Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955

The Dream...

First of all, the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 is not a cheap processor by any stretch of the imagination - it's going to cost you over £600 or $1000. It is marketed as Intel's flagship processor that they're pushing towards the hardcore-gamer-come-hardware-enthusiast with lots of money.

There is only one test in our suite where the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 is faster than the Athlon 64 X2 4800+. That was the heaviest of our multi-tasking scenarios consisting of a DVD Shrink, a WinRAR file compression while watching a high definition video stream. If you're looking to multi-task as much as this, the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 makes sense for you with its four logical threads.

The 975X chipset performed better in some instances, but worse in many others. It seems like the Memory Pipeline Technology only works in some applications or circumstances that aren't likely to be used a great deal in the real world. We'll be looking to test this further when we get our hands on some retail i975X-based motherboards.

Virtualisation technology could make good use of these four threads too, but we're waiting on chipsets and other hardware to come along and support the technology properly in hardware. There's no doubting that it has a lot of promise on something as able as the Pentium Extreme Edition 955, but we've not got to the red letter day where hardware-accelerated virtualisation is a reality just yet. Until that day arrives, virtualisation will remain in a software-based environment. We really look forward to being able to take full advantage of it.

Multi-Threaded games are starting to appear and it is a topic that needs to be explored in the future. At the last Intel Developer Forum, Wil noted that both F.E.A.R. and City of Villains were optimised for dual core processors. These have been joined by the recent release of dual core optimised patches for both Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2. We'll have to have a closer look at these games and also have a look at the dual core optimised graphics drivers from both ATI and NVIDIA in the new year. It's clear that games are heading in the dual-core direction - especially with the Xbox 360 and PS3 utilising multiple threads. Buying a dual-core processor is something of a no-brainer these days if you're looking to future proof your rig, and the 955 is clearly threaded to the max.

The Reality...

Most hardcore gamers look to use as few system resources as possible when they're playing their favourite online game - the slightest hint of system lag could happen at a critical point in the outcome of the game and its something they're hoping will not happen. There is no doubting that the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 is one of the least-likely processors to choke under the pressure. But (and this is a big but), how many serious gamers sit down and play games with up to four threads running in the background?

The argument is that it would be great to be able to do that, regardless of whether anyone does currently. Indeed, I'm slightly spoiled by virtue of using a dual core processor in my gaming system. I've got a lot more processes running these days and I quite often burn a DVD in the background while I'm gaming - but this is really only true of casual gaming. If I was the kind of hardcore, money-no-object gamer that Intel is targeting the 955 at, I'd still be turning the majority of my background programmes off without hesitation because lag just can't be risked.

I guess the point I'm trying to get across here is that your anti-virus scanner might kick in while you're gaming. On any dual-core processor, your anti-virus scanner is not going to cause a great deal of slow down in much the same way that it won't on Intel's Pentium Extreme Edition 955. You're likely to notice slow down and hitching if you're using a single core processor - it'll be even more apparent on the single cored Athlon 64's. So, as we said above, dual-core is definitely the way to go, but we'd question the need for four threads if you're a gamer.

Final Thoughts...

The Pentium Extreme Edition 955 is not a bad processor, but there are better alternatives for the serious gamer.

The crux is that Intel would have been better pushing a higher-clocked dual core Pentium Extreme Edition without HyperThreading Technology at gamers. They're more likely to appreciate the extra core speed over the additional threads that really aren't required by anyone who's serious about gaming.

Intel would be better marketing this CPU towards the power user who, like me, hates waiting for one thing to finish before something else can be started. I've turned into a multi-tasking machine, and I'll often sit down and find myself doing more things than my current Athlon 64 X2 is capable of. The 955 is absolutely perfect for this.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend this CPU to anyone who considers themselves a serious gamer - it's better suited to a serious power user. However, we should give kudos to Intel for pushing the envelope on multi-threading.

The yields on the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 will be as good as any single core processor Intel releases on their 65 nanometre process. You can also bet your bottom dollar on Intel cherry picking pairs of Cedar Mill cores to share the same heatspreader on this and future Pentium Extreme Edition processors. In fact, it's quite feasible that we could see the highest clocked Extreme Edition yet at some point in the future.

It'll be interesting to see how the rest of Intel's Pentium 900-series lines up, as they're likely to be more appealing - and more affordable - for gamers. We understand that we'll see products released at 3.4GHz, 3.2GHz and 3.0GHz with 2MB L2 cache per core, an 800MHz front side bus and no support for HyperThreading Technology. These chips could well be killers.


The Pentium Extreme Edition 955 will go on sale on January 16th.

Update 17:54 GMT 27/12/05:
It's worth mentioning that Scott at TechReport has had a few problems with two Pentium Extreme Edition 955 processor/motherboard combinations. It doesn't seem to be a case of the CPU overheating, but more down to the way that the motherboard is handling the temperature readouts from the CPU. We didn't suffer any of these throttling problems of our own, but it's something worth bearing in mind when you're reading reviews around the web today.

- Tim