QFT. It's time for a focus on substantial battery life in my mobile-computing experience. The current 2.8C2D is a desktop replacement.
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Early Nehalem (Core i7) Benchmarks Show Off Performance Gains
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QFT. It's time for a focus on substantial battery life in my mobile-computing experience. The current 2.8C2D is a desktop replacement.
Try to build a PC to game on and do everything else on a mac. Really the mac is not for gamers. It will play them, but not great.
January is when I expect to see the Mac Pro updated.
Looking forward to when the new Mac Pros are released. My 2006 model is getting a bit long in the tooth now.
this cpu is high end $999, 130 Watts, power consuming, Gaming CPUs {read purely for Enthusiast gamers},
even though the development and performance is interesting, it is NEVER going to be in any of the Macs ...
may be once mobile and xeon version of this thing comes out it will be interesting ...
NOT TO FORGET, the motherborads also costly, DDR3 memory also costly ...
LET US MOVE ON!
even though the development and performance is interesting, it is NEVER going to be in any of the Macs ...
may be once mobile and xeon version of this thing comes out it will be interesting ...
NOT TO FORGET, the motherborads also costly, DDR3 memory also costly ...
LET US MOVE ON!
70 C isn't so bad. It could be higher. I think Apple couldn't go with standard air cooling though.
Forgive my ignorance on this but...How does Intels moving the memory controller to the cpu and changing the physical connections to the cpu mesh with Apples recent embrace of NVidia's chipset? I was hoping they were going to move that chipset into their iMacs, but I dont know how these two products could coexist if at all.
As of right now, they don't mesh. We will have to wait and see what nvidia comes up with for Core i7. Of course with Intel getting SLI Apple could revert back.
Pardon my ignorance, but doesn't the topline Imacs have the Core 2 Extreme chip? Or is that a different 'Extreme' chip?
The 2.8 GHz X7900 was an Extreme processor in the previous version of the iMac.
It looks like the new iMacs (Early 2008) are using E Series desktop processors. At least that's what the processors identify themselves as.
Last I spoke with a friend that works at a local apple store he was telling me to wait till January for an updated macbook with the new i7. He probably doesn't have any better idea than anyone else so I'm not waiting. Plus I could wait for that and then 6 month later something better will come along, sometimes you just have to jump in 
this cpu is high end $999, 130 Watts, power consuming, Gaming CPUs {read purely for Enthusiast gamers},
even though the development and performance is interesting, it is NEVER going to be in any of the Macs ...
may be once mobile and xeon version of this thing comes out it will be interesting ...
NOT TO FORGET, the motherborads also costly, DDR3 memory also costly ...
LET US MOVE ON!
DDR3 is standard on Macbooks and Macbook Pros now. Apple's actually kind of up to date when it comes to RAM speed (not size though...). I don't really care for CPU speeds much, I rarely use the CPU to the max (except when ATSServer decides to go into its endless loop). My personal bottleneck is the hard drive speed and networking speed really.
Oh and is there a Dual-Link-DVI to 2 x DVI-I adapter out there? I wanna hook up two 20" 1680x1050 displays to a unibody Macbook.
Using desktop chips? Didn't think they had the pins required to communicate across the sockets. It would be pretty slick though. The interesting part is the desktop chip (4 core, 8 lp's) being able to keep up with the 8 core server (DP) variant. May be Apple could come out with a MP Lite using that chip till the DP chips are available, then bust out with the 8 core 16 lp model. They could even force Registered DDR3 for the desktop version so the RAM can be moved across (FBDIMM is only for the MP systems).
It is possible that nVidia has a license, although it's not completely clear.
nVidia has stated that they have a license to produce QPI chipsets.
Mobile Nehalem is planned for Q3/Q4 2009 for quad-core (Clarksfield) and January 2009 for dual-core (Auburndale).
Not really, core counts seem to remain fairly constant. At the low-end, Havendale (dual-core) is replacing both dual-core and quad-core Penryns. Westmere should increase core count, judging by the Bloomfield replacement (6 cores). There's improved power management, but mobile TDPs aren't any lower. Also, Nehalem's dies are larger than Penryn dies of equivalent core count. On the flip side, prices (for Bloomfield at least) are quite good (Gainestown on the other hand...).
Since Auburndale's coming in January 2010 and Sandy Bridge is coming at the start of 2011, Intel has about a year to release mobile (dual-core) Nehalem, transition it to 32 nm, and release the succeeding microarchitecture. Unless Intel decides to push back mobile Sandy Bridge and/or the 32 nm Auburndale revision. Clarksfield should have a longer transition, though even it's not scheduled to go 32 nm until H2 2010.
Any time from January 2009 to WWDC 2009, depending on when Gainestown is released (last I heard was Q1 2009) and supply after that (Apple's known to delay releases due to constrained supply).
OK wow...Lots of misinformation and confusion of parts going on around here...
