Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.6 GHz X7800 Announced

[EagerDragon]

both. Its a marketing term that Intel has used on its desktop line, and is now using on the high-end of mobile line. There is some hardware distinction, mainly the higher clock speed and the ability to overclock.

And a large markup to make sure that buyers feel special.

 

[cliffjumper68]

I'd really like to see the 2.6 extreme go into the new iMacs. At the slight power consumption increase, that shouldn't mean much to a desktop or much in the way of heat. It would be nice to see these in 24" iMacs, at least as a BTO option, only problem is that if they are not pin-compatible to the SR C2Ds, then they can't offer 2.2 base and 2.4, 2.6 options. However, if they can ideally we would see:

20"iMac
2.2Ghz SR maybe with 2.4 option

24"iMac
2.4Ghz SR with 2.6Ghz Extreme option

and don't hold your breath, but a
27"iMac
same 2.4Ghz SR with 2.6Ghz Extreme options would be awesome.

A 27" iMac would be awesome!!!!

 

[EagerDragon]

Can I have one of these in my new iMac please?

<shakes Magic 8 ball and reads:> "Signs point to yes".

 

[NtotheIzoo]

With fewer bottle necks, less CPU cycles, and higher bus, and interface bandwidths these chips are far faster than chips from 5 years ago. A good analogy would be a lawnmower engine versus a truck engine. They may both operate at 4500 RPM (revolutions per minute) but you will achive far more power and flow through in the truck engine even though the engines turn at the same speed.

that's a great analogy...

 

[WeaselMaster]

EEK, a mouse!

I believe you meant Eke, as in 'to squeeze a bit more out of',
not Eek as in 'oh my god, a mouse!'

 

[Clive At Five]

you might count them in the new iMacs if they're not already in production

Eh, being in production wouldn't have stopped Apple from using tomorrow's chips for tomorrow's iMacs. I'm pretty certain manufacturers (Intel) allow their customers (Apple) to build systems with their new chips pre-announcement as long as they don't release the unit. Of course the 3GHz BTO Mac Pro is an exception... Released before the chip was.

The Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 quad-core processor would be even cooler if it had a 1337 MHz system bus. 😉

HAH! That's gotta be the one-liner of the day.

-Clive

 

[Eidorian]

What does the "Extreme" mean? Is it just some arbitrary marketing that means "fast and cool so you want to buy it!"? Or does it actually reflect some type of change on the chip...

Extreme reflects the high end of Intel's processors. These are designed for enthusiasts and have the highest clock speeds and unlocked multipliers (easy overclocking).

Can I have one of these in my new iMac please?

$$$$$$

The X7800 has been in the Merom guide for ages.

 

[WannaGoMac]

With all those new chips come price drops

And will Apple even think about lowering their prices to reflect this savings. haha, ya right.

When will Apple join the rest of the computer industry and have their prices change as the costs change?

 

[wheezy]

Isn't it odd that these chips are announced as a new iMac style etc are in the works? Why not put the new Extreme Quad Core in the new iMac. Hence the new design, and I'm sure Apple had advance notice of the chips, so they could have started to design around them months ago. Chips are ready, new iMac with Quad Core right behind it....

 

[Clive At Five]

If iMacs were released with this chip, then your new iMac would obsolete as it has the older chip. 😀 But are you asking if this would be swapable with the older SR chip? I'm actually wondering the same thing. Is this new chip pin compatible? How about with Core 2 Duos and Core Duos?

I'm pretty sure Merom is not pin-to-pin compatible with Conroe. A new iMac would thus require a new Mo-board to use Conroe... as it would anyway to support all the steaming new FSB speed improvements. Is it wrong of me to be excited about the FSB? I think everyone could use a little more FSB speed...

-Clive

 

[billystlyes]

Intel also announced a new desktop processor today, however the announcement does not look to have much bearing on the Apple community, as Apple has continually eschewed Intel's Desktop products in favor of Intel's less power hungry mobile products or more powerful workstation/server Xeons.

And that's a shame, because they are faster and cost less!

 

[Clive At Five]

A 27" iMac would be awesome!!!!

...and would be a bitch to carry around if they decided to make it a convertable...

