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The launch of Nvidia’s GeForce 200 architecture was far from successful. Having focused on developing the world’s most complex and highest-performing monolithic graphics core, Nvidia seemed to lose when ATI responded to the G200 with its simpler and much cheaper RV770 processor. G200-based solutions, already expensive due to their complexity, proved to be totally unprofitable when Nvidia had to cut their prices in order to make them competitive. In fact, even that price cut didn’t affect the appeal of those products much. A chip consisting of about 1.5 billion transistors and manufactured on 65nm tech process just could not work at high frequencies. The senior model of the new series barely reached GPU clock rates of 600/1300MHz. The junior model was even slower and could not compete with the Radeon HD 4870 in terms of performance as well as price.
But as time went by, Nvidia was steadily correcting its errors. First of all, the company increased the performance of the junior GeForce GTX 260 by unlocking some of the GPU’s functional subunits. As a result, the card got a longer name by adding “Core 216” and got competitive against the ATI Radeon HD 4870. Later on, this very model became the first to use the new 55nm version of the G200 core together with a new, greatly simplified and cheaper-to-make design of the PCB. That was most important for G200-based solutions that had been under high pressure from ATI. The GeForce GTX 285 was simplified, too. Thanks to the improved tech process, the G200b chip boasted increased overclocking potential, making the successor to the GeForce GTX 280 competitive to the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 across many applications. Besides, the 55nm G200 chip helped Nvidia strike back in the sector of premium dual-processor solutions. Announced on January 8, 2009, the GeForce GTX 295 dethroned the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 indeed. |
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AMD’s situation in the processor market these days can hardly be called enviable. AMD fans pinned a lot of hopes upon new K10 micro-architecture, however in reality it didn’t help the company create worthy rivals to Intel’s solutions, even though this micro-architecture is indeed innovative and efficient. Evident strengths of this micro-architecture, such as native quad-core design and L3 cache shared between all cores, remained in the shade because of technological issues that prevented AMD from getting to produce processors with frequencies beyond 2.5GHz. As a result, quad-ore Phenom X4 processors that are already available today turn out unable to compete not only against new 45nm Penryn CPUs, but also against the old 65nm Intel processors. |
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What CPUs suit best for contemporary applications – dual- or quad-core ones? It is very hard to answer this question, so no wonder that the adherents of both concepts are constantly engaged into long fierce debates about what’s best. While top quad-core processors work at the same frequencies as the dual-core ones, there are not that many applications out there that could really use their entire potential. On the other hand, dual-core CPUs overclock better, boast more favorable thermal characteristics, and the most important thing – cost considerably less than their quad-core counterparts. That is why many enthusiasts do not hurry to spend their money on Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme processors just yet. |
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The front runners of the computer community including wealthy computer enthusiasts are all impatiently waiting for the Bloomfield processors from Core i7 family to come out. Intel understands this situation very well that is why they haven’t released any new Core 2 Extreme processors for a while now: they could hardly interest potential customers who were expecting something completely different from the processor leader – new-generation solutions on Nehalem microarchitecture.
At the same time, more thriftful users who usually buy solutions with reasonable price-to-performance ratio, express purely theoretical interest to upcoming launches. The relatively inexpensive new-generation processors aka Lynnfield and Havendale should start selling in H2 2009 the earliest. Therefore, Intel continues to refresh the mainstream processor segment with new Wolfdale CPUs based on the latest 45nm second generation core with Core microarchitecture. |
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Choosing the right memory for a platform like that also turned out a little challenging. The first problem is evident: one or two memory modules are no longer enough, because triple-channel memory access can only be implemented with three DIMMs in the system. And again, it was no big deal for a mainstream user. He or she could go and buy any three regular DDR3-1066 memory modules, because in LGA1366 platform they would work at 533MHz frequency in the nominal mode at 133MHz base frequency setting. Overclockers and enthusiasts prefer to work at higher memory frequencies, that is why there have long been special high-frequency DDR3 memory kits available to them. But there is one problem: to get these memory DIMMs overclocked to higher frequencies they needed to increase their voltage to 1.9-2.0V. However, it is not recommended to push the memory voltage beyond 1.65V on LGA1366 platforms, because of the memory controller integrated into Intel Core i7 processors. As a result, it turned out impossible to take full advantage of the “old” DDR3 overclocker kits in the new systems. Insufficient voltage wouldn’t let them reveal their full potential. |
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