The Penryn Preview - Part I: Wolfdale Performance
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 21, 2007 12:35 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Final Words
After Intel's price cuts we mentioned that despite Penryn's imminent launch, CPUs had gotten too affordable to pass up building a system now if you needed. Now that we have a general idea of clock-for-clock performance differences between Conroe and Wolfdale, we're not nearly as worried about recommending that you build systems today as we once were. There's no doubt that Wolfdale is faster clock-for-clock, but keep in mind that you won't see Wolfdale until Q1 of next year and the performance advantage simply isn't great enough to justify delaying a purchase by 6+ months if you need a system now.
AMD seems quite confident that Phenom will be able to compete with Conroe/Kentsfield; if the race is really close between those cores, Penryn could be exactly what Intel needs to remain technically ahead in performance. If Phenom is significantly faster than Conroe/Kentsfield, then it doesn't look like Penryn will be able to save Intel. We should know for sure which scenario will pan out in the not too distant future.
We've got more Penryn coverage coming, including a look at Yorkfield vs. Kentsfield so stay tuned.
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Sunrise089 - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
agree w/ 1+2vailr - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
How long will the socket 775 (for desktop machines) be around?Has Intel given a timeline forecast for replacing 775 with some other CPU socket? Any idea whether current P35 boards will support the 32 nm. Gesher CPU (assuming those will still be socket 775 form factor)?
zsdersw - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
Socket 775 will likely disappear with the introduction of Nehalem, so no.. P35 boards will almost certainly *not* support Gesher.RamarC - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
it's too bad that an upgrade now probably won't be able to handle anything beyond penryn. still a 3ghz quad core for $300 is fantastic considering that i've got 3.4ghz dual core space heater now.zsdersw - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
Well, I mean, seriously.. socket 775 has been around for a long time. The same people who complain about having to buy a different motherboard are probably the same people who would complain that they aren't getting any new features if motherboards didn't have to be changed as often. It makes no sense, but then again, that's never stopped anyone from complaining.. to be sure.I'm not saying you're one of those people, though.
vailr - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
Also, the TigerDirect.com price you have listed of $569.99 for the "Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor" is off.It's at $289.99 here:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtool...">http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...chtools/...
kleinwl - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
Why did you not post the benches for the OC of 3.22? or better yet, jack up the voltage to get a 3.33 and benchmark that? Then we could figure what the EXTREME EDITION cpu is going to do.Roy2001 - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
I guess Intel does not allow him to do that.retrospooty - Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - link
Thats a good point. To release benchies at this time must have intel's OK to do so. I am sure if they let him, he would have published. And here we are all complaining LOL .gigahertz20 - Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - link
What a tease, Anand didn't even raise the CPU core voltage. I figured you would change the CPU core voltage to see how far you could overclock this beast, right after you found 3.22GHz was your max overclock at stock voltage. I want to know how far you can push this. No soup for you!