Intel's New Core I7-990X Extreme Edition Tested

MojoKid writes "Intel recently launched a speed bump of their flagship Extreme Edition Core i7 processor, known as the Core i7-990X. Its multiplier is unlocked and it's clocked at 3.45GHz stock speed with a Turbo Boost top-end speed of 3.73GHz. Intel claims its the fastest desktop chip on the planet; like geek tiger blood for your PC. The new Core i7-990X is also based on the 32nm Gulftown core and the performance metrics show it's easily the fastest 6-core chip for the desktop currently but of course it'll cost you as well."

Comments

Worthless review

[dc29A]

No mention of the i7 2600K that is 1/3d price for pretty much the same performance minus a few very thread oriented tests.

Re:Help

[Anonymous Coward]

Hard to say though, when you didn't tell us what those requirements are.

Maybe because he didn't ask for what CPU to buy, he asked for a good site to go to for comparisons of various models. Newegg would NOT be that site, tomshardware and anandtech would be decent places to start.

Tom's Hardware review

[metalgamer84]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-990x-extreme-edition-gulftown,2874.html

Re:magic marker?

[Skarecrow77]

if your cpu is running at 207'F, you have other things to worry about before magic marker becomes a concern. Last I checked, thermal shutdown for intel cpus was between 65'c (149'F) and 75'c (167'F) depending on model.

Re:Help

[Skarecrow77]

I'm a home user. I use virtualization (or I did. windows 7 is too good to bother with other OSes except for fun anymore).

so, I just went and checked desktop cpus. Every i7 (and extreme) cpu supports VT-x, every i5 does, every i3 does. That's all current non-budget cpus. I checked out the available celeron models, and only the very cheapest (As I said earler, sub $50) lacks VT-x. I went back further, and every core 2 extreme does, almost all the core 2 quads (Except the q8200 and q8300) do. I wasn't able to find a core 2 duo on newegg that didn't have VT-x, and at that point I quit looking. Basically, long story short, you'd have to go out of your way to buy an intel cpu that doesn't have hardware virtualization now.

Re:Help

[0100010001010011]

I usually check PassMark's CPU/Value website.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

But make sure you also compare it to the absolute benchmark too:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

Re:Help

[bev_tech_rob]

Agreed HJF. Our company dove into virtualization head first to save on hardware maintenance costs. Each blade server in a cluster running VMWare can at least run 5 or 6 Virtual Servers (probably more if we wanted to push it). VMs are great for testing new apps. Don't have to waste a physical box. If the testing doesn't work out, you can just delete the VM and try something else. Only thing lost is time. Hardware maintenance contracts aren't cheap, especially when your server count runs into the hundreds of boxes....