-Clive

 

[Peace]

The Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 quad-core processor would be even cooler if it had a 1337 MHz system bus. 😉

Unless this chip uses at least a 800Mhz FSB this won't be in the iMac.

 

[Eidorian]

Unless this chip uses at least a 800Mhz FSB this won't be in the iMac.

Overclock the front side bus to 333 MHz.

Conroe (Desktop) 1066-1333 MHz
Merom (Mobile) 667-800 MHz

 

[mathwhiz90601]

New Macbooks, MacBook Pros and iMacs next Tuesday! And Safari feels snappier!

Not this week tuesday (ie tommorrow - July 17th) but next tuesday. Leaves a little more time between them and the iPhone and gives Steve time to make a Stevenote (Vote for 24th.)

i think its too much power

There is no such thing as too much power. It'd probably be less power than you already have anyway:

Mac Pro; 2x2.66Ghz Xeons; 4GB Ram; X1900XT; 1TB of Storage

It would be great for apple to start using some of Intel's desktop chips.

I am sick of laptop chips in Imacs. Yes they may be ok enough for Mac Minis, but Apple needs to offer up a mid sized tower or imac that has more power than a laptop.

To hold back on power just so they have a small form is very annoying.

Also, this chip would be a mobile chip, so i wouldn't believe they would hold back, instead probably offer it as an option on their highest end macbook pro's.

Apple, cmon, please offer desktop extreme chips in a mid sized upgradable tower!!

I think they have to use laptop chips to cut on heat. They'd be able to fit more stuff in there if they have LED backlighting in the new iMac's since less power of LED = less heat.

Can I have one of these in my new iMac please?

You mean one you already own?

Also, how is it that everyone is happy with Intel releasing chips with max speeds that are at the same number as 3 years ago? This chipset maxes out at 2.6??? I know that they are doing more with these chips by making them multi-cored and tweaking the FSB, but come on.... Imagine what someone would say if they could have looked into today's world from 5 years ago. They were peaking at 1.8-2.0 back then.

Back then, Intel designed their chips to have higher clock speeds to make their chips look more powerful to the public, even though clockspeed isn't everything. The new ones have vastly superior architechtures (and multiple cores) and are therefore much better.

It's not always about performance, a lot of it has to do with simply how the numbers look from the outside.

Intel tried to adhere to that, but they ended up making chips that performed worse with very high clockspeeds in order to fool the populace with the "megahertz myth".

I do not think that Apple uses any of the extreme chips (too hot), so I think it is unlikely.

Maybe in iMac.

I agree. The iMac is most probably going to see this chip. Mac Mini, dunno. I bet on SR C2D; it sounds reasonable for the price point.

I'd really like to see the 2.6 extreme go into the new iMacs. At the slight power consumption increase, that shouldn't mean much to a desktop or much in the way of heat. It would be nice to see these in 24" iMacs, at least as a BTO option, only problem is that if they are not pin-compatible to the SR C2Ds, then they can't offer 2.2 base and 2.4, 2.6 options. However, if they can ideally we would see:

20"iMac
2.2Ghz SR maybe with 2.4 option

24"iMac
2.4Ghz SR with 2.6Ghz Extreme option

and don't hold your breath, but a
27"iMac
same 2.4Ghz SR with 2.6Ghz Extreme options would be awesome.

The iMac is totally getting these chips 😀 Don't think there'll be a 27" model... 2 screen sizes should still be enough choice.

Eh, being in production wouldn't have stopped Apple from using tomorrow's chips for tomorrow's iMacs. I'm pretty certain manufacturers (Intel) allow their customers (Apple) to build systems with their new chips pre-announcement as long as they don't release the unit. Of course the 3GHz BTO Mac Pro is an exception... Released before the chip was.

Definitely in the new iMacs. And the chip in the Mac Pro isn't publicly available at all, anyway.

 

[Clive At Five]

I can't believe no one has said it yet, since this is, after all, an extreme mobile chip we're talking about...

And since someone mentioned Power... :

PowerBook G5 on Tuesday!! 😀

On behalf of the MacRumors forum-members, I take the liberty of drop-kicking you across the room.

Unless this chip uses at least a 800Mhz FSB this won't be in the iMac.

I think you missed the joke...

