Core i9 Engineering Sample Shows 6-Core Power

Early Gulftown engineering sample previewed.

Polish computer site PCLab managed to secure an engineering sample of an Intel chip manufactured on the Westmere 32nm process, containing six-cores and 12MB of L3. Yes, it certainly looks like Gulftown – the codename for what likely will end up being marketed as Core i9.

Despite Gulftown not being officially supported yet the testers managed to get Gulftown to work on three boards: Gigabyte EX58-Extreme, ASUS Rampage II Gene and ASUS P6T SE, thanks to the chip using LGA 1366 socket. Of course, the BIOSes for the motherboards weren't optimized for Gulftown just yet, so there were some performance issues – particularly in the memory department.

Overall, test results showed that Gulftown performs as many would hope it would with an extra two Hyperthreaded cores. Multithreaded applications saw impressive gains thanks to the bump in 50 percent greater number of cores.

The early benchmarks show a very impressive chip from the Westmere family that we'll be seeing in 2010. Check out PCLab for the full preview.

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anonymous@guest , November 25, 2009 5:41 AM

50% better performance in synthetics with 50% more cores isn't really impressive though.

No doubt this is a great processor but it's unlikely it'll be worth the premium over i7. Indeed, it could be argued that the best feature of the i9 is that the i7 prices might drop.

Other Comments

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jerreece , November 25, 2009 4:50 AM

That's just sick. LOL makes my brand new i5 seem tiny. Will be even more fun to see some solid gaming benchmarks once the final product hits review sites.
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grillz9909 , November 25, 2009 4:51 AM

Nice graphs
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jerreece , November 25, 2009 4:52 AM

BTW: The "Best Offers" ad box is covering up the second graph in my Firefox browser. Tried reloading the page, still can't view the second graph.
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rsklingensmith , November 25, 2009 4:56 AM

jerreeceBTW: The "Best Offers" ad box is covering up the second graph in my Firefox browser. Tried reloading the page, still can't view the second graph.

I have the same problem with Chrome, happens whenever they have multiple graphs/charts in a news article.
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JeanLuc , November 25, 2009 4:59 AM

The graphs for me at stretching across the page (Firefox 3.5.5) is anyone else getting this problem?
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greglouganis , November 25, 2009 4:59 AM

Same here... plz
5 Ð

nonxcarbonx , November 25, 2009 5:00 AM

AMD really needs to get a new processor out. Right now it isn't that bad, but I'm worried that there will come a point when Intel simply doesn't have any legitimate mainstream competition.
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Marcus Yam , November 25, 2009 5:03 AM

JeanLucThe graphs for me at stretching across the page (Firefox 3.5.5) is anyone else getting this problem?

Sorry guys, should be all fixed now.
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kingnoobe , November 25, 2009 5:03 AM

I was having the same problem till i went to the pclab page, and then hit the back bottom now it's all showing properly.
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nforce4max , November 25, 2009 5:05 AM

Finally some worth upgrading to.
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eastcoaster , November 25, 2009 5:15 AM

Use Ad block plus for firefox and everything looks fine. Can't wait to see some benchies!!
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anonymous@guest , November 25, 2009 5:20 AM

I wonder how these polish guys get their hands on the engineering sample!
lots of $$$ perhaps?
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jn77 , November 25, 2009 5:24 AM

That is what I am looking for, one of those, 2 ATI 5790 x2's 6 or 12 displays... eyefinity at its best and 24 or 28gb of ram.... Windows 7 64bit...
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wildwell , November 25, 2009 5:24 AM

Oooh, lower power consumption and lower temps! I'm glad to see such an improvement in efficiency.
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Manos , November 25, 2009 5:24 AM

Scores double the i5. I would personally cry if I had recently bought an i5 and then see that graph . I know ill be getting me one of those babies once it out in the market. Dont feel like it will get outperform significantly any time soon after so will be a good time to upgrade again
-6 Ð

FoShizzleDizzle , November 25, 2009 5:27 AM

The Phenom II X4 is the $140 2.8GHz version running against the $200+ Intel units. Talk about a well thought-out benchmark.
2 Ð

greenbuck , November 25, 2009 5:32 AM

Sweet, faster with lower power consumption. I'm holding on upgrading my system. I'll wait for this baby to come out. I just hope it will not be too expensive.
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christop , November 25, 2009 5:33 AM

Has all research gone out the window on clock speeds? I was reading about some new material that could help with the heat dispersion.. Is this super future material I was reading about still in the works? Just wondering?
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steiner666 , November 25, 2009 5:33 AM

Sweet.

It's articles like this that remind me of why I have this page bookmarked.
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dragonsqrrl , November 25, 2009 5:38 AM

looking good, especially for a non bios optimized engineering sample. The Nehalem architecture seems to scale well from four to six cores, in many cases achieving a nearly 50% performance increase over the i7. I do a lot of video/3D rendering using programs like After Effects and Maya, and fortunately these applications (especially 3D rendering apps) really take advantage of having a processor with more cores/threads. I've been looking forward to its release for a while now, but unfortunately I've heard rumors that the i9 will only be available as an Extreme Edition to start... meaning outside my budget. the 32 nm LGA 1366 processors are looking to be a worthwhile investment for me though, so I might finally be able to put together that long awaited and much needed new system.

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