Page 2 - Specifications
Before we start off, besides Intel, I need to thank two manufacturers for helping me out in this review.
As explained on page one, when the processor arrived in our test-lab we figured that the good old nForce 680i mainboard would support the processor. Holy macaroni were we wrong. The 680i miserably failed to support the processor. It's so bad that NVIDIA now officially has dropped support for Quad Core Penryn processors, which is really a pity as once again you'll be forced to drop 250 bucks for a soon to be released 780/790i mainboard if you want a Quad Core Penryn processor on an NVIDIA MCP platform. NVIDIA's take:
"The (680i) MCP fully supports both dual core Wolfdale and quad core Yorkfield, but at the board level, a motherboard circuit change is required for quad core YF."
This definitely posed a problem so I gave OCZ and ASUS a call and they quickly arranged some proper gear for us to be able to test the QX9770 processor. Let's briefly peek at the mainboard and memory.
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe mainboard
Asus sent in their X38 based ASUS P5E3 Deluxe mainboard. It's one of the most expensive mainboards money can buy, but dang, how sweet it that. The P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP@n is an Intel X38 chipset based motherboard that supports DDR3 1800MHz dual-channel memory architecture and Dual PCI Express 2.0 x16 lanes for extreme graphics performance.
It also comes with ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit), allowing the CPU power supply to be digitally monitored and fine-tuned with improved VRM efficiency in heavy or light loadings. The P5E3 DELUXE/WiFi-AP@n also supports 802.11n WiFi specifications onboard for faster data transfers, and ASUS Express Gate an optional Linux OS bootup for instant access to the Internet in 5 seconds.
This motherboard clearly aims to the people who want a top rated motherboard with many features and of course at a corresponding price. It's probably one of the most expensive motherboards ever sold in the market at 300 EUR. But what a nice one it is too. We'll be using this mainboard for our QX9770 test. We flashed the latest 0703 BIOS onto the mainboard, which fully supports the QX9770 processor.
OCZ DDR3 1333 Platinum Edition (7-7-7-20)
I think I drove my contact at OCZ completely insane after I requested some DDR3 memory to go along with this mainboard. The poor man had to hunt down re-sellers here in the Netherlands to get us a kit supplied in the time-frame of our deadline. Tobias, I haven't forgotten! Thanks man !
Special thanks go out to komplett.nl for arranging to memory to be here this fast. With that little thank you out of the way, allow me to introduce to you the next generation memory - DDR3.
This OCZ DDR3 1333 Platinum Edition memory comes with some pretty interesting timings at 7-7-7-20. We tested this memory and I have to admit the fact is that DDR3 is faster and is the obvious choice of memory enthusiasts.
While most companies released DDR3-1333 kits at launch, they quickly seemed obsolete with some overclocks that some were seeing, as high as DDR3-2000. This ones clock speed is DDR3-1333, aka PC3-10666. It has stock timings of 7-7-7-20 with a 1.8v rating. A stock non-overclocked memory bandwidth result done with Sandra for example returns 7684 MB/s. Anyhow, kudos to OCZ for sending in the memory on such short notice.
Core 2 Extreme QX 9770
Alrighty, let's get started with the actual review. As you guys know Intel has recently released their new 45nm products. We recently reviewed the QX9650 Quad Core processor, which quite honestly is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Fantastic performance on four cores, and even better power consumption with very low CPU core temperatures. Honestly breathtaking. That 1000 USD processor is clocked at 3 GHz.
Besides being slightly faster, Today's QX9770 processor is physically 100% identical to the QX9650, that includes the 45nm fabrication process and it's 820 Million (give or take a few). Did you know that it's 40% more transistors over Kentsfield (582m), yet the die-size is smaller thanks to the new 45nm fab process. 286 mm² for Kentsfield (current quad core codename) and 214 mm² for Yorkfield (the Penryn based Quad core codename).
