Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad Core Processor

The new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 is really nothing more than a union of two Core 2 Duo (Conroe) processors in a single package. While not as elegant as a "true" quad-core processor like the upcoming AMD K8L, the fact still remains that this is a quad-core processor.

So, Intel beat AMD to the line and have a real quad-core processor shipping today. If you need absolutely nothing but the fastest processor in the market right now, then this processor is just the thing for you.

However, be aware that many, many applications and games do not support multi-threading and are not optimized for quad-core processors. Our own test results have shown that while optimized applications may benefit greatly (up to 66% at the same clock speed), unoptimized applications do not benefit at all.

In fact, single-threaded applications appear to run slightly slower on the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 than the Core 2 Duo at the same clock speed. Perhaps this is due to the looser coupling of the two core pairs and the splitting of the L2 cache into two separate, unshareable caches.

Gamers should be prepared to be disappointed, since the games we tested showed little to no improvement in performance. That's hardly unexpected, of course, since most games aren't multi-threaded and well, no game is currently optimized for quad-core processors. Hopefully, that will change in time.

Fortunately, it was still pretty overclockable even with four cores and a much higher TDP of 130W. Using nothing more than the stock cooler, we managed to overclock it by 20% to 3.2GHz at the stock voltage of 1.35V. So, there's still some room to play around, for overclockers out there.

In our humble opinion, this processor is best suited to power users who are looking for the ability to run multiple heavy-duty applications at the same time. For example, running distributed computing projects on one or two cores while rendering 3D scenes on the remaining cores.

For such power users, having four fast processor cores can greatly improve productivity, something benchmark results cannot show. If you are such a power user and need a quad-core processor today, the choice is obvious.

For more details, read our Comprehensive Review!

MSRP

• NA

Lowest PriceGrabber Price

• NA

Review

• Comprehensive Review

Model

• Core 2 Extreme QX6700

Socket

• LGA775

Supported Instruction Sets

• RISC, IA32, XD bit, MMX, EM64T, SSE, SSE2, Supplemental SSE3

CPUID

• 06F7

Processor Cores

• Four

Transistor Count

• NA

Process Technology

• 65 nm

Die Size

• NA

Package Type

• Flip Chip

Operational Voltage

• 0.85 V - 1.350 V

Maximum Current Draw

• NA

TDP

• 130 W

Maximum Temperature

• NA

Clock Speed

• 2.66 GHz

Level 1 Caches

• 32 KB per core
• 128 KB total

Level 2 Caches

• 4 MB per core pair
• 8 MB total

Level 3 Cache

• None

Front Side Bus Speed

• 1066 MHz

Core To Bus Ratio Limit

• 10:1

Key Features

• Intel Wide Dynamic Execution
• Intel Smart Memory Access
• Intel Advanced Smart Cache
• Intel Advanced Digital Media Boost
• Platform Environment Control Interface (PECI)
• Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST)
• Extended HALT State (C1E)
• Execute Disable (XD) Bit
• Intel 64 Technology
• Intel Virtualization Technology (VT)