First Look at New Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core

[FFTT]

ExtremeTech just released an article about the new Intel "Core 2 Extreme Quad" processors.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2021888,00.asp

The initial benchmarks are impressive to say the least.

We've mentioned the possibility that current Mac Pros may be pin compatible, but this article
seems to indicate that Intel "may" require another motherboard that supports DDR2/800

"The Basics
The full product name, as we noted earlier, is the Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6700. This is in line with Intel's current naming scheme for CPUs, although they never called the previous Core 2 Extreme a "Duo."

The CPU will clock at 2.66GHz with a 1066MHz effective FSB and may require a new motherboard. Intel noted that their new motherboard is an updated version of the D975XBX, which has been re-engineered to support the quad-core processor as well as DDR2/800 support. (Previous versions of the board would only support DDR2/667). It's likely that some Intel 965P-based boards will also support the QX6700, but we haven't received confirmation of that yet.

It's likely that motherboards using the Intel 975X chipset and currently advertised as "Quad Core Ready" will work fine with the QX6700.

The QX6700 is rated for at 125 TDP (thermal design power), which is slightly less than the old Pentium Extreme Edition 965 CPU. However, unless you're running four copies of Prime 95, it's unlikely that all four cores will be running full-out all the time. Some of the boutique PC vendors have clocked the CPU up to 3.2GHz on air and 3.73GHz with liquid cooling.

Since this is basically two Conroe dies in one package, it has a total of 8MB of L2 cache, with 4MB dedicated to each die. The CPU offers smart power management, so unused parts of the CPU, and entire unused cores, can be idled as needed."