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Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Performance July 16, 2007 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: Armed with 4 processing cores and running at 3.0GHz, Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX6850 delivers impressive performance. We've got full performance results, including overclocking, inside!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 10 ) |
Since launching Core 2, Intel has gone on to introduce quad-core variants of many of these processors -- the Core 2 Quad Q6600 for instance essentially fuses two Core 2 Duo E6600s on one package. Intel also trickled Core 2 down to lower price points earlier this year, the Core 2 Duo E4300 and E4400 are both popular choices for enthusiasts on a strict budget. But fundamentally, little has changed with Core 2 from a tech perspective: at 2.93GHz, the 1-year-old Core 2 Extreme X6800 is still one of Intel’s fastest processors for gaming.
But all that is about to change.
Starting with today’s arrival of the Core 2 Extreme QX6850, Intel will be tweaking Core 2’s architecture for more performance. As we noted in our Core 2 Duo E6750 Performance Preview article, Intel is equipping its latest Core 2 CPUs with a 1333MHz FSB. This change nets an additional 20% in peak memory bandwidth going to the CPU.
Why is this important? Because as Core 2 scales to clock speeds beyond 3GHz, the CPU pulls further away from the system bus in bandwidth. It’s important that the system bus is fast enough to keep the CPU fed with data. The system bus also plays a crucial role with today’s quad-core Core 2 processors, as it’s the system bus that is responsible for linking the two dual-core die together.
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The Core 2 Extreme QX6850
In the case of the Core 2 Extreme QX6850, you’ve got four processing cores running at 3.0GHz with a 1333MHz FSB (9.0x333). While it’s sitting on a 1333MHz system bus and running at 3.0GHz, its power consumption is similar to the Core 2 Extreme QX6800. You can also see that the QX6850 continues to rely on Intel’s LGA-775 socket and looks practically identical to Core 2 CPUs launched last year.
Although the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 is compatible with the LGA-775 socket, officially the only chipsets that are 100% compatible with Intel’s new 1333MHz FSB CPUs are the recently released Bearlake family (including the X38, P35, and G33 chipsets) and NVIDIA’s nForce 680i platform, which just requires a BIOS update to support the new processors. In fact, all of these chipsets are also designed to support Intel’s upcoming Penryn CPUs as well.
Officially motherboards based on the 975X and P965 chipsets don’t support 1333MHz CPUs.
In addition to the Core 2 Extreme QX6850, today Intel is launching three additional 1333MHz FSB CPUs: the Core 2 Duo E6550 running at 2.33GHz, the 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo E6750, and the Core 2 Duo E6850, which runs at 3.0GHz. Intel is also pulling the wraps off a new 1066MHz FSB quad-core CPU, the Core 2 Quad Q6700. The following chart outlines all the info on the new CPUs:
| Intel's Latest Core 2 CPUs | |||||
| CPU | # of Cores | Clock Speed | Front-side bus | L2 Cache | Price |
| Core 2 Extreme QX6850 | 4 | 3.0GHz | 1333MHz | 8MB | $999 |
| Core 2 Quad Q6700 | 4 | 2.66GHz | 1066MHz | 8MB | $530 |
| Core 2 Duo E6850 | 2 | 3.0GHz | 1333MHz | 4MB | $266 |
| Core 2 Duo E6750 | 2 | 2.66GHz | 1333MHz | 4MB | $183 |
| Core 2 Duo E6550 | 2 | 2.33GHz | 1333MHz | 4MB | $163 |
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As you can see, the new processors are coming with significant price cuts: bulk pricing for the E6750 is listed at just $183, that’s $133 cheaper than the price Intel was selling the Core 2 Duo E6700 for previously! Speaking of the E6700, we’ve been told that Intel will be revising their pricing for it, as well as the other Core 2 CPUs, sometime next week. As far as availability of the new CPUs is concerned, we’ve been told that the processors are shipping to OEMs now, with retail availability in the next 2 weeks.
