Fozzik
12-31-2005, 09:21 AM
Well, the holidays are flying past as usual. Here we are on the last day of 2005, and 2006 looks to be another interesting one when it comes to computer hardware. We're already hearing about the first new releases of the year, and they aren't far away.
First up, Intel has officially announced their first desktop processor built using the 65nm process. It turns out Intel will also be dropping the "Intel Inside" slogan they have been using for so long, in favor of the new and much more exciting *snore* "Leap Ahead". We will be seeing the old logos, slogan, and processor naming conventions for a bit longer...and sadly the new doesn't seem to be the least bit less confusing than the current. It'll be different, though.
So, Intel's first release of 2006 is the Pentium Extreme Edition 955. Using 65nm traces allows for a bump in clock speed up to 3.4GHz, and for a larger level 2 cache - 2MB per core. This is still the exact same Netburst architecture as the 600-series Pentium 4's...but with two cores on the substrate. The shrink from 90nm traces down to 65nm does reduce power consumption a bit on a per-core basis, but not enough to bring it below the Athlons from AMD.
This chip, due in no small part to the fact that the Extreme Edition cores are the only dual-cores from Intel that have HyperThreading turned on, performs pretty well. It is able to best an Athlon X2 4800+ in some benchmarks, and is much more competitive with its rival in every area. There is of course the exception...games. This new flagship from Intel does pick up some ground in game performance verses AMD's fastest, but not nearly enough, and remember that AMD has a new dual-core FX-60 on the way very soon.
The Pentium EE 955 is a step in the right direction, since it seems to show that they are able to make the transition to 65nm without too much trouble. It remains to be seen how large-scale production will go with this new process, the Extreme Editions are very low volume parts. This chip will most likely be over $1000, so they probably won't be shipping a huge number of them. With faster gaming performance still squarely in the hands of AMD, and the introduction of Intel's new architecture only about 6 months away...this chip isn't one I would recommend.
On the graphics front, ATI and Nvidia are speeding towards their next releases: the G71-series from Nvidia, and the R580 (X1900) from ATI. It appears that each company has a different picture of where game performance is needed most. ATI is going very heavy on the shader engines, 48 of them in the new chip while still only having 16 pixel pipelines. Nvidia on the other hand will likely have 32 pixel pipelines in their new chip, with dramatically fewer shader engines.
This means ATI is banking on games wanting to do a LOT more work on each pixel, and Nvidia is taking the brute force approach...with a much larger number of pixels getting spit out each clock cycle. It will be interesting to see how things shake out, but as usual it will depend on the individual game and settings. With Nvidia now making the move to 90nm (ATI is already there with the X1800), we should see much higher clock speeds out of both companies, and a good hop in performance over the current top end cards.
It's looking like both new chips will be available within the next 2 months, so we don't have long to wait to see how things shake out. After ATI's many problems in 2005, let's hope they can execute well out of the gate this year. On paper it looks like a very interesting and competitive race going forward, and that's the best thing for everybody.
First up, Intel has officially announced their first desktop processor built using the 65nm process. It turns out Intel will also be dropping the "Intel Inside" slogan they have been using for so long, in favor of the new and much more exciting *snore* "Leap Ahead". We will be seeing the old logos, slogan, and processor naming conventions for a bit longer...and sadly the new doesn't seem to be the least bit less confusing than the current. It'll be different, though.
So, Intel's first release of 2006 is the Pentium Extreme Edition 955. Using 65nm traces allows for a bump in clock speed up to 3.4GHz, and for a larger level 2 cache - 2MB per core. This is still the exact same Netburst architecture as the 600-series Pentium 4's...but with two cores on the substrate. The shrink from 90nm traces down to 65nm does reduce power consumption a bit on a per-core basis, but not enough to bring it below the Athlons from AMD.
This chip, due in no small part to the fact that the Extreme Edition cores are the only dual-cores from Intel that have HyperThreading turned on, performs pretty well. It is able to best an Athlon X2 4800+ in some benchmarks, and is much more competitive with its rival in every area. There is of course the exception...games. This new flagship from Intel does pick up some ground in game performance verses AMD's fastest, but not nearly enough, and remember that AMD has a new dual-core FX-60 on the way very soon.
The Pentium EE 955 is a step in the right direction, since it seems to show that they are able to make the transition to 65nm without too much trouble. It remains to be seen how large-scale production will go with this new process, the Extreme Editions are very low volume parts. This chip will most likely be over $1000, so they probably won't be shipping a huge number of them. With faster gaming performance still squarely in the hands of AMD, and the introduction of Intel's new architecture only about 6 months away...this chip isn't one I would recommend.
On the graphics front, ATI and Nvidia are speeding towards their next releases: the G71-series from Nvidia, and the R580 (X1900) from ATI. It appears that each company has a different picture of where game performance is needed most. ATI is going very heavy on the shader engines, 48 of them in the new chip while still only having 16 pixel pipelines. Nvidia on the other hand will likely have 32 pixel pipelines in their new chip, with dramatically fewer shader engines.
This means ATI is banking on games wanting to do a LOT more work on each pixel, and Nvidia is taking the brute force approach...with a much larger number of pixels getting spit out each clock cycle. It will be interesting to see how things shake out, but as usual it will depend on the individual game and settings. With Nvidia now making the move to 90nm (ATI is already there with the X1800), we should see much higher clock speeds out of both companies, and a good hop in performance over the current top end cards.
It's looking like both new chips will be available within the next 2 months, so we don't have long to wait to see how things shake out. After ATI's many problems in 2005, let's hope they can execute well out of the gate this year. On paper it looks like a very interesting and competitive race going forward, and that's the best thing for everybody.