize how far ahead Intel is in technology, and yet how far behind they are in quality. I garuntee the next AMD X2 chips will feature the same 65nm process, and once again it will take Intel 1-2 years to make something that even comes close to it's rival.
(Thanks to PG&E I had to type this twice. Incompetant mother fuckers)
google.slashdot
They should preface these things with RSN or ADN.
Odds are you can get it, just not when you want it and when you are ready to buy it something else will be announced and you'll go back to start. This is why I had a Pentium (I) for so many years. I finally jumped off the fence and bought an Athlon 2600+ and two years later have a 64 bit MB to go into the box (if only I could bring myself to do it.)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The "Extreme" edition is marketed to gamers?
You don't say.
From the answers that have appeared so far, obviously not many. The problem is, for the longest time game developers didn't benefit much from developing highly threaded games. Most PC's couldn't take advantage of it, so why make the game that much more complex to benefit a small subset of people. AMD is _really_ pushing dual core, and in another couple of years, dual core presence will be substantial. At that point, developers _will_ have reason to spend time threading their games.
From what I can remember, ID will thread their games (they are also one of the few left that will still use opengl, that's also why you can get ID games on Linux). I don't think many game companies at this point though do either.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
I take it you've never met the kind of PHB who, while cutting costs and headcount, always finds enough money to redecorate his/her office and have the latest power-user box on their desk.
I did work at at a few jobs where the boss didn't have some absurd toy beyond his/her requirements, but there usually was someone in the organisation who did and it was rather blatant. Sharp managers make sure those who do the actual work have the better tools.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It'll be nice when Intel can break this 3.5Ghz limit..
What I find interesting is: a few years ago the fastest processor you could buy ran at about 3.1 GHz or so. Now it's around 3.5 GHz. Ten years ago, the processing speed was doubled every few years. What is keeping the speed around 3.5 GHz? Is it the processor itself, or the electronics around it that can't be made faster? Or is there no demand for faster processors? (I can hardly imagine that!)
-- Cheers!
What's next? Will AMD come out with Fast Asynchronous Redundant Technology?
I love that the Quake4 mainstream settings showed that each of the test systems ended up being GPU bound. That kinda makes it hard to take any of the graphics-based benchmark numbers seriously.
I wish the article reported numbers for the Intel chips that compare results with hyperthreading enabled vs. disabled. On servers, we routinely need to disable hyperthreading because it slows things down.
Personally, though, I don't think it matters much. I can't picture me plunking down my own cash for an Intel-powered system any time this decade.
Price?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Sounds like something you'd do in the gym, but how do you quad pump a bus? I gather your somehow sending 4 databits for each bus clock-cycle.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Millions rejoice as they discover their heating problems have been solved this winter.
Date - June 2006:
With AMD, continuously beating Intel in both price and performance, it just pisses me off to see Apple exclusively sell Intel processors. Even in their highend gaming rigs, they use the Extreme Edition with no option of getting an AMD processor. That's just pathetic. Think of how cheap their boxes could be if they didn't force you top buy Intel.
Yeah, i'll say HT slows things down (in fact, I stop listening to any "expert" that says he loves his HyperThreading). At my old job we replace a few Pentium 3's running XP to P4 2.4 and 2.6 with HT. After we had everything set up, all my users were complaining there computers we SOOOO SLOOOOW, they were begging for thier old P3's!
Hyper threading is for the dogs.
Is this because its thrashing the L2 cache, or some other reason?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
But even that's a big understatement if you looked at the actual benchmark results. Neck and neck? Come on! Please, editors, accept submissions that aren't misleading.
Pentium Processor Extreme 955
Price: $1,112.37 - $1,393.49
Eeeek!!!!
That as much as my whole new gaming PC, including monitor, cost to build from pieces-parts ordered from NewEgg. And an ordinary single-core Prescott 3.4GHz runs all my games just fine.
