Intel’s 65nm chips are still going strong especially here in the Philippines, with the Q6600 starting to turn into a mainstream option for some shoppers wanting a bit more zing for their buck. If you’re looking into buying a new computer based around an Intel chip, I’d advise you to pause and join us as we take a look at a sample of the newest 45nm Intel product: the “Wolfdale” E8500.

The E8000 series is Intel’s “mainstream” CPU based on the 45nm process. It is the more affordable counterpart of Intel’s Q9650 Extreme that was meant for the enthusiast pocket. Just for clarification, the code name “Wolfdale” is specifically for the dual-core, desktop implementation of the 45nm process; “Penryn” on the other hand refers to the complete line of 45nm process chips that will be superseding the “Conroe” 65nm based CPUs. For now, we will explore the technical side of the chip, as compared to the previous Intel generation of popular mainstream processors.

                                             The silicon before it's cut.

The Conroe 65nm dual core chips are overshadowed by Wolfdale in almost every category; starting with the most obvious “marketing” specs most commonly quoted to customers. These include clock speed combined with a high-speed system clock – for Wolfdale this ranges from 2.66 to 3.16GHz on a 333MHz (quad pumped to 1333MHz) front side bus. Cache size has grown to 6MB from Conroe’s 4MB, which contributes to the greatly increased number of transistors on Wolfdale: 410 million transistors to the Conroe’s 291 million. Even with these numbers, die size has shrunk, contributing to similar TDP (thermal design power) to the previous generation and generally lower operating temperatures. Simply put, there’s more performance for lower energy consumption, also due partly to lower cooling requirements due to the die shrink.

                                             Left portion is the 6MB cache. Thanks to 3DNews for pic.

Delving deeper into the chip, the increased number of transistors can obviously be attributed to the bigger cache, which according to Intel has improved speed and lower energy consumption due to the company’s halfnium-based alloys used in the manufacturing process, also found in the Extreme series QX9650. New SSE4 instructions geared mainly towards multimedia editing and manipulation makes up the remaining portion of the increased transistor count.

What does all these technical terms mean to the average consumer then? Suffice to say that if you are planning to purchase a PC in the next week or so, it is currently one of the best choices for your system’s CPU. Priced at around the P10 k mark, the mid-level E8400 in most tests nips at the heels of the much more expensive quad-core QX9650 in programs not optimized for multiple streams. This means for most games and consumer applications, the dual-core E8400 is a no-brainer especially at its price point. The Wolfdale E8400 also brings to the table lower operating temperatures and lower power consumption. For comparison, Intel’s QX9770has a stated TDP of 136W, compared to all Wolfdale’s 65W TDP. Compatibility with current chipsets like the P35/45 and X38/48, as well as Nvidia’s 700 series offerings, means easy adoption and no upgrading hassles for the typical mainstream user.