Intel's Pentium Extreme Edition 965: The Last of a Dying Breed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 22, 2006 1:51 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Looking Ahead, the Conroe Comparison
Intel was well aware of what it was doing when it showed off Conroe at IDF, and it knew that there's no way that we could recommend the Pentium Extreme Edition 965 when Conroe was a little over a quarter away. If you need more of a reminder of why it will only help to wait, here are a few of the Conroe tests that we were able to run at IDF, which we duplicated on our systems here (same test configuration, test files and hardware):
But if you absolutely must spend $1000+ on a CPU today, what should you do? While the 965 has become a lot more competitive with the FX-60, our overall nod still goes to AMD. The 965 does have its strengths in 3dsmax and video encoding, so if those are areas in which you are partcularly looking for stellar performance, then the recommendation obviously swings to Intel.
With AMD's Socket-AM2 right around the corner, and Conroe not too far away, we honestly can't recommend anything but a low cost CPU today to avoid virtually immediate obsolescence. And we'll be telling you exactly what low cost CPU that would be sometime next week...
Intel was well aware of what it was doing when it showed off Conroe at IDF, and it knew that there's no way that we could recommend the Pentium Extreme Edition 965 when Conroe was a little over a quarter away. If you need more of a reminder of why it will only help to wait, here are a few of the Conroe tests that we were able to run at IDF, which we duplicated on our systems here (same test configuration, test files and hardware):
But if you absolutely must spend $1000+ on a CPU today, what should you do? While the 965 has become a lot more competitive with the FX-60, our overall nod still goes to AMD. The 965 does have its strengths in 3dsmax and video encoding, so if those are areas in which you are partcularly looking for stellar performance, then the recommendation obviously swings to Intel.
With AMD's Socket-AM2 right around the corner, and Conroe not too far away, we honestly can't recommend anything but a low cost CPU today to avoid virtually immediate obsolescence. And we'll be telling you exactly what low cost CPU that would be sometime next week...
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whitelight - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - link
what cpu do you think it is? an opty 144?
swtethan - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - link
P-D 805 probablypnyffeler - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - link
I've always been a huge supporter of AMD, but parts of me get all tingly when I think of Conroe on the horizon.Talk about switching teams...
Googer - Thursday, March 23, 2006 - link
AMD could possibly be more competitive with a 4 MB cache instead of 2MB the Current Athlon 64 has. It may or may not help much but conroe also has a 60MHz advantege over A64.BrownTown - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - link
Can we get some HT disabled tests, the replay bug really messes with these chips performance in some apps, would be nice to see how disabling HT would help in some apps. Its usually like a 50:50 split, so if you have a specific use then there is a good possibility you will likely get better performance than these benchmarks suggest in certain apps.allometry - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - link
I don't think there is anything wrong with how you feel about AMD and Intel. I think the majority of geeks have been used to rooting for the underdog, AMD, for the past couple years. AMD was cranking out superior chips in comparison to Intel's.But now, Intel is back as the powerhouse we once knew. This is competition and it is what we should have all been rooting for instead of just the underdog. Sure, it's easy to get wrapped up in the benchmarks and post ubsurd comments such as, "AMD is t3h pwnz0rz0x0x!!11", but now, it's time to be realistic and say that Intel's back with something that isn't the suck.
I'm happy with my AMD setup and in the future, if money presents itself, Intel may once again have a place in my pocket book. Let's just hope that AMD comes back with something competitive to Conroe!
Regs - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - link
The Power house we once new stood by itself with a P3 that ran quake and ms excel with the help of 3DfX voodoo. When did Intel ever have the lead in 3D games? Before the K8? This was...8 years ago? This is exactly why people route for the "underdog". As far as im concerned, AMD has always been the superior technology for gaming and overall efficiency no matter what Intel said or threw at it. We have finally reached a new cycle for processing, visual effects, and programming. AEGIA's physics processor concept, Windows Vista, Intel's conroe, AMD's new born, and DX9/DX10 gaming are right around the corner. Yes, exciting times are ahead.defter - Thursday, March 23, 2006 - link
Athlon64 was released 2.5 years ago...
MrKaz - Thursday, March 23, 2006 - link
Have you hear of Athlon, then Athlon XP, ... and it wasnt 2.5 years ago...SUNNYVALE, CA -- January 31, 2003 --AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced that the worldwide introduction of its next-generation, 64-bit AMD Opteron™ processor for servers and workstations will take place on April 22 in New York City. AMD plans to follow up with the introduction of the AMD Athlon™ 64 processor for the desktop and mobile markets in September 2003.
The first Athlon (the P3 killer and the more recent P4 killer) was released in June 23, 1999.
LoneWolf15 - Thursday, March 23, 2006 - link
The Athlon and Athlon XP were K7 chips, not K8. Therefore, the reply makes sense.