You, however, would have to compare it against a "true" workstation CPU. The Xeon. Not a pretend "toy." I think the AMD Opteron can hold its own against a Xeon. Just my humble opinion, however.
That's been bugging me as well, but the fact is, no, the majority of the uses people have for computers, especially in the office, just haven't changed in ten years. Sure, the types that would buy anything with the name "Extreme" will drop a grand for an erg or two more power just for bragging rights, but with everyone else, what's the point when your eleventy billion Ghz processor is idle 99.99999999% of the time?
Recycle it.
Intel Launches Pentium Extreme Edition 955; meanwhile, AMD points and laughs.
More at 11.
Remember kids, tin foil doesn't work, so use LeadHat.
You do realize that there are only minor differences between Athlon64s and Opterons as well as Pentium 4s and Xeons (the EE chips were originally Xeons (with their huge cache) but put into the consumer level pinout pacakges.
gawd that's so, like, last century dude.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Rumor has it that Dell has instructed their ODMs to start producing motherboards for AMD chips. Whether or not this will ever actually happen... Who knows?
Fight psychopharmacological mccarthyism. http://www.norml.org/
Any use of the word "extreme" with regards to a silicon chip is wrong.
Its probably named Extreme because it generates and extreme amount of heat.
Cinebench 2003 MP Render:
2.30 Ghz Dualcore G5: 45.8 Seconds
3.46 Ghz Dualcore 955: 40.5 Seconds
Cinebench 2003 Single-Proc Render:
2.30 Ghz Dualcore G5: 80.0 Seconds
3.46 Ghz Dualcore 955: 86.7 Seconds
Interesting.
heat dissipation.
... "diminishing returns" does that mean anything to them? Why not a 32MB cache!!! 128MB!!! a gig!!!
Well that and the ALU is really crap still. Sure it does well at bulk data movement tasks but compiling/crypto it's a useless core.
That and for the love of god
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
First, the fastest overclocked Intel processor was something like 7 GHz, so it is evident that the electronics are capable of substantially better performance.
Second, the new Intel chips are hyperthreaded and multicore...
The biggest limitation is moving data around, not the CPU itself. Adding HyperTransport, DMA, etc, to the CPU itself would be a Good Thing, as would doubling the width of the data bus.
Executing all possible paths is not efficient when combined with hyperthreading, as you're wasting processing elements. Probabalistic branching (where you only follow one branch, but it's the most likely) would seem more efficient and would free up more elements for better threading.
I don't believe registers are ping-pong buffered, but it would save having to wait on writes if you still need to do reads because of the difference in timing from multithread execution.
Nobody uploads microcode to CPUs, but everybody runs code that would be efficient if run internally on the CPU. It would be good if the OS could upload atomic architecture-specific hardware operations into the CPU as pseudo instructions. Save having to hunt through physical memory for common tasks that will likely fall out of cache if you rely on that.
Processor overheating is a big problem and keeps the speed down. Processor casing simply isn't optimal for keeping the internals cool. It wouldn't be hard to improve the heat transfer from the chip surface to the casing surface.
Processors aren't made from optimal materials. If you're using silicon, for example, you want something that is single isotope, stressed and allowed to crystalize slowly. It's substantially cheaper to produce flawed silicon wafers, but they will never perform as well.
Along with this, I've learned that the reason aluminium is the most popular for CPU interconnects and copper is second, with silver unused, is problems with silver being too reactive and copper being only just managable. If they could find a way to prevent the silver from reacting with the rest of the CPU - should be possible - then you'd improve speeds there, too.
Electron leakage is a problem, as it also imposes a speed limit. Not sure how you'd prevent it, but there might be ways to limit the problem. Electrons have spin. It is certainly possible to polarize something by spin, and it is certainly possible to filter by polarization. There MAY, therefore, be ways to limit the impact of leakage and therefore ways to bypass the speed limit such problems would otherwise cause.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Oh, the irony. A review of a Intel Highend processor by "Hot Hardware". All we need now is a review of the Athlon X2 by a group called CoolTech or somthing.
Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
...the French are planning on using the new Intel chips to trigger fusion reactions purely from the heat output...
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Actually, one of my favourite processors from the late 80s - the transputer - had onboard memory for exactly that purpose. You could slap on 4 gigs of external RAM if you wanted, but you could actually throw quite respectable applications into the CPU itself and never have to worry about data busses again.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I don't give a rats ass about gigahertz anymore, nor about megabytes of cache. Every CPU they still sell has "plenty" of both, and everyone is using clusters in the real world.
What I do care about is the watts, heat and JigaDollars that it costs to power and cool the thing. Especially with rooms of 100's of them.
Just got the parents both Mac Mini systems. Cheap, quiet, AND cool. No more IE Virus Engine® or Outlook Spam Engine® is just an added bonus.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
... I'd sweep the whole P4 line under the carpet and forbid anyone to mention it anymore.
:) ).
I'm saying this as a P4 owner and avid fan of Intel CPU's. But honestly nothing will impress me from Intel until they release their dual-core Pentium M chips for desktop (i.e. what Yonah is, except not for laptops
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the Intel PR ratings mean? or are they just arbritary numbers?
955 doesn't really mean anything to me.
At least AMD tries to base theirs off something tangible.
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
What I find interesting is: a few years ago the fastest processor you could buy ran at about 3.1 GHz or so. Now it's around 3.5 GHz. Ten years ago, the processing speed was doubled every few years. What is keeping the speed around 3.5 GHz? Is it the processor itself, or the electronics around it that can't be made faster? Or is there no demand for faster processors? (I can hardly imagine that!)
Well, someone must have mentioned Nazis, Hitler and/or Jews and then Godwin's Law was invoked and the thread was ended.
Oh wait!!! The processors thingy was "Moore's Law", not "Godwin's Law". I get them confused.
Nevermind.
I'd love to use this on workstations.
Make shit compile faster.
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
Does it include an Intel Extreme Graphics card? W00t!
That is so awesome it makes me want to drink a Pepsi Max and go heli-snowboarding.
... and then they built the supercollider.
is to avoid at all possible cost, buying a new pc. consider this, an embedded computer can do everything that a big power hungry one can do. the way i see it, is consumers are getting the shaft for buying pc's or servers, not only on the increased energy useage, but maintence headaches and useless reboots.
Lot's of Intel gear has kept my coffee warm over the years.
With the 9th or 10th extreeeeeme edition of Intel's old soup, will this one be hot enough to bake a potato? I mean if I wrap it up in tin foil and scale back the fan speed and add a bit of sour cream, will I have a tasty snack in 20 minutes or less? The old AMD T-bird could blow apart with heat. I'm just lookin' to cook a spud in a reasonable amount of time.
Nothing like snacks being sold while a bloody opponent is being carried off the arena
I think I still have Speedball 2 on PC-CDROM somewhere, and now I want to install and play it again!
Music is everybody's possession.
It's only publishers who think that people own it.
Fuck Beta
~John Lenno
scores well in encoding, desktop business and a few professional rendering tests but overall it's given a run for its money by AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core processor, especially in gaming scenarios
Let me get this straight - we have double the cache, 3.something GHz of speed and two cores, just so that I can start Outlook faster ?!?!?
The real market for any typical high end machine is in gaming and rendering. Sure there will be a market for people who use these machines for "encoding" but if it cant compete in a billion plus gaming market that pretty much drives a lot of hardware innovation, I'd say this thing is a waste of time for Intel.
Seriously... HotHardware's review just *suck*. Nothing about chipset performance, USB/firewire/ethernet throughput, no HD video playback, a bunch of cookie-cutter test suites every wannabe-1337 site uses... Do yourselves a pleasure, visit the techreport or anandtech instead!!!
Sun has 8 core cpus ....starts around 2grands