Conclusion

Intel has pulled off a pretty remarkable achievement with the Core 2 Extreme QX9650’s Yorkfield core. Not only do we get the lower power consumption and operating temperatures its 45-nm manufacturing process brings, but thanks to its massive 12MB L2 cache, we saw tangible performance improvements as well. The exact amount varies from app-to-app, with the performance increase generally ranging anywhere from 9-16% faster than a comparably-equipped Core 2 Extreme CPU running at the same clock speed.

Performance improves even more dramatically in apps that are SSE4 enabled. If you haven’t checked out our performance tests with VirtualDub and DivX on page 4, we highly suggest you take a look at those scores on the bottom of the page.

Meanwhile, enthusiasts who overclock will love Penryn’s scaling potential. In our testing, the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 chip ran 15-20 degrees cooler than its predecessor, the Core 2 Extreme QX6850. We have a feeling this really helped us when it came to overclocking the processor.

With the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Intel has basically established new benchmarks in performance and power consumption: the performance per watt of this chip is simply through the roof! This is easily the best processor in the world right now, bar none.

All this performance certainly won’t come cheap though. As an Extreme CPU, we would be shocked if the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 sold for anything less than $999, which is the price Intel has sold Extreme processors for several years now. Spending $1,000 on a product that’s going to be obsolete in a matter of months is never a wise investment. We think the majority of our readers would be best served by waiting for the prices to come down a little. Remember, earlier this year the Core 2 Q6600 sold for $851. Today you can find the processor selling for under $300!

Now we eagerly await AMD’s counter to Penryn – Phenom. Intel has set the bar high with the Core 2 Extreme QX9650, so AMD will have their work cut out for them, but we have a strong feeling that they’re up for the challenge. Of course, based on how easily we were able to OC our QX9650 chip we wouldn’t be surprised if Intel countered with another Yorkfield part, but we’ll just have to wait and see how everything plays out…