Somebody say something about Penryn!!

magreen

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2006
1,309
1
81
For crying out loud, somebody say something about the Penryn launch. It's only the most exciting cpu event to happen in months. Finally, something to talk about besides "help me oc my e4400" or "why is my multi at 6?".

Anand OC'd his to 4.0GHz on the stock cooler. That's amazing - anyone have any idea how far it could go with good cooling like the TR ultra 120 extreme?
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
I think a lot of people are a bit put off by the price and low multiplier of Penryn desktop chips right now.
 

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
106
Anand's chip was likely hand-picked by Intel. I'm sure the Penryn will be able to clock high, but a sample size of 1 is not an adequate indicator.
 

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
5,223
61
91
Originally posted by: magreen
For crying out loud, somebody say something about the Penryn launch. It's only the most exciting cpu event to happen in months. Finally, something to talk about besides "help me oc my e4400" or "why is my multi at 6?".

Anand OC'd his to 4.0GHz on the stock cooler. That's amazing - anyone have any idea how far it could go with good cooling like the TR ultra 120 extreme?

1) That is an ES chip. Probably cherry picked.

2) That is a 'QX' chip with an unlocked multiplier, the only one that does and you will pay for it ($1399?). Thus, if you want an affordable chip ($316) you will have to deal with a 7.5 or 8 multiplier which will net you a result of 3.6Ghz @ 450Mhz bus speed. In order to hit 4Ghz, you will need to hit 500Mhz, something quads have a hard time with. If you want to break the 4Ghz barrier, you will need to find a way to increase bus even further than 500Mhz (not likely, read anand's review of X38 chipset).

3) It is only 5% (ok, maybe 10% in some cases) clock for clock faster conroe.

Do I think it is fabulous that Penryn has a lot of headroom? Absolutely, but I am put off by the multiplier that will clearly limit the affordable versions of this chip. Realisticly, I don't see people hitting much higher than 3.8Ghz with the affordable version of Penryn, not to mention the long wait (another 3-4 months before you will get your hands on it)
 

dflynchimp

Senior member
Apr 11, 2007
468
0
71
Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
Originally posted by: magreen
For crying out loud, somebody say something about the Penryn launch. It's only the most exciting cpu event to happen in months. Finally, something to talk about besides "help me oc my e4400" or "why is my multi at 6?".

Anand OC'd his to 4.0GHz on the stock cooler. That's amazing - anyone have any idea how far it could go with good cooling like the TR ultra 120 extreme?

1) That is an ES chip. Probably cherry picked.

2) That is a 'QX' chip with an unlocked multiplier, the only one that does and you will pay for it ($1399?). Thus, if you want an affordable chip ($316) you will have to deal with a 7.5 or 8 multiplier which will net you a result of 3.6Ghz @ 450Mhz bus speed. In order to hit 4Ghz, you will need to hit 500Mhz, something quads have a hard time with. If you want to break the 4Ghz barrier, you will need to find a way to increase bus even further than 500Mhz (not likely, read anand's review of X38 chipset).

3) It is only 5% (ok, maybe 10% in some cases) clock for clock faster conroe.

Do I think it is fabulous that Penryn has a lot of headroom? Absolutely, but I am put off by the multiplier that will clearly limit the affordable versions of this chip. Realisticly, I don't see people hitting much higher than 3.8Ghz with the affordable version of Penryn, not to mention the long wait (another 3-4 months before you will get your hands on it)

my thoughts exactly. Penryn is only a die-shrink refresh. Not worth getting all excited about. I think the Q6600 price drops were much more noteworthy in comparison.

The next big thing from Intel is Nehalem, for sure. Yet to see how the AMD camp comes along...
 

Hulk

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,191
1,975
136
I think the biggest overlooked plus for Penryn is the lower thermals.

I think 3-3.2 Ghz overclocks will be pretty easy even with the stock cooler.

I have a feeling that the C2D/Penryn architecture isn't supposed to scale to 4GHz. I bet Intel only takes it to 3.5 or 3.6 before moving to Nehalem.



 

harpoon84

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2006
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As already been mentioned, the 8x multi of the upcoming Q9450 puts a slight dampener on things - we'll have to keep our expectations realistic in regards to FSB speeds current mobos can handle.

In the case of the Q9450, which will be the 'mainstream 12MB L2 quad' and hence be the most popular, I think we will hit the FSB limits of the chipset well before the limits of the CPU itself. 8 x 450 = 3600MHz and I think that will be a reasonable aim. You'll need a super mobo that can handle 8 x 500 / 4GHz since quads are a lot tougher on the chipset that duals.

With that said, 3.6GHz from a Q9450 is still nothing to be sneezed at. For one, it'll most likely be able to reach those speeds at stock volts, and with the 5% IPC boost you're looking at the equivalent performance of a Q6600 @ 3.8GHz, but with HALF the power draw, if not less!

If only the Q9300 would be a 1066FSB part, I wouldn't even mind the halving of the cache!
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
I'm more impressed with the e4700 dual core than the current quads coming out because of the 13x multiplier, a bump to 333fsb from 200fsb would net a 4.33ghz Dual Core with probably very little to no voltage increase depending on the quality of the chip. That's pretty amazing to me. The Penryn is going to force me to buy one of the higher ended models for the higher multiplier because I don't want to push my FSB like crazy. I'm either going to have to get the Q9550 or splurg and get the QX9650 just to see what I can hit. I will probably buy a TR120 Ultra and Lap it to see what kind of numbers I can get with the unlocked multiplier.
 

harpoon84

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2006
1,084
0
0
Will the E4700 be a 45nm chip? If it is, and it consistently clocks over 4GHz, I'll be in line for sure! I don't really use any software that uses more than 2 cores.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
Originally posted by: harpoon84
Will the E4700 be a 45nm chip? If it is, and it consistently clocks over 4GHz, I'll be in line for sure! I don't really use any software that uses more than 2 cores.

