Here's to Nehalem

Yeah, supposedly Nehalem CPUs will be launched at stock speeds up to 4.0GHz.

I'm looking to upgrade to Penryn next year, but depending on exactly when in "H2 2008" Nehalem will be released, I just might wait for that instead.

We'll see...

I'm going to just nab a q6600 probably and wait for nehalem...who knows when it will come out though. I might or might not. Did they happen to show off the performance at the IDF?...Really curious on what type of performance that sucker brings.

Here is Anandtech's coverage:
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3101&p=1
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3102
Penryn Nov 12, Nehalem 2h 08, this coming year is going to be something.

I have to say, Intel is a company on a mission from God....

Penryn apparently right on track.
Functional demos of Nehalem systems
Functional 32 nano SRAM

Intel is on a scary, dare I say terrifying, run.

If AMD can pull a few rabbits out the hat, we could all be in for one heck of a ride.

Pity all that extra power wont really translate to more performance in games.

For (pretty much) the 1st time in PC history we have MORE than enuf cpu power for games.

Now if ATI and NV can pull something similar out of the bag...

Yeh i think your right mrmez, we have quad core cpus that most users will never utilise, my q6600 is running server2003 64bit with exchange server, WSUS server, azureous bittorrent constantly and im still using it as a general email web viewing machine and it barely touches 20% utilisation on the CPU CRAZY

Actually, the problem isn't even really graphics anymore.

The problem is actually related to coding and storing all the data nessesary for all those nice hi-res graphics. It takes a lot of time (man-hours) to devise and code all those nice polygons, textures, and lighting effects. And debugging. And testing.

Then, there's the problem of space. There's the problem of the finite space involved in transfering the product (whether it's CD/DVD/Downloadable Content). How much are you willing to spend to get the prouct to the customer?

Finally, there's the problem of how much you can retail the product for. You could have the greatest game ever created on 2 DVD's, but if you have to retail it for $100 a copy to offset your costs you probably won't be able to sell enough copies to get your initial investment back.

The simple fact is, the days of being able to produce and market high-quality game titles out of your bedroom/garage are largely over. It now takes 3-5 years, with dozens of experienced artists and programmers with million-dollar equipment and developer kits, to produce even a fair/average game. It varies from title to title, but it now cost an average of 10-15 million to produe and distibute a class A title. So, it's more a problem of economics, not technology..

i just cancled my qx6850 project for myself - forget it - triple the bandwidth i stick with a q6600 for now!

I know Valve is big on the multicores. I do believe the updates to the source engine for Ep2 will handle upto quadcore. So not everyone is sitting back and not paying attention to trends.

I hope the early revisions are relatively bug-free and OC like da shiz.

from fudzilla it appears that nehalem will have a dedicated core to graphics basically Intels version of AMD's fusion. Id believe it but not from fudzilla.
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&ta...
" Larrabee likely to be a high end graphics"
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&ta...
and also apparently K10rev 2 thatll clock to past 3ghz has started mass production.

Hardware has so outstripped OS and application capabilities, it seems rather pointless. Hmmmm...if we could just put...say.....16GB of RAM on the die.....what's the point?....XP addresses 3GB.
So now because we have 8 cores we can run 8 task side by side.....
Let me see...now...how many times do I run even 4 tasks?

On the other hand more is better ...right? I wonder how much this one will cost us?

Probably alot, but the lower end ones won't (hopefully). 5 years ago you would have said the same about dual cores, but now they are cheap as hell and are the current standard.

Looks like Intel liked AMD's fusion idea - they liked it so much that they will get to market first with it!!!!

If only AMD could keep thei mouth shut!!!

Ha ha ha

OK, stupid noob "upgrade path question", ......will all these motherboards everyone talks about, 680i, P35, X38, etc, etc,...will these boards be compatible with the Nehalem chips next year or will you have to buy all new in order to run the chip?

You will need to buy a new motherboard. Completely different design for chipset interconnect. We will no longer have to use a FSB like we have now. It will be similiar in what it is supposed to do but the physical connection is serial rather than parallel.

From what I had heard, Fusion (and all the debt it incurred) was a reaction to knowing this was coming on the Intel roadmap. Got to remember that proc companies move their chess pieces a very long time before the day their products hit.

when is that new motherboard expected for nehalem? i plan ong etting a new computer for college, andi dont wanna have to change right away for nehalem. Im going in like august 2008... i just want to know if the motherboard will be out, not the actual cpu. i know that comes later.

Nehalem isn't due out till Aug/Sept of next year. It uses a new socket, so the CPU/Mobo's will probably be released similtainously.

Also Nehalem has memory controller on the chip, so the motherboard needs a complete overhaul becuase of that fact too so new northbridge and what not.

So simultaneous release is inevitable

Nehalem is bound to cost a fortune when it first releases. The boards that will support it are going to be overpriced as well.

Perhaps this is one of those things that is: If you have to ask how much , it is not for you.

I don't know if that's necessarily true. Intel tends to release their flagship products (the Extreme models) at ~$1,000 USD. If AMD can keep up (even if they trail behind closely), they should release at about the same price as they do now.

only the server version (Socket B aka LGA 1366) will have an integrated memory controller, the desktop version (Socket H aka LGA 715) won't have the IMC, but it'll still not be compatible with current 775

I'll say that only when I'll see how upcoming games like Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3, Far Cry 2 and Alan Wake perform with everything maxed out.  

I'll surely need all the available to feed my "soon to get" 24 inches LCD @ 1920*1200 if you see what I mean.  

Still, it's good to know that Intel is doing so well right now. Maybe it'll soon be time for IBM (Smasung) to grab AMD while it's value is going down but with good project in the making. Let's just hope   they can pull a rabbit out of their hat like somebody said before.

@andybird12 3

Thanks i did not know that  

Rabbits seem to be out of season for AMD, however there could be some surprises in store. Let's just watch a bit.

The processor field seems to be in a state of flux at the moment, however that 2160 OC'd to 3.2 seems rather nice.

My understanding is that there will be two Nehalems.

The server variety will use "QuickPath" (a.k.a. CSI, a.k.a hypertransport) while the desktop variety will continue to use a FSB.

Maybe...we will just have to wait and see.

But i like speculating.

I just grabbed a Q6600 G0, that should be arriving tomorrow, and will wait a little before doing a complete system upgrade, I guess a year from now.

But I will grab a 9800GTX, or whatever is called, as soon as go out :-)

New NVIDIA G92 is sooo gunna be a mid range

Mid range is ok....if overclocking is possible.

With a smaller die you would think it would be a good OCer