Intel Delivers 'Hard-Core' Eight-Core Platform for PC Performance Aficionados

Physorg.com ^ | 19 February 2008 | Staff

[ShadowAce]

For those who crave more performance than what four processing cores and a single graphics card can deliver today, Intel Corporation has introduced the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform. Formerly codenamed "Skulltrail," this is one of the first enthusiast desktop platforms to support two Intel quad core processors for a total of eight processing engines and a choice of multi-card graphics solutions from either ATI or NVIDIA.

"When it comes to delivering innovation to the ultimate enthusiast, our new 8-core desktop platform is a winner," said Jeff McCrea, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Home Group. "The ground-breaking Intel Desktop Board D5400XS enables the flexibility to pair a variety of quad graphics solutions with two of our fastest desktop processors. The result is stunning PC performance."

The Intel Desktop Board D5400XS, when paired with two Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors, forms the foundation of the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform. Hardcore gamers will welcome the opportunity to enjoy multiple simultaneous graphics card solutions featuring either NVIDIA SLI or ATI Crossfire for today's latest graphics-intensive titles. And the performance of eight processing cores is especially welcomed by the 3-D animators, digital audio artists and high-definition video editors behind the coolest games here at the Game Developers Conference.

"For the team creating world-class games here at id, time is one of our most valuable assets," said Robert A. Duffy, Programming Director, id Software. "Having eight powerful Intel cores in a single machine helps our team create and test our latest titles at record speed. We have seen one of our most time-consuming asset generation processes cut from over 4 hours to under 20 minutes by utilizing all eight cores and threading the generation code. Long term this translates to better games on the market faster than previously possible."

As high-definition video becomes more prevalent than ever, encoding and editing is a task that more power users are looking to their PC to do for them. Such workloads are handled with ease by this new platform, and video developers such as DivX are excited about the possibilities.

"By optimizing our codec to take advantage of these eight cores, we're seeing very impressive performance gains in our labs," said Jerome Vashisht-Rota, co-founder of DivX Inc. "Natively supporting eight core technology allows us to significantly accelerate codec performance for processor intensive applications like the encoding of high-definition video on the PC so that we can continue to offer our users the high-quality digital video experience they have come to expect."

Each Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX9775 offers 12MB of L2 cache, a fast 1600 MHz system bus and four cores running at a brisk 3.2 GHz. When paired on the dual-socket Intel Desktop Board D5400XS, this platform breezes through modern benchmarks and advanced workloads. For experienced enthusiasts who desire more capability, the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor bus ratio locks (overspeed protection) have been removed. This offers added technical flexibility in customizing the system so OEMs can unleash even more performance.

"This dual processor platform is the fastest desktop PC we've ever tested in our labs, reaching a score of 6481 on 3DMark06 CPU and 20,160 on Cinebench 10 even while running at the standard 3.20 GHz frequency," says Shervin Kheradpir, director of Intel performance benchmarking.

The Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX9775 is available now at an MSRP of $1,499 each. Estimated street pricing for the Intel Desktop Board D5400XS is $649. Platform components are sold separately. Several enthusiast PC manufacturers plan to offer systems based on this new platform starting today and over the next 30 days, including Armari, Boxx Tech, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, Puget Systems, Scan, Velocity Micro, Vigor Gaming, Voodoo, @Xi Computers and others.

[ShadowAce]

[Ingtar]

With one of these babies, could one get in before the Tech Ping?

[ShadowAce]

Hey! I gave you 16 secs between initial posting and the Ping. Ain’t that enough? :)

[longtermmemmory]

but do you need a nerdy “off the main” OS to make it go?

[ShadowAce]

You’d probably need a *real* OS to take advantage of it, yes.

[taxcontrol]

Finally, something that can run Vista

[KoRn]

"Finally, something that can run Vista"

lol It would probably still be slow.

[Moonman62]

I’m sure Microsoft can slow it down to 386 speed.

[martin_fierro]

The inevitable youtube of this system’s performance should be something to see

[papasmurf]

3DMark06 CPU and 20,160

Be still, my heart!

[Zathras]

Skulltrail is just a stop-gap.
Wait until Nehalem comes out later this year.

[VeniVidiVici]

For experienced enthusiasts who desire more capability, the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor bus ratio locks (overspeed protection) have been removed. This offers added technical flexibility in customizing the system so OEMs can unleash even more performance.

I'm sure overclocking a dual cpu/8-core box with 8GB of ram would be a freaking nightmare.

Bang for the buck currently is the new E8400 at $200. Overclocking that baby to 4GHz is a cinch.

[Jack Black]

With one of these babies, could one get in before the Tech Ping?Only if you downloaded yourself onto it. I've long suspected TechPing is, to use the polite term, a bot. Not only that he many be running on a Linux cluster.

[adorno]

Sounds like the heart of the next Microsoft game system generation: XBOX 360 Extreme.

[ShadowAce]

I've long suspected TechPing is, to use the polite term, a bot.

LOL! Should I take that to be a compliment?

[rarestia]

Bye bye FSB! Hello universal BUS! Nehalem is going to be sick. I’m going to wait to upgrade my game rig until we start seeing Nehalem.

I think dual quad-core Intel procs @ 2.6 - 3.0 GHz with 4 GB PC2-5300 or next-gen RAM clock at 64-bit OS levels would create an indestructible gaming platform for stuff that’s already out. Put dual-SLI PCI-E 8X series NVIDIA cards in there and you’re going to have something that’ll hold 60 fps in most games for well over the 18-month deprecation cycle that we’re used to.

However... Vista will find a way to screw it up.

[longtermmemmory]

does the microsoft product handle dual cpu motherboards yet?

[rarestia]

Well, Server 2008 is based on the Vista kernel. Since Server 2008 absolutely supports multi-proc and multi-core, it would make logical sense to conclude that Vista does support it.

I’ve played with Vista Home Ultimate 64-bit edition and it really does scream, but it’s still a hog. Either way, if you haven’t played with 64-bit, I would suggest getting your feet wet. The advantages of up to 2 TB of RAM addressing should be enough to pique your interest.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

if you haven’t played with 64-bit, I would suggest getting your feet wet. The advantages of up to 2 TB of RAM addressing should be enough to pique your interest.

The concept that interests me is the idea that flash memory/phase change memory could provide randomly accessible mass storage. In that scenario you might wish to partition your vast address space into two or more segments - one for conventional RAM, one for randomly accessible mass storage, and one for virtual memory which is really disk memory under another name.