Higher Clock Speeds, No TLB Issues and Better Pricing: The New Phenom
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 27, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Wolfy, How Fast Art Thou?
One of the first things we did when we got our hands on Intel's 45nm quad core parts was determine if they were any faster than the 65nm chips at the same frequency. It turns out that the performance difference wasn't huge, but the power savings at the (theoretically) same cost makes the move to 45nm a step forward.
We never did the same for the 45nm dual core (Wolfdale) parts, so here you go.
The new retail Wolfdale (45nm dual core) based CPUs come with a super low profile, very quiet heatsink:
The old heatsink (left), the new heatsink (right)
It's so cute
Intel is taking power and performance per watt more seriously now than ever before, you can expect its next designs (Nehalem and beyond) to be even more impressive in this regard.
The average performance increase for Intel's 45nm Wolfdale based Core 2 Duo is exactly 4%, which isn't quite as big as what we saw in the Q9300 vs. Q6600 comparison but still something. There are definite, tangible gains in some applications but we're mostly looking at single digital percentage improvements here.
Let's have a look at power:
| System Idle Power | System Load Power | |
| Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66GHz) | 114W | 138W |
| Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66GHz) | 116W | 158W |
Power improves, but not as much as the Q9300 did over the Q6600, partially because cache sizes have actually gone up in this case (4MB to 6MB) while they went down with the Q9300 (8MB to 6MB).
We're not expecting to see price parity between the 45nm and 65nm Core 2 Duos until Q3 of this year, waiting will obviously give you a faster, cooler running chip - but not necessarily by a huge amount.
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ap90033 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
Amen brother, I had the Athlon 64 when it ruled, but now i have E8400 since it smokes AMD's best...So I guess I am an AMD/Intel Fan BOY!!!
No offense but this artlicle had a very strong slant towards AMD, even though Intel destroys their newest and best with a 1+ year old chip. Dont you find that the least bit odd....? If anyone is sounding like a "Fanboy" I would say it would have to be you Mr. Crusader for AMD. LOL
Dude when you get to where I am you will see, it doesnt matter what the fluff is, get the FACTS and decide with your dollars there... Sheesh...
AssBall - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
I thought it was a very well written article. I didn't get any OMGAMDFTW out of it like you apparently did. Your "Man" would not be up already if AMD wasn't still churning these new procs out. Good luck finding those special Intel prices then.Olaf van der Spek - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
> We get the impression that there are some speed paths that could be optimized on the current B2 and B3 Phenoms that simply aren't because of a very sensible thought process.I'm wondering why those speed paths haven't been fixed before the first launch. Certainly it wasn't good for AMD to only introduce them at low clock frequencies.
Visual - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
It's really disheartening for a "fanboy" like me to see AMD beaten all over the board again.I may very well build a system or two with AMD parts because of the 780G chipset and its great budget video performance, but for a full-blown performance system i'll certainly go with Intel now.
AMD better hurry up with their 45nm tech, its way overdue.
Griswold - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
"AMD better hurry up with their 45nm tech, its way overdue."You're right, Intel has been selling 45nm parts for like a year now... oh wait, no they havent.
If you meant overdue as in they need it to (hopefully) achieve higher clock speeds and lower power consumption in addition to lower production cost, then you got that right.
If they keep their schedule with 45nm, they will have narrowed the gap between process shrinks vs. intel a bit again - which is good. But things like that dont happen overnight.
MoonRocket - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
Can anyone identify the case on the 3ghz where are you page?Looks interesting.
AmberClad - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
It looks like the CoolerMaster Stacker 830 to me.dnz - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
We musn't forget how great an overclocker the Q6600 is. My system is running at 3.2GHz (8x400) and I'm using cheap DDR2-800 RAM. The Q9300 may have some advantages but overclocking it is going to require some VERY expensive RAM.Griswold - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
First you'll need an good mobo that can deliver high FSB for these 45nm quads. RAM is secondary (can always use a divider if needed).ui5200 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link
Maybe this will cause intel to finally release the latest Dual and Quad core chips (oh like the E8400 that's been 'out of stock' for months)? Or is this another paper launch ?