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The Intel Core i7 processor
Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:17 pmTomorrow sees the worldwide release of the new series of Intel Core i7 processors. I was lucky enough to get a first hand briefing from Intel staff on the processor, and even better try out some great games, on PCs with the new chip.
This will be Intel’s flagship brand going forward, but they will continue to support their other products, which is sensible. The i7s are aimed at the higher end of the market – those who use their PCs to produce content, and/or serious gamers.
The presentation by the Intel product manager said that on average there is a 40% boost in power. The processors can run up to eight application threads simultaneously, but also has a turbo boost option where it can close down cores not used, and speed up or overclock those cores in use. So you get the best of both worlds.
The top chip is the Intel® Core™ i7‐965 Extreme Edition with a 3.20 GHz clock speed. I can recall clock speeds of under 100 MHz 
Most people don’t worry too much about the type of processor they have in their PC. If you just use it to do e-mail and world and excel, you don’t need to.
But if you are a power user of Adobe products, like editing videos, or love games that chew up capacity, then you probably do care about your processor, and I suspect will like the i7.
The briefing on the i7 was in Melbourne on Friday, as part of the Melbourne e-gaming convention. In recent years my laptops have been small, to allow for easy travel, so I have not done much gaming. In fact I only have one small game on my laptop. Also I have been somewhat busy of late, so it has been ages since I spent hours playing a decent computer game – and God was it good.
On Sunday I spent four hours playing the latest James Bond Casino Royale game. The video and graphics are superb, and it doesn’t even pause for a split second as you have huge battles with a dozen opponents. As you hit them, they fall off balconies, slump down dead etc in impressive fashion. And the laser sights on your weapons are truly impressive.
If it weren’t for the fact I know I would spend too much time with them, I’m bloody tempted to go out and buy a desktop PC just for gaming. But alas I need to earn a living, so will resist – for now anyway.
Disclosure: Intel paid for my travel and accomodation to Melbourne for the briefing on the i7, and associated e-gaming convention.
Tags: DPF, e-gaming, Intel