Intel Core 2 Reviews Are In!

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Imyourzero
That's awesome, and I'll probably end up getting a Conroe, but I just want to remind everyone that's thinking about dumping their AMD setup to keep things in perspective. Consider the following:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEwOCwxMCwsaG5ld3M=

And: "As for the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62, all of our testing shows that it does trail the two new Intel CPUs in gameplay performance. So, if you wanted to point one out as being a ?winner? then for sure it is the new Intel Core 2 X6800 and E6700. But, if you look at the amount of difference between the AMD and Intel CPUs, you will see that it isn?t enough to amount to anything. The only game that we saw any real-world difference in was Oblivion, and even that was tiny. A little overclocking would clear that difference up. Overall, the performance difference isn?t enough to amount to any gameplay experience differences in these games. One thing is certain: these are very fast platforms and they all provided a very enjoyable high-end gaming experience in every game."

Now I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, and if you're in the market for a new system, Conroe should be at or near the top of your list. But the hype around here often leads people to think that their current hardware is inadequate, and that's definitely not the case at this point, at least for games.

I think that comment disregards, IMO, the bigger picture of C2D, the cost. If one could sell the Fx-62 (and it might be hard to do ), one could easily pick up the E6600 and have some significant cash left over.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: JAG87
Im not saying you should only care about games, but thus far gaming is the most demanding application on a computer. Frankly the fact that a Core 2 Duo can load Firefox, or Word, or Photoshop in 0.024 seconds less then an FX-62 does not mean much.

It does when the E6600 is a third of the price.

And the same goes for transcoding mp3s... taken straight from Anands review:

"Unless you frequently encode really large amounts of audio files, however, it's unlikely you're going to notice Intel's 2-4 second lead." Holy shiat. Im such as looser, I work 6am to 6pm every day and I need those 3 extra seconds. Who are you kidding. And thats for a 307 MB wav file. Nice. How and where is AMD trumped... in SuperPi... or in those 0.72 minutes less that the X6800 takes to encode an H.264 video. Tell me please.

Ok, so people who already have extremely fast systems won't notice an immediate impact by upgrading. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. Those people wouldn't have planned upgrades right now anyway. But you cannot argue that C2D is the easy upgrade option for someone actually looking into one.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: athfbum
After seeing the xbitlabs review of the E6300 I decided it was worth spending the extra $80 or so to get an E6300, rather than a Athlon 64 3500+

Hey, if you are gaming, upgrading now to a single core cpu is not really a good idea. We'll see plenty of games coming out in '07 that will be able to make use of both cores. Crysis is the big one here that comes to mind.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: EROEIone2one
"Intel says complete PC systems based on the Core 2 Extreme X6800 and individually boxed products will both begin selling on July 27th, while Core 2 Duo processors with 4MB of L2 cache should show up on August 7th."

So am I reading this right in that the earliest availability of all Core 2 Duo processors (other than the wallet crushing X6800) is August 7th?

Also:

http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/10153

I'm thinking E6600 might be a good buy if it's only $15 more than the comparable AMD 4600, any one else agree?

EDIT: Now that I'm looking at some of the benchmarking tests, I'm surprised there isn't more of a price cut on some of the AMD lineup. Or is Conroe going to be subject to high markup/unavailability issues for the fist few months?

The E6600 will blow away an X2 4600. For it's cost, it is going to be a very popular cpu.

 

[slash196]

The only reason I have to dislike the Conroe is that it means when I do finally upgrade my core system, I'm going to have to rip out my old motherboard, and with my case that's a pain in the ass. And I'm not really willing to spend money on an upgrade that's already obselete. Of course, I won't be upgrading until the new gen of cards comes out anyway, and by then Intel may very well have a new line of processors. So I'm excited about Conroe, but at the same time I'm not absolutely dying to buy one.

 

[BFG10K]

arent these still Pre Approved intel benchmarks though?

No.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Tsuwamono
arent these still Pre Approved intel benchmarks though? Im waiting until we get real world guys out there with the actual processor.

No those are not pre approved anything!
Those benchmarks don`t have to be approved by Intel.
The chip is available and those are actual benchmarks.
Quit being a die hard AMD fanboy...sheese

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict

Originally posted by: AMDZen
All I want to know now is, when can I buy one. I've searched but nobody has them in stock (to be expected). Please someone post when they find an eTailer with these in stock.

If you have ready any of the release articles from Intel, they specifically state that July 27th is the official release. Retail chips will then trickle to retailers August 7th.

You can get one right now if you have the $$$!!

 

[Smartazz]

I like the picture on Tom's Hardware Guide.

