INTEL QX9650 Core 2 Extreme Processor

Based on a 45nm process, INTEL's Penryn family of processors is more than just a die shrink of the immensely popular Conroe processors. The dual-core Wolfdale (pictured above) and quad-core Yorkfield (pictured below) are identical in design, with the exception being the number of cores. Both offer a plethora of enhancements; most notably, these new parts boast much better power efficiency and SSE4 instructions, which touts a hearty boost in video encoding performance, among other things.

Today, HardwareLogic breaks down the quad core QX9650. While a casual glance might leave the impression there's little difference between the QX9650 and its predecessors (the QX6800 and QX6850), looks can be, and in this case, are deceiving. There's much more here than meets the eye...

CPU	INTEL QX9650 Core 2 Extreme	INTEL QX6850 Core 2 Extreme
Model	EU80569XJ080NL SLAN3	BX80562QX6850 SLAFN
Core	Quad Core Yorkfield 45nm Core Stepping: C0	Quad Core Kentsfield 65nm Core Stepping: G0
Frequency	3.0GHz	3.0GHz
FSB/Multi	1333/x9 Unlocked (x6 to x16)	1333/x9 Unlocked (x6 to x16)
Cache	L1: 64KB+64KB L2: 2x6MB (12MB Total)	L1: 64KB+64KB L2: 2 x 4MB (8MB Total)
Voltage	.85V-1.3625V	1.100V-1.372V
TDP	130W	130W
Thermal Spec	64.5C	64.5C
Process	45nm high-K metal gate transistor technology Total Die Size - 214mm² 820M transistors	65nm Total Die Size - 286mm² 582M transistors
Special Features	Enhanced Halt State (C1E) Enhanced Intel Speedstep® Technology Execute Disable Bit 1 Intel® EM64T 2 Intel® Thermal Monitor 2 Intel® Virtualization Technology MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4, EM64T	Enhanced Halt State (C1E) Enhanced Intel Speedstep® Technology Execute Disable Bit 1 Intel® EM64T 2 Intel® Thermal Monitor 2 Intel® Virtualization Technology MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T