Being tops isn’t always the glorious experience it’s made out to be, especially when the title of “best” or “fastest” can be snatched away from you at anytime. Such is the competitive arena in the CPU space that Intel cannot afford to rest on its laurels with their excellent Core2 series of processors. With this in mind, Intel put the “tock” of their tick-tock strategy into motion with the release of the Core i7 processors last November 21, 2008.

The event is described simply as the launch of the fastest processor on the planet, and if the other tech websites that Intel refers to (the Core i7 was released to other countries before coming to the Philippines) are any indication, the Core i7 will not only blow even the fastest Core2 out of the water, it’s set to pulverize any of the records set by the previous best Intel processor to tiny, tiny pieces. It’s a mark of how good the new Core i7 is that all of this seemingly exaggerated imagery does not sound preposterous at all – the Core i7 is really fast, and in the activities that count too.

                                             Two units running on the previous speed champ and a Core i7 processor. Running program is Cyberlink's Power Director.

                                             A look at 8 cores chewing through the 10-second video processing test.

During the event, Intel concentrated on comparing two processors, namely the Core2 Quad QX9770 and the Core i7 965, both Extreme Editions. A series of benchmarks and tests comprising some of the more demanding applications for desktop computing were tested, including video processing and gaming. In the video processing test, two units with exactly the same specifications (except for the motherboard and processor and memory type of course) were run against one another in a “pencil-sketch” effect application test wherein a 10 second clip has this effect processed into it. Long story short, the Core i7 encoded video much faster than the claimed 79% faster – twice as fast would have been closer to the mark, but this conservative figure gives more credence to the Core i7’s speed.

                                             The two units being set up to show specifications and CPU utilization.

Gaming did not show as obvious a difference when comparing the two units, at least not graphics-wise, yet it becomes clear once the Performance tab under the task manager is accessed and the CPU utilization is measured. With 4 physical cores and 8 total cores under hyper threading, gaming on a Core i7 proved to be a rewarding experience especially with games specially designed to take advantage of the 8 cores, as Far Cry 2 is. World records were broken with many popular benchmarks, notably 3DMark and PCMark Vantage, SuperPi, SPECint, Cinebench, and Autodesk 3dsMax. Many of the records were not accomplished in-company; in other words, many early-bird enthusiasts and tech websites were able to test for themselves against established world records, and found the previous records seriously lacking in the face of the new, powerful Core i7 965.

                                             "Professor" Wowie with evil minions plot to take over the world with viral bots.

                                             The evil genius hamming it up.The dynamic Coreduo will get you!

So in the course of the event, we have had an on-the-spot demonstration, as well as presentation slides detailing tests done beforehand by third parties, what else could there be to the event? What else, but an evil villain! The ever-sporting Jermyn “Wowie” Wong, Business Development Manager for Enterprise Solution Sales by day, played a Professor-X type super-brainy-villain during the event as head of the “army of viral bots that are overwhelming the digital world..” and “slowing it to a standstill”. Arrayed against this super-powered wheelchair – bound villain are two heroes – the Core i7 and the Centrino 2, both of which will star in Intel’s upcoming umbrella marketing campaign featuring a “heroic” theme, with a cutting-edge 3D webcomic on the side.

                                            Mr. Ricky Banaag describing measures taken for assuring availability of the Core i7 at launch.      

                                             Mr. Banaag with Mr. Manuel Wong of Acer, one of the main Intel supporters at launch.

Kidding aside, Mr. Wong won’t be appearing on the webcomic, but Mr. Jerome Matti assured the assembled press that the first installments of the comic will be appearing online at this link as a part of Intel’s new marketing campaign aimed at promoting the Core i7 brand. This light-hearted theme may be an indication of how confident Intel is with the Corei7’s performance, but may also be indicative of how prepared Intel is with the launch of this new product – Intel stressed availability and the support of many, many partners, making this one of the most accessible products at-launch of all of Intel’s product releases of recent years. This basically means that you can call up one of the suppliers of Intel processors and have a Core i7 processor at your local retailer in a matter of hours.

                                             An Acer Core i7 unit under moody lighting to fit the entrance of the evil genius.

                                             Just some of the available Core i7 motherboards at launch. Intel came out with their own X58 board, seen to the left of the MSI Eclipse.

Availability aside, Intel is initially targeting the high-end enthusiast market with this launch with three processor models – the 920, 940, and the 965 Extreme Edition, with estimated SRPs of $284, $562, and $999 in batch amounts respectively. All of the models feature 8MB cache, support for triple-channel DDR3-1066, 8 cores with Hyper Threading, and an amazingly low (especially for an enthusiast’s series) TDP of 130W. Intel is surely still on the lookout unless those precious “fastest and best” titles are snatched away from them, but from this event it is clear that they are comfortable enough to go out and face other “villains” like the “army of viral bots” that is slowness and lag found in many a computer user’s desktop, confident with the speed and performance of the Core i7 series. More pictures to follow.

                                             The obligatory "chip-shot" with Mr. Ricky Banaag, Country Manager for Intel Philippines.

                                            This launch was also held at Tropezz, Greenbelt, site of many previous Intel launches including the P4 "Hyper-Threading" Launch.

                                             More motherboard vendors who showed support for the new launch.

                                             The evil genius with his powered wheelchair.