Posted on 07/14/2006 8:31:15 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Two weeks from now, Intel will release its all-new Core 2 Duo processor. The technical details were made available to the public in March 2006, and first benchmarks made clear that Intel is not joking: Core 2 Duo shall become the undisputed leader in performance and performance per Watt. It's time to separate facts from rumors.
Intel does not talk about changes to the processor architecture; it talks about a complete redesign. The engineers took elements from the current Pentium D NetBurst architecture and added ingredients that made the Pentium M and Core Duo mobile processors successful, and voilá: The Core2 micro-architecture was born. Key design goals were an ideal relation between processing performance and power consumption, which was a direct result of AMD's processors delivering better performance per Watt of energy, and the public complaining about unreasonably high power consumption and cooling requirements for Intel platforms.
For industry experts, Core 2 Duo beating the Athlon 64 processor family is no surprise: On the one hand, Core 2 Duo is a brand-new state-of-the-art processor, whereas the Athlon 64 X2 has been around for a while. On the other hand, Intel must come out with a superior product to finally beat AMD after two years of Athlon 64 headwinds.
So fasten your seatbelts, because Core 2 Duo is the new high-flyer. We will go through all technical aspects that have not been discussed on the web. So don't expect lots of architecture details (these can be found in our Spring IDF article), but hands-on testing and analysis. We will also have a look at the impact Core 2 Duo might have on AMD.
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First of all let me sort the facts: As soon as Core 2 Duo hits the market, it will...
We expect Core 2 Duo to roll out slower than Intel proclaims, so don't expect to get every model in every shop right from the start. All eyes are staring at Intel, especially after it announced decreasing revenues and layoffs. For these reasons we believe that it will do everything that is necessary to ensure a stable processor supply.
Is the game over for AMD then? By no means. The performance race might be over for the time being, but it still can look at more attractive platforms for the enthusiast customer base (for ATI Crossfire and Nvidia SLI). In addition, AMD spokesperson Damon Muzny told us earlier this week that AMD intends to adjust its processor prices to keep delivering the best price/performance for the customer. Although we do not have any numbers yet, you can be pretty sure that the price cuts will be substantial, so check processor prices before you buy! And that is not all: There are AMD's low-power Athlon 64 X2 processors, rated at 65 W and 35 W - these will help the firm to compete in the digital home space. As Intel moves towards its first quad core processor in the winter and AMD will rollout first 65 nm processors, we will certainly see the battle heating up even more.
Good news for the 1% who need that processing power
Cooled by a portable 5,000-BTU window air conditioner (heatsink not included).
All AMD has to do is remain competitive until Rev G and then K8L come out, assuming these new variants have the juice to take on the Core architecture, which I have no doubt as that K8 is one heck of a core to build from, unlike the P3 which Conroe is built from.
But this should also help lower cost for the existing systems and allow us poor slobs have a little more speed and power for less green!!!!!
The one thing it doesn't say is if the Core 2 Duo is 64bit or 32bit!
It's a back and forth battle. AMD was on top technically until now(apparently) and I suspect they will be back on top in the not too distant future.
What you can take out of this is that competition is good for consumers. Now if that would onlt be true in other areas of the economy.
And after 15 seconds of operation, you can use it as a soldering iron.
That said, Intel's newest CPUs, up against AMD's older design, are performing very well. I'm sure AMD has more up their sleeve for an answer.
I need it just for writing e-mails in answer to all those I get from Nigeria!.........
Read more carefully, these processors are far more efficient than before. The Pentium D was an energy hog, it was terrible, the new Core2Duo can even run with passive heatsinks, if you clock them down, where you STILL get alot of CPU power.
This is all thanks to that little Intel "skunworks" lab which developed the Pentium M processor. Those guys SAVED Intel. Thanks to those smarty pants over in the country of Israel.
64bit. All chips from now on will more than likely be 64bit chips, even laptop Core Duos are going to 64bit.
The Core 2 Duo will not be any form of a quantum leap over the Athlon X2 of equal clock speed, in terms of processing power. Apples versus apples. It will be more power efficient. But when you have a serious gaming computer, which is likely to be running two power-house (power consuming) vid cards in SLI, the difference in CPU power will be insiginificant to total power consumed. In smaller, lower-performance systems it may be significant.
Like alot of what Intel does, it gets over hyped, and of course, over priced.
Aint that the truth, I dare anybody here to go to there forums and post something positive about AMD the Intel nutballz there will pounce on you like flys on feces.
Isn't is a blast to cruise Freerepublic, read your email, and do word processing on the fastest PC in the world! Hey, it looks the same as on my 700 MHz machine!
I dont know the benchmarks I have seen are very impressive, and currently price-performance-power usage with the conroe blows AMD away, but remember this is a new Generation of processors so it should be expected that Intel is finall able to take out a 3-4 year old architecture from AMD.
AMD has already answered that problem, looks like intel has wized up...
My AMD64 X2 3800+ runs much cooler than the Athlon processors did, they ran hot.
Has all kinds of power...rarely sees anything that slows it down...
Since it is based on the laptop processors, it is going to be cooler than the P4. Of course, the sun is somewhat cooler than a Prescott.
It's still a good thing for Intel and the industry as a whole. Computer speed has been plateaued for some time.
Yep. And the part that still makes me giggle is that Intel was forced by the marketplace to produce an "AMD compatible" 64-bit instruction set. :-) :-)
The tables turned on that one.
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