 

[LW07]

Those conroes are really looking impressive. I'm really considering upgrading to an E6600 at Christmas, but I already have a single core S939 3500+, so I don't know if I should get the Ram, Mobo, and E6600 needed for a conroe build, wait until march and get that with an ATI R600, wait until quad core CPUs come out(Will Windows XP Home Edition be compatible with quad core, I know it's compatible with dual cores, but have no Idea about quad cores), or to just get an X2 4600+ for Christmas.

The conroes still look impressive, though.

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

Originally posted by: Ausm

Originally posted by: smartis

Originally posted by: JAG87
Now im gonna get some bozo who says gaming is not all a PC does, and that CPU speed matters a lot in other environments. Thats nice, congratulations on waiting 2 minutes less on your movie encoding job. Nobody really cares. We want 60+ fps at the highest resolutions we can afford with the latest games all cranked up. AM I WRONG PEOPLE?

Gaming is not all a PC does and CPU speed matters a lot in other applications.

The people who don't care about saving time, but only about games either:

1 Are kids with plenty of time to play games.
2. Are people without a job who have plenty of time to play games.
3. Are people whose job is to play games.
4. Are people who have nothing better to do in life than play computer games - sad really.

The majority of us who work for a living tend use our computers for other tasks like encoding MP3's, internet stuff, photo editing and so on, preferably all at the same time. Because we work, we DO tend to care about saving what free time we have. Time is a valuable commodity and saving time often means saving money.

It's obvious that the new Intel chips will save us time at a lower cost than the last generation of chips and this is good.

If you're only bothered about games, then spend your money on the best graphics solution available.

I don't care who makes my CPU. I just want the best price/performance for what I need and for now that is made by Intel.

I will clue you in that grown ups who have high paying jobs and pay a ton in taxes play computer games too

Ausm

Yep, I'm one. Well, my job is not that high paying, but it supports all of my bad habits, and gaming is one of them

Anyway, looks like it's going to be tough choice for me between the 6600 & 6700, I guess it will ultimately depend on the Canadian prices once they get here.

Ditto, I work at home, in the office maybe twice a week the most, have a gf and plenty of time to game and go out...hell, she even games with me every now and then on MOH:Spearhead multiplayer (yea yea, its old). But then again I only get 4-5 hours of sleep nowadays. Oh well, I care about gaming and manage my time very well thank you very much.

 

[Mundos]

techreport's review is an entertaining read...willette 4 quadro...HAH!

 

[EvanAdams]

Originally posted by: Tig Ol Bitties
hell, she even games with me every now and then on MOH:Spearhead multiplayer

Damn wana trade!

 

[Razgriz]

Wow, Intel really got their act together on Core 2. Was going to go AMD but after reading the reviews so far...I'm going Intel. E6600 looks damn good for the price.

 

[ForumMaster]

add this one:

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1738,1988714,00.asp

 

[ForumMaster]

in the link i just posted by PC Magazine, they benchmarked two systems with Conroe with general benchmarks. they actually have the systems there.
these systems are by Falcon Northwest and Velovity Micro.
The Falcon Northwest Mach V with Core 2 Extreme

The Velocity Micro Vector GX Campus Edition

the second system gives you for less then a $1k the performance you'd get from literally the high end CPU's of today. i want it!

 

[thescreensavers]

if thats conroe thats not impressive

 

[NanoStuff]

Not exactly night/day as far as gaming is concerned, is it?

Regardless, damn good processor from performance to power consumption. I will probably settle on one of the entry-level and use the cash to top out the graphics cards. On the plus side I should be able to run a 6300 passively with a nice big heatsink

 

[shabby]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers
if thats conroe thats not impressive

Then what is impressive?

 

[OSX]

Originally posted by: Tsuwamono
I think ill stick with my AM2, i dont think conroe will be on top for long and i want to have a upgrade path when AMD pwns them again

It'll be on top until Intel releases their quad-cores, then those will be on top until AMD can finish their next-gen R&D.

 

[mithrandir2001]

I'd be concerned about supply. If Intel can't get these chips out quickly enough then retail pricing is going to be high (messing up the value equation) and AMD will use that as an excuse not to slash prices as far they otherwise would need to if Conroe supply was strong.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers
if thats conroe thats not impressive

:roll: Ummm, did you see the 2.93GHz Conroe spanking the crap out of AMD's fastest CPU? Did you also see the E6600 processor overclock to ~4GHz on air? If that is not impressive, I don't know what is.

That being said, I think my present system will just hold me over until Intel releases their quad core in Q1 2007. And let me tell you, my system is getting REALLY long in the tooth (AMD Athlon mobile 2600+@ 2.2GHz, 1GB of ram and a 6800GT). I just want to see a monster speed boost when I upgrade. I can't even play 1080p HD video on my current machine.

 

[Rage187]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers
if thats conroe thats not impressive

I'm an AMD faboi, but AMD got their ass handed to them in everyone of those benchmarks. Them are just the facts.