Intel targets gamers, video editors with faster quad-core chip

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 10 April 2007 07:42

Your IT - Home IT

Intel's new Core 2 Extreme QX6800 boosts the quad-core family to a new high of 2.93GHz.

Gamers are an important market for fast CPUs, and Intel has been working with game developers to help them take full advantage of multi-core CPUs for smoother and more realistic play.

Examples include Crysis, Supreme Commander and Heligate London, and he forthcoming Service Pack 1 for Microsoft's Flight Simulator X will make better use of multicore CPUs.

"The latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Service Pack One (SP1), due out later this month, is a great match for the extreme multi-core processing delivered by the new Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor," said Phil Taylor, flight sim program manager, Microsoft Game Studios.

"Flight Sim X SP1 greatly increases multicore utilization and will scale as more threads are available leading to reduced load times as well as frame rate improvements and greater visual complexity during flight."

Fast processors are also sought after for media development, especially video editing. Intel officials say "dozens" of developers including Adobe, Cakewalk, DivX and Sony have already delivered software that takes advantage of all four cores.

The $US1199 Core 2 Extreme quad-core QX6800 is said to be up to 65 percent faster than the Core 2 Extreme dual-core X6800 for H.264 video encoding, and almost twice as fast for 3D ray tracing.

But no advantage arises if the software does not exploit the additional cores. Intel's own benchmarks show equivalent Doom 3 performance whether the game runs on the QX6800 or the X6800.

"The performance and technology leadership we are delivering with our enthusiast quad-core processor lineup is a direct result of the reliability provided by Intel's manufacturing and engineering strength," said Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Home Group.

"This translates to user benefits such as better gameplay with more intelligent computer-generated opponents and less wait time for demanding high-definition media editing."