Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Processor Brings Quad Core Computing

Test Setup and Benchmarks Used

You’ll notice that in this review, I chose to not have a 10+ processor comparison for a couple of reasons.  First, there were some time restrictions, and secondly, I didn’t feel it was necessary at this point.  If you are considering the QX6700 processor for your system, then you are already willing to spend upwards of $1000 on a CPU, so only showing you the best of the best made sense to me.  No sense in diluting the information with data on the aged and EOL’d parts.

For our Intel versus Intel comparison, I took the QX6700 and compared ito the Core 2 Duo E6700; both processors run at 2.67 GHz, and the QX6700 is essentially two E6700 cores glued together to form a quad-core processor.  This is probably the most interesting comparison as we will see what the move from a dual core setup to a quad core setup actually nets us.  I did not include the 2.93 GHz X6800 processor as any interesting data we get from it can be derived from the E6700 — same performance levels but about 8% faster.  We already know (or assume) that in single threaded apps the 2.93 GHz CPU will out pace both the E6700 and QX6700. 

For AMD, I took their top of the line CPU, the FX-62 on the new AM2 platform with the NVIDIA 590 SLI chipset and pitted it against the best from Intel.  It can be found for under $700 today, so it may end up with a price / performance advantage in some cases. 

Benchmarks:

• SiSoft Sandra 2007.SP1
• Everest Ultimate Edition 2006
• World Bench 5
• Windows Media Encoder 9
• DivX 6.4
• LAME MT
• CineBench 9.5
• SPECviewperf 8.01
• WinRAR 3.51
• 3DMark06
• FEAR 1.03
• Call of Duty 2 1.01
• PCMark05
• Pov Ray 3.7 Beta 14
• DVD Shrink 3.2