1337MHz... instead of 1333Mhz... 1337 is hacker (h@x0r) speak for "LEET," meaning "elite." I suggest getting out more.

-Clive

 

[commander.data]

Unless this chip uses at least a 800Mhz FSB this won't be in the iMac.

I can't see the Merom Extreme Edition being used by Apple either. Neither the MBP or iMac given their small form factors are well suited for overclocking and they already aren't exactly cool. The Extreme Edition's only real point is overclocking and I don't think Apple wants to sanction a ticket to hardware failure. A 2.6GHz non-Extreme Merom will be released in late Q3 anyways, which is perfect time for a SR MBP refresh.

 

[Peace]

On behalf of the MacRumors forum-members, I take the liberty of drop-kicking you across the room.



I think you missed the joke...

1337MHz... instead of 1333Mhz... 1337 is hacker (h@x0r) speak for "LEET," meaning "elite." I suggest getting out more.

-Clive

I would get out more if my lungs weren't filled with asbestos particles.
😉

 

[Eidorian]

I can't see the Merom Extreme Edition being used by Apple either. Neither the MBP or iMac given their small form factors are well suited for overclocking and they already aren't exactly cool. The Extreme Edition's only real point is overclocking and I don't think Apple wants to sanction a ticket to hardware failure. A 2.6GHz non-Extreme Merom will be released in late Q3 anyways, which is perfect time for a SR MBP refresh.

I can see it being offered for the extra 200 MHz but I don't see the overclocking features being enabled in EFI.

 

[Clive At Five]

I would get out more if my lungs weren't filled with asbestos particles.
😉

aha. Touche.

Nah, really, I don't blame you for not knowing about 1337. I just assumed that we're all geeks here... Typical geeks respond jovially to the utterings of "1337."

-Clive

 

[Raidersmojo]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peace
Unless this chip uses at least a 800Mhz FSB this won't be in the iMac.
I think you missed the joke...

1337MHz... instead of 1333Mhz... 1337 is hacker (h@x0r) speak for "LEET," meaning "elite." I suggest getting out more.

-Clive

actually I'd suggest YOU get out more 😉😛

 

[longofest]

Unless this chip uses at least a 800Mhz FSB this won't be in the iMac.

It does indeed have a 800 MHz FSB.

 

[Glassman]

I can't see why most of you seem to be mad about having the fastest clocked cpu there is.. what difference do you think such a slight increase in clock frequency can produce, all things being equal.. you won't even notice unless you benchmark it.. now look at the price difference - far more than the performance difference.. also look at the power consumption & heat.. the Extreme lineup is meant for overclockers, not general public, which is exactly where Apple stands.. don't tell me you expect Apple to enter enthusiast business and offer advanced overclocking support in BIOS, ehm, EFI and let customers mess with their computers? clearly, Apple made a choice to go with mobile processors for iMacs, because performace is fairly 'nuff for majority of potencial users and it's oh so easier to design the machines.. for those who seek power there is Mac Pro.. you decide..

 

[ts1973]

Intel also announced a new desktop processor today, however the announcement does not look to have much bearing on the Apple community, as Apple has continually eschewed Intel's Desktop products in favor of Intel's less power hungry mobile products or more powerful workstation/server Xeons.

There's nothing more powerful about the Xeon S771 chips. they're exactly the same as the Kentsfield S775 chips, but with a (slightly) different pin layout.

Apple had better used the new Kentsfield GO stepping chips : they're far more energy efficient than the previous stepping. Then again : Penryn is just around the corner and will improve things even more on the Performance per Watt scale.

 

[gnasher729]

What does the "Extreme" mean? Is it just some arbitrary marketing that means "fast and cool so you want to buy it!"? Or does it actually reflect some type of change on the chip...

"Extreme" is an existing chip, at extreme speed, and extreme price 😡

The problem is that at the top end, getting a bit more clock speed gets very expensive. Getting an "extreme" dual core processor seems a bit stupid, because a low-end quad core processor would be cheaper and much faster.

We'll see what the next generation iMacs will look like. Apple can try to design them flatter, with less of a "chin". But that means less cooling and therefore laptop chips. On the other hand, they can keep the current thickness, and the 24 inch model at least should be able to handle a quad core chip at low clock rate.