Early this morning, I received word from Tamas Miklos, author of EVEREST. This popular system benchmark and utility just got a major upgrade, supporting several new and useful tests. In fact, this is the very first benchmark that checks your compliance with OpenGL 3.0 API, but it doesn’t stop there. GPGPU devices information is also added, supporting both ATI Stream and Nvidia CUDA APIs. Given the speed of development, we might even get GPU-independent GPGPU benchmark, who knows. New feature is also Alert – sensor monitoring utility that triggers audio visual alert on overheating, voltage drop, overvoltage or cooling fan failure. This might prove quite
Rumored server Nehalem EP prices hit the ‘Net
According to Turkish site Donanim Haber, Intel Xeon-EP or Nehalem-EP is coming in the final month of Q1’09, March. Prices are set at $285 for the 2.66 GHz model, $555 for the 2.93 GHz part and $990 for the 3.2 GHz beast. All of the prices here are for single- and dual-socket motherboards, while the real cash cow, 4S version is coming later this year. Afore mentioned three models are almost identical to already existing Core i7 920, 940 and 965, but for the QPI inteface, which is allegidly set at 5.4 GT/s on all parts. G Also, very interesting part is the similarity in
Alleged Core i7 TLB issue is NOT a story at all
Earlier today, the world started to turn around news coming from a fellow website that claimed that ominous TLB-bug stroke Intel’s latest baby, Core i7 series. Transition Lookaside Buffer erratas/bugs are notorious and took financial and reputational tool from Intel and AMD in the past. Hearing news about TLB bugs happening with Core i7 had the potential to become a story of the year, just like AMD lost huge chunk of market confidence 12 months ago with TLB-bug on Barcelona/Agena (Opteron/Phenom). Could it be that Nehalem architecture has a similar flaw? Well, prior to running my story, I decided to read the document in question
EVGA debuts final version of its X58 motherboard
Today is Monday, November 17, 2008, the official launch and availability date for the Intel Core i7 platform. The whole platform is officially on sale, just in time for Black Friday/Cyber Monday madness. As revealed weeks ago, the motherboard itself is designed by ex-EPoX/now-EVGA design team, hand-tuned by K|ngP|n and Shamino, and manufactured by Jetway. This combo is responsible for (probably) the world’s first motherboard with limited lifetime warranty, and 90 Day Step-up program should be available for this motherboard as well (upgrading from, probably not upgrading to 😉 ). In Europe, customers will not get lifetime warranty, as that is impossible by EU laws
EVGA’s X58 motherboard is $299, not $399!
EVGA’s first non-Nvidia chipset motherboard brought a lot of attention and is currently #1 story on my blog with 836 souls that came to this site and read the piece. As the time of the launch approaches (Nov 17th), some e-tailers began to list the motherboard for 400 dollars. That would be all nice and dandy, but it is untrue. According to our sources, the motherboard is set to retail for 299 USD in North America, or around 280 Euro in EUrope. The $400 board will probably carry the name Black Pearl, and will come later. Hopefully this clears the confusion.
Intel Core i7 965 Gallery – from Silicon to Benchmarks!
Following my yesterday’s article, I received news that GTX280 kicked the bucket so my friend decided to install the ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 as a replacement, and the machine is now working like a clockwork. I won’t go into fashion decisions, as I am not a big fan of acrylic cases, but I wish my friend all the best when it comes to cleaning up. When it comes to the CPU itself, Intel Core i7 965 (codename: Bloomfield) works at 1.6 GHz in SpeedStep mode, and works at 3.4 GHz by default. E.g. it works in ASUS motherboard at 3.4 GHz by default, since the
World, meet Nehalem e.g. Core i7 965 pixellated
This coming monday (Nov 3rd), Intel will officially unveil Core i7 line-up. The line-up is consisted out of i7 920, 940 and 965, which will retail as the “Extreme Edition” and feature a lot of overclocking-friendly technologies. I’ve just received word that a buddy of mine got his Core i7 in Croatia. He and decided to assemble a system for ultimate gaming and Photoshop action. The system will be consisted out of Core i7 Extreme 965, Corsair DDR3 memory kit, ASUS Rampage II Formula motherboard and EVGA GeForce GTX280. But for starters, this is his majesty, Core i7 965, formerly known as Nehalem: Also, this
Noctua proves its focus on consumer happiness
Friends at TechPowerUp! recently reported that Noctua, well-known firm in the cooling business decided to give a very pleasant present to the owners of their CPU coolers. With the arrival of Intel Core i7 processors, Noctua announced that the company is giving away free mounting kits for LGA1366 socket. Named SecuFirm2, this socket adapter is compatible with all Noctua coolers since the company arrived on the market, three years ago. As soon as Nehalem processors and motherboards reach the stores, you can go and visit Noctua’s website and file an online request. You have to give out proof of purchase of either Noctua cooler or
Intel starts to phase out 65nm CPUs
If anyone doubts Intel’s leadership in the world of CPUs and manufacturing, just think of the following: its nearest competitor is yet to ship its 45nm products in any volume, while Chipzilla started to phase out 65nm CPUs as 45nm ones took over. While the world is waiting on AMD’s Shanghai and Deneb, Intel’s 45nm Core and Xeon processors overtook 65nm ones and the company decided to phase out or EOL (End Of Life) no less than 31 different 65nm processors. Intel claims the company has achieved break point between 45nm and 65 and that majority (roughly 60%) of CPUs in Q4 will be manufactured
EVGA completely moving to custom board design
One of largest Nvidia partners out there decided the time has come to turn the screw back on engineering, and reduce its dependency on current parts that are mostly built by Flextronics and similar ODM giants. The company acquired engineers from now-defunct EPoX and started working hard on creating products that are not of now typical “sticker stamper” kind. After introducing the 790i Ultra SLI FTW motherboard with own layout and features (digital power regulation, to name a few), EVGA is now coming to market with a series of own-designed graphics cards. Under a current plan, every product is slowly being upgraded to an own
