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The Fastest Processor You Can't Run
auld_wyrm writes "Intel is trying to push the news of AMD's Barcelona launch out of the headlines with the release of the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770, a 3.20 GHz CPU that runs on a 1600 MHz front-side bus. It is the fastest consumer level processor that has come out, but don't plan on running it anytime soon. The ~$1200 price tag, and the lack of any motherboards that support a 1600MHz FSB will stop this unneeded answer to Barcelona from appearing in enthusiast's PCs for Christmas. Still, the benchmarks from this powerful CPU are something awesome to behold."
Good thing technology is making big leaps as you are going to need this, a solid state 1 TB hard drive and around 20 gigs of RAM to make Windows 7 to run at even a Vista level!
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
There are motherboards that support it. Just not "production" motherboards.
It's worse than that even - the processor doesn't exist yet either!
Intel had them overclock an existing Core 2 Quad Extreme to perform the "benchmarks".
Check out the article on Toms Hardware Guide:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Intel-QX9770-X48-X38-QX9650,review-29749.html
You don't. You just issue a press release.
Reminds me of all that stuff I read for years in Pop Science and Pop Mechanics -- ultra cool stuff you'll never lay your hands on. Well, this will be available, but probably not for 6 months. Meanwhile, I'm not about to upgrade my mobo for it anyway. I work in Photoshop on an Athlon 64, the cheapest one available about a year ago, and it's still no issue of speed, memory is the problem, having enough of it. Need mobos which can hold 16 GB of memory, not faster CPUs.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
FTA:
"...The Intel X48 chipset is a refresh of the X38 chipset aimed at the high end desktop market. It will be the first chipset to support 1600 MHz FSB parts (though current boards do as well in some cases) and will have unlocked bus ratios for improved overclocking ability. So there really isn't much change from the X38 chipset -- and in fact most X38 motherboards aimed at the enthusiast will probably support 1600 MHz FSB processors anyway. For my testing I used the Asus P5E3 Deluxe motherboard based on the X38 chipset to run the QX9770 and it ran without an issue.... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=484
Sounds like many existing Intel X38 chipset mainboards will work with the QX9770, and I'd bet Intel's DX38BT can run it, (but probably at FSB 1,333MHz) http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/DX38BT/index.htm
According to the Anandtech review they gave them a real (though pre-production) CPU, and only had them overclock an existing motherboard - merely overclocking an existing processor wouldn't account for the massive differences in power usage.
Advanced users are users too!
Indeed. There is no "overkill"; there is only "open fire" and "I need to reload." ((Thanks to Schlock Mercenary.))
Outside of giant clusters, is anybody running Barcelona yet either? I have been unable to find any systems available for purchase. Word on the street is January before they are available in quantity to the general public.
All is Number -Pythagoras.
You know bloody well it'll take 24 GB of memory to actually run an office app!
It'll also demand a 4GB videocard with a GPU strong enough to process all SETI requests ever in about 20 minutes
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Yes. In fact, Linux on this CPU can run infinite loops in five seconds.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Do you make your own shoes and clothes or do you go out and buy them from "other" people outside of your household? Do you milk your own cow in your backyard or do you buy your milk at the grocery store? My guess is that you do what you do best in exchange for money and trade it for things that other make more efficiently. That way the total amount of production is greater because you and others are specializing in what you make. For the same reason it would be stupid to make all your own goods inside your own household it would be stupid for a country to make all of its goods inside of its borders. Comparative advantage increases division of labor which increases total production(AKA you become more wealthy). Making everything yourself is a good way to make yourself extremely poor.
Creative Demolition
ARM is british designed. SH4 is Japanese designed. Nobody else has produced anything remotely comparable to x86 because x86 sucks. There's a lot of smart people polishing that turd, but it's still a turd.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Anandtech had a good insight about this release. I'll just quote it directly instead of trying to paraphrase:
"Almost as soon as we had Phenom samples, Intel made the decision to sample a CPU requiring a FSB that wasn't officially supported by any chipset at the time. No, 1600MHz FSB support won't come until next year with the X48 chipset, but it didn't matter to Intel; we were getting chips now.
Take a moment to understand the gravity of what I just said; Intel, the company that would hardly acknowledge overclocking, was now sampling a CPU that required overclocking to run at stock speeds. Even more telling is that Intel got the approval of upper management to sample these unreleased processors, requiring an unreleased chipset, in a matter of weeks. This is Intel we're talking about here, the larger of the two companies, the Titanic, performing maneuvers with the urgency of a speed boat.
It's scary enough for AMD that Intel has the faster processor, but these days Intel is also the more agile company."
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3153&p=2
Conversely, it allows developers to write programs that are easier to debug, faster to develop, and easier to add features to (that yes, take up more CPU cycles than an obfuscated, buggy "optimized" application).
Jeremy