Overclocking
Armed with the same ASUS P5K3 Deluxe and Kingston KHX11000D3LLK2/2G DDR3 memory modules we used in the E6750 article, we were eager to see how far we could push the QX6850. This time we elected to use a Scythe Infinity heatsink/fan unit for maximum cooling.
Once again we nearly hit the 4GHz mark, as the QX6850 OC’ed to 3.81GHz at 423MHz FSB. At that speed we needed 1.4875V to ensure maximum stability.
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We could actually get the CPU to run in Windows at higher speeds, but stability was iffy in some benchmarks. 3.81GHz was the highest speed that was capable of completing all our benchmark testing.
| System Setup | Page:: ( 2 / 10 ) |
System Setup
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (3.0GHz)
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3.0GHz)
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 (2.93GHz)
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 (2.33GHz)
ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium
ASUS P5K3 Deluxe
2GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3
2GB Kingston KHX11000D3LLK2/2G
EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra w/ForceWare 158.22
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
DirectX 9.0c
Benchmarks
LAME MT MP3 Encoding (MS Compiler)
DivX Converter
Windows Media Encoder 9
3DMark06
F.E.A.R. 1.08
Pacific Fighters 4.04
Quake 4 1.2
Oblivion
Company of Heroes 1.3
Cinebench 9.5
| Media encoding and rendering | Page:: ( 3 / 10 ) |
Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9
DivX Converter
LAME MT MP3 Encoding
Cinebench 9.5
Valve Particle Simulation benchmark
| 3DMark 06 and PCMark 05 | Page:: ( 4 / 10 ) |
Futuremark 3DMark06
PCMark 05
| Quake 4 | Page:: ( 5 / 10 ) |
Quake 4
| Company of Heroes | Page:: ( 6 / 10 ) |
Company of Heroes
| Lost Planet | Page:: ( 7 / 10 ) |
FEAR
| Half-Life 2 Lost Coast | Page:: ( 8 / 10 ) |
| Oblivion | Page:: ( 9 / 10 ) |
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 10 / 10 ) |
Our latest testing indicates that most games still don’t truly take advantage of quad-core chips like the QX6850 however. Lost Planet for instance, a game which has been written for multi-core, performed similarly across all the CPUs we tested with today. In the same vein, our testing in the past with STALKER, another game which was supposedly dual-core enabled, showed no performance advantage over single-core. Keep in mind that all our testing with these games is performed recording the frame rate manually with FRAPS. In other words, AI routines, sound, physics, etc, is all being handled by the CPU (we use onboard audio provided by the motherboard), so these multithreaded games should shine under our testing, but up to this point, they just don’t. What quad-core does allow you to do though is run other tasks in the background, such as video encoding or MP3 encoding while you’re gaming with a reduced performance hit. We ran benchmarks of this scenario earlier this year and saw nice performance results in favor of the quad-core CPUs.
In our encoding and rendering tests we’re using apps that really take advantage of multi-core. Quad-core shaved 12 seconds off our DivX conversion tests for instance. This, combined with the QX6850’s 1333MHz FSB resulted in very impressive results. You can also see this in our video encoding and Cinebench testing.
If there’s one negative associated with the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 though, it’s the CPU’s price. With a list price of $999 when purchased in quantities of 1,000, the CPU is by no means inexpensive. As most do-it-yourselfers know though, price is always going to be an issue when dealing with a Core 2 Extreme processor. That’s where the other Core 2 CPUs come in. With the latest round of price cuts, the E6550 and E6750 look particularly attractive if you’re shopping for a new dual-core CPU. While the arrival of the Core 2 Quad Q6700 should push Q6600 prices down. Some rumors have pegged the price of this CPU at $266!
It’s these lower priced alternatives to the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 that have our hearts racing right now. With a good motherboard, memory, and cooling, these CPUs can be pushed to very high clock speeds with a little bit of overclocking. That’s the route we’d suggest for enthusiasts on a budget right now.