Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 45nm: TechGage

[Babrbarossa]

TechGage got their grubby little hands on this QX9650 and wrote a great review pitting this CPU against two top Intel contrenders and outlining the architecture for dummies. They found no great advantage over the QX6850 in gaming, but significantly higher performance in video decoding. No overclocking unfortunately.

"The past two years have been exciting for fans of the processor world, with Intel doing their job well to keep the momentum going. Since Conroe's launch last July, Intel has successfully kept their foot atop AMD by offering products that not only outperform theirs by a significant margin, but are also offered at such low prices that only hardcore AMD fans would ponder purchasing a non-C2D product.
Everyone had hoped that AMD's Barcelona architecture would bring them back to the competitive table, but not unlike the current-gen ATI vs. NVIDIA battle, there wasn't a mark to be left. While AMD undoubtedly needs to release a product that prove to people that they haven't completely lost their grip on things, consumers have been benefiting either way."



read the article here:

Techgage - Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 - The 45nm Era Begins

[Asspigeon]

So basically faster video encoding, less power hungry but no increase for games? And Intel is only releasing the $1000 version for the moment? Despite that preview I'm still happy I went for the Q6600 when I did.

[Patriote]

Can't wait to get one.

[Babrbarossa]

Even if they're not much faster on a a clock per clock basis- we might find that they overclock to 4GHz- the new High-K gates that lessen current leakage might allow them to work very well under significantly cranked voltages. The engineering chips are looking pretty awesome anyway

[Amon]

Hmm, seems like the product is targeting a rather small technical niche. I wouldn't consider the QX9650 a successor to the current quad-core chips, but rather a 'bonus' for the relatively few who will buy it and will just be icing on Intel's recent reign.