Q9300

[Asus]

Intel's new 45nm quad core chip @ 2.5GHz. Replaces the Q6600. Faster FSB, lower power. Good stuff all around (except lower multiplier is not ideal for OCing)
$266 MSRP (USD)

Review

Valve's particle simulations
power consumption at the bottom

/tempted

 

[Sedako]

Still not the true quad-core we've been waiting for. Any news on when those should show up?

 

[Asus]

While I do think native quad-core will yield a performance difference, I doubt it will be a noticeably bigger leap than these 45nm CPUs were to the 65nm chips (both glued dual-core chips). I don't like following buzz words without proof. Therefore, why wait.

Intel seems to like to do stuff in little steps rather than updating everything all at once like AMD. I bet when Intel does launch native quads, they won't do a lot of the little tweaks that they do with new revisions.
Intel quote about native quad core here.

And with smaller and smaller die sizes (65nm->45-> etc) they can put 2 dual core chips on one package much easier. Why do native until it's easy or they need to compete with AMD better? Costs and ease of production are telling Intel to keep doing what they are doing.

 

[Asus]

I didn't mean to make it sound like it wouldn't be different. Just that they usually focus on one thing at a time. New architecture or die shrinks and tweaks etc.

 

[[Matt]]

Actually Intel's new processor platform is bound to be completely different; it's been compared to Linux in its modular design. Basically, they can scale to nearly as many cores as they want because each one is fully autonomous, and the same processors will be usable across multiple platforms, from PDAs to servers, simply by adding or removing components and cores.

What he's getting at is that the majority of software out there doesn't even utilise dual core technology and the amount of software apps and games out there that truly see a boost from using quad cores can be counted in single digits...