Intel Core 2 Updates, QX6850 and E6750

An anonymous reader writes "As AMD's Barcelona approaches, the price war between AMD and Intel continues. To spice things up a bit this week, Intel is throwing into the ring a number of new processors, refreshing the Core2 line-up. HEXUS reviews the high-end QX6850 and mid-range E6750: 'Now is a golden time for anyone looking to buy a new CPU, whether Intel or AMD. The latest round of price cuts means you can now get an incredible level of processing performance for little more than £100. But if your need to buy is not urgent, remember that Intel and its big rival are each promising new processors before the end of the year — AMD with K10 quad-core and Intel with 45nm Penryn-derived CPUs.'"

Comments

Another review and benchmarks

[mikemuch]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2158619 ,00.asp

QX6850 costs $999USD

[Organic User]

Just in case anyone is interested in buying a new QX6850 which features 3Ghz 8mb cache quad core processor with 1,333MHz FSB. It is going to cost you $999.

Re:QX6850 costs $999USD

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, "early adopters" and all that...

BTW, is anyone else peeved at the notation "333 MHz (1333 MHz QDR)", as it was over at Hexus? I mean, the bus speed -- the data speed -- *is* really 1333 MHz, it's quite incidental that it is based on a 333 MHz source clock (using the "QDR" method of two signals half a phase out of sync and encoding at every falling and rising wawe edge, thus at four slots per clock tick). At the least it should be "1333 MHz (333 MHz QDR)" -- do these guys understand the tech they are writing reviews about?

Okay, I'm not *sure* I understand it either, but least the notation should be "1333 MHz (333 MHz QDR)" ;-)

More Details, Analysis Here, HH Review

[MojoKid]

HotHardware also has a full review up right here. They were able to take the new quad-core up to over 3.7GHz and show power consumption numbers for all the high end chips as well.

Re:Unasked, unanswered question

[bernywork]

Yes and no,

Some of the bugs will be fixed, others won't. Every CPU has bugs, it's just a fact of life. These things are designed by humans, it's just going to happen. CPU errata happens with Intel (This is the Core2 link) and AMD. None of this is a major threat to most users, and they get worked around by most people pretty quickly. Microsoft have released fixes for the Core2 issue, as have Apple. I don't know whether there has been an update to the kernel for these yet, but I am sure they would get back ported by your distribution.

There is a note here and here regarding the Core 2 bugs, I think one of these might have even become a slashdot article at one point. The two links here both are referring to Linus' comment of it being "Totally insignificant", which given that he worked for Transmeta and knows a lot more about how the industry works, I would be putting a bit of faith in his statement.

As another poster said, keep up to date on your BIOS revs, as CPU microcode does have fixes for this stuff too.

Berny

Re:Price cuts

[Emetophobe]

There's a planned price cut for Intel on July 22nd. http://www.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=4976

Q6600 2.4 1066 $530 $266
E6850 3.0 1333 - $266
E6750 2.66 1333 - $183
E6550 2.33 1333 - $163
E6540 2.33 1333 - $163

The quad core (Q6600) is getting a ~50% price cut.

Tom's Hardware

[Wicko]

Here is another by Tom's hardware, covers benchmarking the 6650 as well, and compares to all the current AMD and Intel chips in a whole wack of different benchmarks.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/16/cpu_charts_ 2007/index.html

Real Benefits on the Low End

[dlevitan]

Anandtech has a pretty good article about these releases and also about the price cuts. This is looking great for me when I build a new computer in a few months (on which I'm planning to spend $150 chip from two years ago look pathetic. Oh well.

Of course, I'll need to figure out AMD vs. Intel. I just wish Intel had a better bus design. AMD has a good bus (HT) and Intel has the best chips right now. Maybe if they merged...

Re:Price cuts

[OrangeTide]

Athlon64 X2 4000+ 2.1GHz (Brisbane-65nm) - $70

Yes, this low-end dual-core is half the price, but not half the performance. Therefor a real bargain.