First off. The highest end intel part is the Core 2 Extreme QX9770, running at 3.2 GHz, not 3.7 and a 1600 fsb, not 1666.
This also ties into the answer of many of your questions about why the Xeon isn't coming out first...AMD is doing terribly bad and Intel is still having great success with Penryn. Penryn's were a little late, and the Nehalem's were a little early and they're still making money of Penryns so they're spreading the launches out a bit... If AMD has been more aggressive or competitive I guarantee you would have seen a full top to bottom Nehalem launch on the 17th of this month. Instead we're getting the "Bloomfield" part. Conroe (desktop core2duo) was to Woodcrest (Xeon core 2 duo) as what Bloomfield is to Nehalem...
Also the Xeon based Nehalems are called, Beckton for MP, and Gainestown for DP (most likely what we will see in Mac Pros) They have a higher pin count and they are not socket compatible with the Boomfield parts. They also used FB-DIMM instead of regular plain old DDR3.
And then lastly a lot are asking about the notebook version of Nehalem. Someone got it confused...Auburndale IS a notebook version of Nehalem. First out with Clarksfield, which is just the normal notebook version of Nehalem, performance and mainstream parts. Then Auburndale will come out, which is not just a standard mobile CPU but has an inregrated GPU on DIE with the cpu, very similiar to AMD's Fusion project. It's a mainstream to low performance part, 2 cores, lower TDP etc. Some of the desktop and mobile version of Nehalem wont have QPI links which is another reason why you arent seeing the Xeon's yet.
Lastly, currently Nvidia doesnt have a license to make a chipset for Nehalem. They do however have a license to integrate SLI into the x58 chipset (intel's own chipset for Nehalem) so in essence you're getting the best from both companies. Edit:
"it is possible that nVidia has a license although it's not completely clear.
nVidia has stated that they have a license to produce QPI chipsets. "
Yea building from what you're saying, Nvidia cant make a chipset that you can plug Nehalems into. They have access to QPI because thats what talks to the CPU directly and you need that for SLI to work. Their QPI license is essentially a way for them to keep SLI alive on Intel platforms, and alive in general because Intel platforms are whats selling.
I typed this up real quick sorry. Let me know..
First off. The highest end intel part is the Core 2 Extreme QX9770, running at 3.2 GHz, not 3.7 and a 1600 fsb, not 1666.
This also ties into the answer of many of your questions about why the Xeon isn't coming out first...AMD is doing terribly bad and Intel is still having great success with Penryn. Penryn's were a little late, and the Nehalem's were a little early and they're still making money of Penryns so they're spreading the launches out a bit... If AMD has been more aggressive or competitive I guarantee you would have seen a full top to bottom Nehalem launch on the 17th of this month. Instead we're getting the "Bloomfield" part. Conroe (desktop core2duo) was to Woodcrest (Xeon core 2 duo) as what Bloomfield is to Nehalem...
Also the Xeon based Nehalems are called, Beckton for MP, and Gainestown for DP (most likely what we will see in Mac Pros) They have a higher pin count and they are not socket compatible with the Boomfield parts. They also used FB-DIMM instead of regular plain old DDR3.
And then lastly a lot are asking about the notebook version of Nehalem. Someone got it confused...Auburndale IS a notebook version of Nehalem. First out with Clarksfield, which is just the normal notebook version of Nehalem, performance and mainstream parts. Then Auburndale will come out, which is not just a standard mobile CPU but has an inregrated GPU on DIE with the cpu, very similiar to AMD's Fusion project. It's a mainstream to low performance part, 2 cores, lower TDP etc. Some of the desktop and mobile version of Nehalem wont have QPI links which is another reason why you arent seeing the Xeon's yet.
Lastly, currently Nvidia doesnt have a license to make a chipset for Nehalem. They do however have a license to integrate SLI into the x58 chipset (intel's own chipset for Nehalem) so in essence you're getting the best from both companies. Edit:
"it is possible that nVidia has a license although it's not completely clear.
nVidia has stated that they have a license to produce QPI chipsets. "
Yea building from what you're saying, Nvidia cant make a chipset that you can plug Nehalems into. They have access to QPI because thats what talks to the CPU directly and you need that for SLI to work. Their QPI license is essentially a way for them to keep SLI alive on Intel platforms, and alive in general because Intel platforms are whats selling.
I typed this up real quick sorry. Let me know..
The extreme penryn is clocked way higher than these test models. A nehalem at 3.73Ghz would beat the penryn extreme.
It should be noted that these tests were done on Windows. Due to the Mac OS scheduler, there may be differences when tested on a Mac. Especially if that Mac is running Snow Leopard.
These two are the only two I wondered about. I was under the impression(from Fudzilla) that Nvidia has QPI license, which would mean they can make chipsets for Nehalem. I also was under the impression that FB-DIMM was only for the MP servers not the DP systems. Registered DDR 3 was going to be used in Gainestown.