CPU/Mobo Conroe Performance Preview Follow-Up

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For the updated review with benchies visit Anandtech

We took a second look at Conroe. We ran the AMD system with an updated BIOS, ran our own Quake 4 demo on Conroe and re-ran some of our original tests. Find out what's changed.

Final Words

The performance picture with regards to Conroe hasn’t really changed all that much - on average we’re still seeing a bit over a 20% increase in performance over an overclocked Athlon 64 FX-60. While it’s worth noting that these results should be taken with a grain of salt, we really were not able to determine any cause for suspicion based on Intel’s setups. The machines were as clean as they could get, with the BIOS oversight having no tangible impact on most performance.

Believe it or not, Intel doesn't seem malicious in their intent. The AMD system could be better configured by using a RD580 based motherboard instead of a RD480 platform, but other than that there's not much else that can be done to improve the performance of the system Intel used. Obviously we're not going to rely on these initial benchmarks for our final take on Conroe, but the scores are extremely interesting to say the least.

Conroe is supposed to launch in Q3 of this year, and here we are at the end of Q1 with some fairly impressive performance numbers. What could happen over the next quarter or so?

AMD will be launching Socket-AM2 in Q2 of this year, which will bring about more memory bandwidth as well as lower power consumption thanks to the Energy Efficient CPUs that will ship on the platform. We have yet to see whether or not real world performance will go up as a result of the move to DDR2, but it very well may.

On the Intel front, there is a lot of time for performance optimization with regards to Conroe and its platforms. It’s also worth noting that the 2.66GHz E6700 we previewed here is simply a high end mainstream part, it is not an Extreme Edition flavor of Conroe. At 2.8 or 3.0GHz, a Conroe EE would offer even stronger performance than what we’ve seen here.

For the updated review with benchies visit Anandtech

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Mods the original thread was getting too big, so posted a new one for the updated review.
 
Yesterday's Conroe/AMD poke would give rise to a hell-broke-loose situation and I was damn right. Anyway, head to Rahul Sood's weblog where the reviews at Hexus and Anandtech behind all this mash-up are dissected and commented on. He gets his points but I still wonder whether AMD is not ready for a shock. Intel is changing its all architecture whereas AMD is incrementally improving its own. You can also read Wolfgang's analysis at THG.
 
Well Anand's follow up make a good point and I think those who suspected Game Advantage to Intel would cool down a lil. Still trouncing AMD FX-60 in Games by 20-25% at not so lower frequency is a very good sign. I think it should have been better with 4-issue core, throughput of all SSE instructions is now single cycle and enhanced Pre-Fetch tweaks of new "Core". May be newer-enhanced software will show true colors.
 
Well, i think the point remains that Intel sure have got something gr8 up their sleeves..take out all that 40% performance increase talk, but after all the re-checks by independant parties, its proved that the CONROE does gives 20-25% better performance than the FX-60..and that turns things around...:eek:hyeah:
And whether we all agree this or not, we all know that 95% of TE is AMD fanboy..:p:p :p...no offense,pals..:)
 
CaaYoTee said:
Well, i think the point remains that Intel sure have got something gr8 up their sleeves..take out all that 40% performance increase talk, but after all the re-checks by independant parties, its proved that the CONROE does gives 20-25% better performance than the FX-60..and that turns things around...:eek:hyeah:
And whether we all agree this or not, we all know that 95% of TE is AMD fanboy..:p:p :p...no offense,pals..:)
Click to expand...

no one is here AMD fanboy pal .....

currently AMD has the best bang for bucks so we are telling everyone to get AMD ..... if conroe is the next performance king(which i gr8tly doubt) ..... then y the hell anyone will buy AMD ....

and if u have any doubts about AMD performance chk this out

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

tho tomshardware is a intel biased site but still they can't save intels A** ....

i think AM2 will manage to fill the 20-30% performance gap created by conroe ..... i will say lets wait for conroe launch and then see .....
 
Yeah as I have mentioned above I am pro Performance at decent price. So with newer Fabs AMD may be able to play the "Lower Priced" card. We all have wait to see how AM2 turns out with DDR2-800. If not well then conroe is around the corner only :D
 
There are two more Conroe previews though on the internet. One from Hardwarezone and one from Techreport. Conroe/Merom is a completely different story.

HWZ checked the Conroe with DDR2-667 rather than the DDR-800 it will officially sport at launch. Conroe has 2x2MB L2 cache as well and like the other tests, the FX60 was overclocked to 2.8GHz. And as you might expect, the FX60 gets more than intimidated. HWZ's byline - Conroe Puts the Fear into Athlon 64 FX-60 - leaves no doubt where the results go. As for TR, they are more conservative - but they do acknowledge. Intel is back in the game.

And by the way, thanks to that anonymous writer for that nice explanation which sheds some light on the performance delta between the Conroe and the FX60." Last year, the results of a test comparing the same application compiled under Windows (using an Intel compiler) and Solaris x86 using Studio 10. The tests were run on the same Opteron hardware. In each case a clean install of the operating system was performed prior to running the test (not optimisation took place). The Solaris x86 code performed the same task typically at least 50% faster than under Windows in 32bit execution; 64bit was faster again. So depending how the code was compiled you may be not getting all the performance from your AMD chip".
 
Few people use the Intel compiler for non-custom made products. General retail stuff does not have this hang ups.

The Intel compiler is known to generate buggy code on AMD processors.
 
Intel was having performance lead over Athlon XP for a long time before Athlon 64 was introduced. But, AMD still sold like hot pan cakes, mainly becoz dey used to give best bang for bucks. So, even if Intel has the performance lead, the price always will be the deciding factor and AMD always did thier homework on the pricing factor.
 
VOODOO PC's boss, Rahul Sood, has written a very informative post on his blog. He gives credit where it is due for they allowed Anand to reconfigure the AMD machine and even then Intel still had a 20% lead. Read the last paragraph to see what proves to be the underlying logic behind all this - strong competition breeds excellent performance.
 
^^ Its not possible.

Intel are not Stupid.

65nm actually means its cheaper for them to manufacture these.

I say the 2.2 Ghz variants will be around 200$ and the 2.6 Ghz Variant will be at ~350$. The 3 Ghz+ Extreme Editions will be $650+ ofcourse.
 
If you saw a recent pricelist of Intel processors, you'll see that they're trying to penetrate the market at all levels, low end to high end... take the Pentium D 805 for example, you can't get an AMD X2 at that price ;)

Intel will launch competitively priced Conroes to get back on top of the game in the desktop market.
 
To gain back the lost Enthusiasts ground Intel has no option but to be competitive, hence New architecture with attractive prices (atleast I hope for that). But then we all know that. It sure has lined up things that are super, its quad core Clovertown is to be launched Q1'07. There were some romours (The INQ) about it being pushed so that Q4 launch can had. This really tells how focused Intel is about this business.
 
Yup.

Conroe is going to replace all existing products of theirs. The Pentium D's have already stopped manufacturing.

You can expect similar pricing.

Like Pentium D 920 = Conroe 2.2 Ghz = ~250$

Pentium D 940 = Conroe 2.6 Ghz = ~400$

Pentium XE 955 :eek:hyeah: = Conroe 3+ Ghz = ~600$

:p. Hope im right. Lol.
 
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