Intel's Pentium Extreme Edition 955: 65nm, 4 threads and 376M transistors
by Anand Lal Shimpi on December 30, 2005 11:36 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Final Words
The Pentium Extreme Edition 955 finally starts to bring some respectable performance to Intel's high end processors, but there is no clear cut victory. In applications and usage scenarios where the EE's ability to execute four threads simultaneously comes into play, it generally can remain quite competitive with the Athlon 64 X2 4800+. However, looking at older applications, single threaded scenarios and some multithreaded applications that aren't optimized for more than two threads, the EE 955 falls significantly behind.
There are a few other conclusions that we can draw based on what we've seen thus far. For starters, Hyper Threading is quite important to the performance of the Extreme Edition 955. While it isn't always perfect, when under very heavy multitasking loads, the ability to execute more threads translates into better overall performance for the entire system.
We've also been able to take an early look at the state of multithreaded game development, through the latest Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4 patches. Although the performance in CoD2 was terrible in SMP mode, Quake 4 gave us some hope, with performance gains approaching the 50% mark on dual core processors at CPU bound resolutions.
As far as the processor at hand is concerned, Intel has done a reasonable job with the Pentium EE 955, but with Conroe not too far away, we just can't justify recommending it. If you absolutely must upgrade today, the Athlon 64 X2 is still probably going to be a better bang for your buck. However, as we have seen in the benchmarks, there are advantages to being able to execute four threads simultaneously.
It is pretty much a toss-up at this point, but we'd recommend sticking with AMD for now and re-evaluating Intel's offerings when Conroe arrives. If all goes well, we will have a cooler running, faster processor with Conroe that may provide some even tougher competition for AMD's Athlon 64 X2.
While we're not emphatically recommending Intel's latest and greatest, we are impressed with Intel's transition to 65nm thus far. If Intel can use Cedar Mill and Presler to ramp up their 65nm process, hopefully it will be primed and ready for Conroe's introduction later this year. From what we've seen of Yonah, Intel does have their work cut out for them in order to truly regain the performance crown with Conroe, but anything is possible. A successful migration to 65nm would be a definite step in the right direction for Intel.
More than anything, we're hoping not to be disappointed by Conroe. We vividly remember recommending to wait for the original Pentium 4's release and then once more for Prescott's release, and both times being terribly disappointed by Intel's decisions. Let's hope that with the Pentium M team at the helm, Conroe's introduction will be a change of tradition for Intel.
The Pentium Extreme Edition 955 finally starts to bring some respectable performance to Intel's high end processors, but there is no clear cut victory. In applications and usage scenarios where the EE's ability to execute four threads simultaneously comes into play, it generally can remain quite competitive with the Athlon 64 X2 4800+. However, looking at older applications, single threaded scenarios and some multithreaded applications that aren't optimized for more than two threads, the EE 955 falls significantly behind.
There are a few other conclusions that we can draw based on what we've seen thus far. For starters, Hyper Threading is quite important to the performance of the Extreme Edition 955. While it isn't always perfect, when under very heavy multitasking loads, the ability to execute more threads translates into better overall performance for the entire system.
We've also been able to take an early look at the state of multithreaded game development, through the latest Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4 patches. Although the performance in CoD2 was terrible in SMP mode, Quake 4 gave us some hope, with performance gains approaching the 50% mark on dual core processors at CPU bound resolutions.
As far as the processor at hand is concerned, Intel has done a reasonable job with the Pentium EE 955, but with Conroe not too far away, we just can't justify recommending it. If you absolutely must upgrade today, the Athlon 64 X2 is still probably going to be a better bang for your buck. However, as we have seen in the benchmarks, there are advantages to being able to execute four threads simultaneously.
It is pretty much a toss-up at this point, but we'd recommend sticking with AMD for now and re-evaluating Intel's offerings when Conroe arrives. If all goes well, we will have a cooler running, faster processor with Conroe that may provide some even tougher competition for AMD's Athlon 64 X2.
While we're not emphatically recommending Intel's latest and greatest, we are impressed with Intel's transition to 65nm thus far. If Intel can use Cedar Mill and Presler to ramp up their 65nm process, hopefully it will be primed and ready for Conroe's introduction later this year. From what we've seen of Yonah, Intel does have their work cut out for them in order to truly regain the performance crown with Conroe, but anything is possible. A successful migration to 65nm would be a definite step in the right direction for Intel.
More than anything, we're hoping not to be disappointed by Conroe. We vividly remember recommending to wait for the original Pentium 4's release and then once more for Prescott's release, and both times being terribly disappointed by Intel's decisions. Let's hope that with the Pentium M team at the helm, Conroe's introduction will be a change of tradition for Intel.
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Betwon - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
NO.The speed is still very slow for AMD--latency 101ns. Even it is slow than the latency of RAM(5x ns -- 8x ns)
With so large a latency, we don't find any benefits for those apps which communicate frequently between 2 cores. But it will hurt the performance.
The best way for core-communication -- share L2 cache. The latency of yonah will be very low, much faster than AthlonX2 and Presler.
mlittl3 - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
Not to mention the crossbar switch would not be possible if the dies were separated. Remember AMD did dual-core the right way by bringing the memory controller on die and using the crossbar switch to switch memory communications between the two cores with little latency. If the dies were separated the crossbar switch would have to be moved off die and that would make the whole point of on-die memory controller, well, pointless really.ricardo dawkins - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
S939 AMD chip when these chips are phasing out by M2 and the like or i'm crazy ?Calin - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Because you can still find good processors for socket 754. Socket 939 will become the "value" or "mid-range" socket for AMD, and not the premier one (like it is now). New chips will come to socket 939, but the top of the line will be the new M2 - so a new 939 now is a good investment, that should be upgradable in a couple of yearsGriswold - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
Would you rather recommend presler when the next big thing will yet again bring a new socket?ricardo dawkins - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
Are you dead sure Conroe will need a new socket ?...LGA775 is with us for a few more years..stop spreading FUD. BTW, I'm not a intel fanboy but I read a lot of news.coldpower27 - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
No your correct, there are images of the Conroe processor showing that it pin out is LGA775. I predict most likely we will ditch LGA775 when Intel ditiches NetBurst FSB technology in favor of CSI in 2008.JarredWalton - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
Conroe should be socket 775, but it appears that it will require a new chipset - possibly 965/Broadwater, but it might also be something else. I am almost positive that 945/955 *won't* support the next gen Intel chips, which is too bad.michaelpatrick33 - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
The power draw numbers from other websites are nothing short of frightening for Intel. They have closed the gap with AMD's current X2 4800 but at double the power draw. It is getting ridiculous that a 65nm processor uses more power at idle than a competitor's 90nm draw at full load. Conroe is the true competitor to AMD in 2006 and it will be interesting to see the power numbers for the FX-60 and new AMD socket early next year.Spacecomber - Friday, December 30, 2005 - link
I thought that part of the big news coming out in prior reviews of this chip was its overclocking potential. Not that anyone would necessarily buy this processor in order to overclock it, but it was suggestive of what the core was capable of.Unless I overlooked it, overclocking wasn't mentioned in this article.
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