New Intel 45nm Wolfdales reviewed

Eejit

The Freeman
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
13,510
Reaction score
216
Here.
Well, everything seems pretty clear. Summing up everything we have just said, we can state that new dual-core Core 2 Duo E8500, E8400 and E8200 processors on 45nm cores are great from all stand points. They are faster than their predecessors working at the same clock speeds. Besides, their working frequencies are initially higher than those of previous Core 2 Duo CPUs. And taking into account that Intel is going to sell the new solutions for the price of Core 2 Duo E6850, E6750 and E6550, we can all get “free” performance improvement of 10-15% on new Intel dual-core CPUs.


Moreover, Core 2 Duo’s transition to new manufacturing technology provides additional bonuses to the users. First, they will support of the promising SSE4.1 instructions that will show their best in the future. Second, Wolfdale CPUs are extremely economical. Third, they overclock brilliantly and hence will become overclockers’ choice.
The E8500 was OC to 4.37GHz, without pushing it to the absolute limits.

Looks nice.
But AMD is definitely screwed for months to come.
 
And therefore the consumer too. Bloody AMD.
 
E8500? Why bother the extra .5 multi really doesn't help out much from what I've tested. The 8400 is $100 cheaper here and a much more suitable option that can easily hit around 4.0 to 4.5ghz (closer to 4.5 if you get a wonder chip that likes big FSB speeds) depending on the rest of your system.
 
Results like this are quite common

After 3 days of overclocking and testing, here are the results of my system that's rock solid stable, cool and quiet just the way I like it:

CPU: E8400 @ 4.22 GHz, 467 x 9, Vcore = 1.4125 Volts (in BIOS)
HSF: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme with Scythe S-Flex SFF21E fan
Board: ASUS P5E (X38 chipset) with BIOS 0502
RAM: Corsair CM2X1024-6400C4 5-5-5-18
Case: Antec P180 with front and rear fan operating

* The system has been stable for more than 24hrs running Orthos.

* Core Temp 0.96 results
Idle: 34'C and 33'C
Under load: Between 60'C and 64'C
Ambient: 31' C

* Intel TAT doesn't recognise E8400 as a valid processor

* Super PI Mod 1.5 XS (1M calc) = 11.016 s

Again it depends on the chip you get, maybe you'll get lucky and get one that loves big FSB speeds. I'll be replacing my homes machines E6600 soon enough and throw out the old 7900GS whilst I'm at it.
 
Quad's not exactly efficient though, you have to split up processes leaving some cores underused and some overused. (I should add, atleast I believe so)
 
Quad's not exactly efficient though, you have to split up processes leaving some cores underused and some overused. (I should add, atleast I believe so)

Nevertheless, is that where the battlefield is nowadays?
 
Yorksfield chips cost a ****-ton more money for little gain to the average PC user.

Yorkfield yes, but the Kentsfields are very affordable. Quad-core usefulness can be seen mostly in multitasking. They are also better for encoding, rendering, compressing, etc.
 
The battlefield should be the entire market tbh. Currently AMD can't compete at all in the top end (good quads), so it's actually the dual-cores they have to compete with.
With the new intel cores they've fallen further behind in the area they were 'closest'.
 
Back
Top