Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770: Paper Tiger?

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TDP Of Up To 136 Watts

The email mentioned above goes on to state that the new Core 2 Extreme QX9770 will have a specified TDP of 136 Watts. From this we can deduce that no current Intel chipset - be it the X38 or the P35 - will support the new CPU, since they are only specified for a maximum TDP of 130 Watts. This high thermal design power given by Intel raises a few questions in our minds. In our measurements with the current QX9650, which runs at 3.00 GHz at stock speeds, we only recorded a power consumption of less than 73 Watts. So how does Intel arrive at a TDP of 136 Watts?

Even when we overclocked our QX9650 to 3.8 GHz, which required a voltage increase, we never exceeded a power consumption of 110 Watts. Should we interpret this higher TDP of 136 Watts as an indication of strong fluctuations in Intel's 45 nm production process?

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Capitannimo
    I am not sure why you are not mentioning the cooling system you use.
    Also why you don't mention that this processor needs water cooling system even if not over clocked.
    Reply
  • Intelextreme
    Looks like a Zalman fan to me in the pictures so maybe water cooling is not needed, at least for those not into cases (something I typically consider "benchmark machines" and was surprised by the lack of dry ice. By the way thermoelectric, chilled water, cooling using peltiers can't be beat! Finally I have a QX6850 and I get a 3mdMark06 of 18,548 with a Gigabyte EX38-DQ6 and a Shappire Radeon HD4870 X2 2gb (using not yet anywhere near perfected drivers) and without overclocking the GPUs until a water block is released for it. I was going to upgrade to a QX9770 now that I can pick one up for a good price since the 9775 came out but since reading that the difference in speed is not incredible I have decided to wait for the new Core i7 or whatever they call the new extreme processor and motherboards with new sockets coming out soon.
    Reply
  • Intelextreme
    To show the QX9770 overclocked alone is bias as I run my QX6850 overclocked. When compared to the QX9770 running at stock speed, the QX6850 differs typically by a few points, it is not until the QX9770 is overclocked to 4ghz that the difference becomes as high as close to 20% in come cases. However, that ignores the fact that a lot of the other processors are good overclockers, and I can overclock my QX6850, using thermoelectric chilled water cooling, to a stable 3.8. Therefore, the difference between the two in terms of speed is not enough at this point to justify purchasing an X48 chipset motherboard and a QX9770 when a new socket and extreme CPU is coming out soon. If I was putting together a computer now I would likely go cheap and look for a used QX6800 and as good a used motherboard as possible just because I would be selling them soon anyway.
    Reply