9.5

Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor QX6700 Review

Intel are once again the current market leaders in processor designs and with the introduction of the dual-core Conroe processors, Intel have raced past AMD in terms of power and performance. However as the processor market never remains static at the moment, Intel have upped the ante with their latest addition, the Intel Core 2 Extremely Processor QX6700 that not only features two cores but four!

The Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor QX6700 features the new Kentsfield micro-architecture that is based on the quad-core 65nm design that features an unbelievable four cores with dual 4MB L2 cache with a 1066Mhz front-speed bus and a minimal thermal output of only 130 watts. With a clock speed of 2.66Ghz, the QX6700 once again proves that a high gigahertz is not need with dual and quad core processors.

With this in mind, the QX6700 only uses 1.34 volts of power, unlike non-core models that need huge heat sinks and fans to keep the core cool. Thankfully this is a thing of the past with the new Conroe and Kentsfield processors.

Features

The high end just got higher. Whether it's encoding, rendering, editing, or streaming, make the most of your professional-grade multimedia applications with a PC powered by the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor. With four processing cores and up to 8MB of shared L2 cache¹ and up to 1066 MHz Front Side Bus, more intensive entertainment and more multitasking can bring a multimedia powerhouse to your house.

• Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution, enabling delivery of more instructions per clock cycle to improve execution time and energy efficiency

• Intel® Intelligent Power Capability, designed to deliver more energy-efficient performance and smarter battery performance in your laptop

• Intel® Smart Memory Access, improving system performance by optimizing the use of the available data bandwidth

• Intel® Advanced Smart Cache, providing a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for multi-core and dual-core processors

• Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost, accelerating a broad range of applications, including video, speech and image, photo processing, encryption, financial, engineering and scientific applications

• Make highly threaded applications happy. Get in on the increasing number of highly threaded programs with quad-core technology from Intel. With four processing cores, an Intel Core 2 Quad processor-based PC will fuel more intensive entertainment and more media multitasking than ever.

HD Video Publishing: Performance 1Adobe* Premier* Pro 2.0 Complete videos2 converted in an hour Time to convert a 10 sec clip into wmv format Performance Delta3 Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor QX6700 10 1 min   + 98% faster Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor X6800 6 1 mins 28 sec + 35% faster Intel® Pentium® Extreme Edition 965 5 1 min 59 sec Baseline 3Pinnacle* Studio 10.6 Complete videos2 converted in an hour Time to convert a 24 sec HDV MPEG-2 into wmv format Performance Delta4 Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor QX6700 4   4 mins 51 sec + 85% faster Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor X6800 3   7 mins 40 sec + 17% faster Intel® Pentium® Extreme Edition 965 2   8 mins 59 sec Baseline

PCMark05 Professional (System)
 

QX6700	(7548)
Core 2 Extreme X6800	(7634)
Core 2 Duo E6700	(7348)
Pentium EE 955	(6348)
Pentium D 950	(5934)

PCMark05 Professional (Memory)
 

QX6700	(5830)
Core 2 Extreme X6800	(6023)
Core 2 Duo E6700	(5730)
Pentium EE 955	(4903)
Pentium D 950	(4302)

PCMark05 Professional (CPU)
 

QX6700	(6912)
Core 2 Extreme X6800	(7501)
Core 2 Duo E6700	(6734)
Pentium EE 955	(6129)
Pentium D 950	(5458)

As you can see from the results, the QX6700 performed remarkable well, however software really needs to support quad-core processing in order to experience the full benefits of this technology. This software is designed for single-core processors though but it does give an indication of where things are headed.

3DMark06 Professional

3DMark06 is the latest version in the popular 3DMark series of gaming benchmarks and requires DirectX 9.0 compatibility to truly give your computer that professional graphical edge4. 3DMark06 was used to measure a variety number of graphical aspects of the operating system under the powerful DirectX 9.0 with a default resolution of 1280x1024 in32 bit. Great results for another software package that does not yet support quad-core or dual-core processors.
 

Core 2 Extreme X6800	(2594)
Core 2 Duo E6700	(2312)
Pentium EE 955	(1999)
Pentium D 950	(1723)

Sandra 2007 Benchmarking

SiSoftware's Sandra 2007 was another benchmarking program that was used to re-test real-world benchmarking which is also the world leader in benchmarking software that also has the ability to compare the processor to almost every CPU in existence.

Sandra 2007 CPU Arithmetic

QX6700	(49462)
Core 2 Extreme X6800	(34567)
Core Duo E6700	(24662)
Pentium EE 955	(19234)
Pentium D 950	(17438)

Sandra 2007 CPU Multimedia

QX6700	(255181)
Core 2 Extreme X6800	(206143)
Core Duo E6700	(167234)
Pentium EE 955	(74325)
Pentium D 950	(69324)

With real-world application tests,  the quad core processor showed some quite remarkable improvements between 10 - 70% with software packages such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft office 2003 and PowerDirector Premium v5 (respective). Needless to say, the processor performed exceptionally well with all productivity software whether it was rendering, number crunching or editing movies, the QX6700 is definitely a winner in the field.

Gaming

Quake 4 is the latest in 3D first-person shooters from id Software and Raven and although based on the DOOM 3 engine, the graphics are amazing and is a true benchmark for modern CPU's and graphic cards. As with Quake 4, the Core CPU's scored equally similar results in Doom 3. Although the scores for Quake 4 and Doom 3 were similar to the X6800 processor, what really made the processor move above others was games running at a resolution of 1600x1200 which on all occasions, the QX6700 beat them hands down. It only scored similar scores or slightly higher scores in resolutions of 1280x1024. Needless to say, game developers need to support quad-core processors before games really show some major improvements.

Quake 4
 

QX6700	(225.3)
Core 2 Extreme X6800	(232.4)
Core Duo E6700	(221.4)
Pentium EE 955	(185.3)
Pentium D 950	(175.3)

Doom 3
 

QX6700	(213.1)
Core 2 Extreme X6800	(212.4)
Core Duo E6700	(201.4)
Pentium EE 955	(145.1)
Pentium D 950	(135.2)

In conclusion, the Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor QX6700 is definitely a must have for those wanting the best possible performance from their PC's but bare in mind that gamers who expect a huge performance increase will unfortunately be slightly disappointed, although their is a difference, the majority of software currently available has been programmed for single-core and more recently dual-core processors, so you may have a core or three sitting patiently until developers finally PC software to the next evolutionary stage with application and gaming performance that ten years ago would have been unheard of.