Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700

Overclocking:

Much like the Core 2 Extreme X6800, the quad-core QX6700 comes with the multiplier completely unlocked – you can adjust the multiplier all the way from 6x to 60x on the D975XBX2 “Bad Axe 2” motherboard that Intel supplied us with. While we’re here, we think it’s worth talking about some of the changes that Intel has made to the board.

With the initial version of the Bad Axe, there were quite a few overclocking options available in the BIOS and although many enthusiasts chose to use the Bad Axe for their overclocking endeavours, we felt that there was still some room for improvement on the BIOS front. It seems that Intel has taken a lot of the feedback from the overclocking community on board as it has come back with an even fuller BIOS feature set. Tweaking options are now much easier to find and they’re intuitively laid out.

To gauge how far our Core 2 Extreme QX6700 sample overclocked, we used Intel’s BadAxe 2 motherboard with the CPU voltage set to 1.40V. The heatsink we used was the Zalman CNPS9500 and it was set to run at the default fan speed setting (Auto). With a minimum amount of effort, we managed to get our Core 2 Extreme QX6700 complete several runs through our benchmark suite with the CPU multiplier set to 13x, resulting in a clock speed of just under 3.47GHz!

The performance at this clock speed was pretty incredible, and obviously unrivalled by any other CPU we’ve tested. With that said though, we have had higher clock speeds from Core 2 Duo processors, but an 800MHz overclock is certainly nothing to sniff at. Here’s a screenshot to give you an idea of how it performs:

It's good that Kentsfield clearly has the same overclocking potential that we have seen from the Core 2 Duo line of chips.

Final Thoughts...

I think it is clear that quad-core is not for everyone at this moment in time, and that is exaggerated even more when you consider that the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 is going to retail for somewhere north of £650 including VAT. When you consider that a Core 2 Duo E6600 is going to be more than enough for most people at around 1/3 of the price of the QX6700, it becomes even harder to recommend the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 right now.

That’s not to say that the product doesn’t show us some potential though. The problem that we see is that software needs to take the time to catch up, and in particular games need to move to a parallel programming model – this is especially true because Intel is marketing its first quad-core chip under its Extreme ‘gamer’ moniker. We know that anticipated titles like Crysis and Alan Wake are going to make heavy use of multiple cores, but they are both still some time away. The one title that will be arriving soon is Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the multi-core development of which we are reporting today.

Personally, I see a great use for quad-core, but then I think I’d probably put myself in the real target market for this type of processor. I’m a heavy multi-tasker, and as shown by our multi-tasking benchmarks, there are some clear benefits to be had from making the move to quad-core. However, one point that really needs to be made is that this chip isn’t going to improve your gaming experience today.

It may well do in the future when games that are going to take advantage of this kind of processing horsepower are released. Until then though, we feel that the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 is limited to people who like to heavily multi-task or to people who make extensive use of 3D modelling programmes or other workstation programmes that are already heavily multi-threaded. However, if you're in the target market of heavy multi-taskers and insane overclockers, or you're looking forward to getting your mitts on some super-fast Source Engine action - this is clearly an unparalleled purchase.