I'm thinking it is, but it might not be. If it is, it could be the highest multiplier we see from a dual core penryn cause I haven't heard anything about a Extreme Edition Dual Core Penryn yet. If it isn't oh well should still be a beast if the price is low.
 

johnnyjohnson

Member
Sep 17, 2007
41
0
61
It will be very interesting to see how high the Penryns overclock. The e4700 is current generation (Allendale) but don't forget they'll be coming out with mainstream/low-end models of Penryn with higher multipliers (but smaller caches) later in 2008. Those are the ones I'll be looking out for.
 

jonmcc33

Banned
Feb 24, 2002
1,504
0
0
Originally posted by: magreen
For crying out loud, somebody say something about the Penryn launch. It's only the most exciting cpu event to happen in months. Finally, something to talk about besides "help me oc my e4400" or "why is my multi at 6?".

Anand OC'd his to 4.0GHz on the stock cooler. That's amazing - anyone have any idea how far it could go with good cooling like the TR ultra 120 extreme?

Not to mention that it was the quad core version and all he needed was a bump in the vCore. This looks like a true beast. I'll definitely be buying one of the lower end versions and overclocking the snot out of it.
 

jonmcc33

Banned
Feb 24, 2002
1,504
0
0
Originally posted by: dflynchimp
my thoughts exactly. Penryn is only a die-shrink refresh. Not worth getting all excited about. I think the Q6600 price drops were much more noteworthy in comparison.

The next big thing from Intel is Nehalem, for sure. Yet to see how the AMD camp comes along...

Hardly just a die refresh. The architecture has been improved as well, more performance per clock than the Conroe. Haven't you been paying attention in class? :p

 

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
4,914
0
0
Originally posted by: magreen
For crying out loud, somebody say something about the Penryn launch. It's only the most exciting cpu event to happen in months.
I guess we're a little jaded due to Conroe. Penryn? Well, I guess it's nice and all, especially if you don't already have a Core 2, but it's not nearly as revolutionary as Netburst-->Core 2.
 

tno

Senior member
Mar 17, 2007
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0
76
I'm with AmberClad, this is going to be an awesome chip and a lot of fun, but remember that every penny you spend on a Penryn mobo and a Penryn chip and good DDR2 RAM is money you could be saving up for the next real big thing, Nehalem. When that train comes around you won't just need a ticket to ride, you'll need a whole new motherboard, a handful of DDR3 AND that fancy expensive new chip. That's what an on die memory controller does for you, makes you buy a whole package. So as great as Penryn is, I'll probably stick with my lowly rev 1.0 DS3 and my B2 E6300 (maybe not the proc, maybe I'll let a slightly used quadcore fall into my lap) until sometime January of '09 when I'll do a top to bottom new rig (maybe I'll keep my case, it's an Antec SOLO I like it). So, everyone else, enjoy Penryn, I'm gonna go play some HL2.

tno
 

Emission

Senior member
Mar 4, 2007
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The problem with these modern day chips and such is that the overclocking game with mid-range chips has become somewhat expensive. I'm going with a celeron chip for my overclocking venture (45nm hopefully) so that I can get a multi of 10x or more, and not have to buy a $300 board to have anything decent.

Overclocking was originally the poor mans game, not sure why that should change.
 

21stHermit

Senior member
Dec 16, 2003
927
1
81
Originally posted by: Emission
The problem with these modern day chips and such is that the overclocking game with mid-range chips has become somewhat expensive. I'm going with a celeron chip for my overclocking venture (45nm hopefully) so that I can get a multi of 10x or more, and not have to buy a $300 board to have anything decent.

Overclocking was originally the poor mans game, not sure why that should change.
I'm with you Emission!!!

BTW, The E4700 will have a 11X multi on 45nm @ $133, likely a year earlier than a Celeron 45nm. Celeron Dual Cores will show Q1-08, most likely on 65nm.

 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,303
4
81
I'm very impressed with how these intial cherry picked Penryn quads are clocking.

We'll see how easy it is to hit 500 MHz on the motherboards of their time next year though, since that's going to be the real issue...
 

SerpentRoyal

Banned
May 20, 2007
3,517
0
0
Boycott the expensive 45 quads. Wait one year and you'll probably see these chips in the 4xx0 line for less than $200. Don't fall for the marketing scam (high cache/low CPU multi). Core speed is KING.
 

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
30
91
Originally posted by: n7
I'm very impressed with how these intial cherry picked Penryn quads are clocking.

You must not remember when the first C2D's were being tested by the review sites. Every ES E6600 that I saw did 4 Ghz on stock voltage: Anand's 4 Ghz E6600 on air.

edit: I just noticed that you had said "cherry picked". I should read more carefully, I guess.
 

dreddfunk

Senior member
Jun 30, 2005
358
0
0
I'm with Serpent on this one. It's nice that penryn is an improvement over C2, but I'm really waiting for the E2xxx/E4xxx quad-core counterparts. I'll be looking to pick up a high-core/low-cache quad-core penryn if and when they come out.
 

Miklebud

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2002
2,459
1
81
My 4400 will tide me over for quite sometime until a cheaper Penryn is available.