Feb 2010 Maximum PC Core i9 Preview

**scgt1** · 01-11-2010, 04:11 PM

Just got my Maximum PC Feb 2010 issue in the mail today.

Looking to the back In The Lab section there is a Core i9 Preview:

Quoted from Maximum PC Feb 2010 edition

Writen by Gordon Mah Unh senior editor

If you just finished reading my story on Intel's Clarksdale Core i3 and Core i5 dual-core processors, you got a mini preview of what's to come with Intel's hexa-core Core i9. Core i9 will use the same 32mm Westmere core found in the dual-core Core i3 and Core i5, but it will have three of them on the die, for a total of six cores. Intel will also add a new tri-channel memory controller to the die that's not included in the Core i3 and Core i5 versions.

Hyper-Threading will be activated on Core i9, as will the new encryption/decryption instruction set. It will, of course, only fit in LGA1366 motherboards. Performance, if all goes well, is expected to be stellar and should lead the pack in multithreaded tests. I'm also going to bet that Intel will tweak its Turbo Boost algorithms so that code that will not exploit the 12 available threads will still run speedily.

End Quote

My curiosity is anyone know how much of an impact over i7 920 is this going to be along with what do you think the release will do to current i7 920 prices?

My curiosity is astrew because I haven't purchased my first i7 920 yet and if the next coming weeks to month we are going to see new tech out thats going to be a vast improvement over current tech I may sway that direction. Or if the price will drop substantially on the 920 that will make for a penny's war for performace.

**scgt1** · 01-11-2010, 04:42 PM

May have just answered my questions located in the actual article "Introducing Clarkdale" page 46. The last section is the best read of the whole article.

Quoted from the last two paragraphs:

The upshot is that Clarkdale is the fastest dual-core today--- and competitive with quad-cores too. That's damned impressive and a testament to the power of the new Westmere core. Based on this glimpse of next year's six-core Core i9, we can tell that its's going to be a monster.

The problem is the pricing on the Core i5 dual-cores. With more competitive quad-cores priced the same, the Core i5-661's only advantage is in HTPC or small formfactor designs.

So I9 isn't going to be out till last year.