Intel has revamped its processor badging and rating system. Consumers are the main target, though business systems will get new badging too.
The new badges include a die (the chip minus the packaging) accent in the upper right hand corner, a prominent main brand (e.g., "Core"), and the modifier (e.g., "i7").
Intel has also instituted a star system that rates chips from five stars (best performance in class) to one star (lowest performance). "So when a consumer goes into a Best Buy store they can distinguish between Centrino, Core, Celeron, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad," said Intel spokesman Bill Calder.
That may be a little easier said than done, however. Some consumers (but not including "tech savvy" Giampaolo, of course) will still need help from the sales person to decipher the badging. A daunting challenge in the case of consumer laptops, which are typically plastered with a hodgepodge of stickers from Intel, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, AMD's ATI graphics chip unit, and other companies.
Intel is in the process of moving to a "pretty aggressive brand simplification plan," Calder said. "When we launched Core i7, we said we're moving to a single primary client brand, which is Core. We're moving in that direction," he said.
The Atom processor will not get a modifier. In the future, the Nehalem server processor, currently branded only as "Xeon" with a letter and number suffix, may also get new branding to make it more readily identifiable as part of the Nehalem architecture like its desktop sibling the Core i7, Calder said.
New Intel processor badges with "die" accent
(Credit: Intel)
Intel's new star rating system
(Credit: Intel)The Intel Core i7 processor is being bid up at online retailers--about a week before its official launch.
Though Intel isn't slated to launch the Core i7 processor until November 17, processors are ready for order at online retailers. The Core i7 represents the vanguard of Intel's new Nehalem microarchitecture.
PC Connection is selling the 2.66GHz Intel i7-920 processor with 8MB of cache memory for $334. The sales status is currently "on order." The official pricing from Intel--its pricing will likely be updated early next week--is expected to be lower at about $285 for the 920.
Falcon Northwest's Mach V PC will use the Core i7
(Credit: Falcon Northwest)Stepping up to the i7-940, PC Mall is hawking the 2.93GHz "BOX CORE I7 940" for a pre-order price of $722. PC Connection lists it for $661. Intel's list price is expected to be approximately $560.
The higher prelaunch street prices are not surprising as this reflects pent-up demand for the product.
The high-end 3.2GHz 965 "Extreme" version of the i7 is available at various e-tailers, ranging in price from $1,090 to $1,300. Intel pricing should be just less than $1,000.
Want to get a taste of the i7's performance? CNET Reviews gushed that the Falcon Northwest Mach V tower system with a Core i7-965 is the "fastest all-around desktop we've tested to date; first PC to hit 60 frames per second on our high-resolution Crysis test; pristine build quality."
And the downside to Mach V tower? It's priced at more than $8,000.
Intel's long-awaited DirectX-10 graphics update for its chipsets is available.
DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling multimedia tasks in Microsoft-based environments, especially those tasks related to games and video. DirectX-10 support was mentioned by Intel as far back as 2006 when its popular 965 chipset was introduced.
(Credit:
Microsoft)
The new Windows Vista driver enables DirectX10 functionality for Intel GM965 and G35 Express chipset based platforms. The GM965 uses the X3100 Intel graphics engine, while the G35 uses the X3500.
The update is available here.
"We have been able to add features to products using these chipsets via driver updates. DX10 is the latest capability we have been able to add," an Intel representative said.
Asus is now selling a motherboard that the computer maker is billing as the "world's first to provide an Intel platform with an onboard integrated VGA solution that features built-in support for Windows Vista DirectX 10."
Intel has also announced a G35-based DG35EC Classic motherboard. The DG35EC board is based on GMA X3500 integrated graphics and includes HD video playback for movie clips and media streams without the need for an add-in video card and is the first to have integrated Microsoft DirectX10 capability with OpenGL 2.0 support, according to this report.
But don't expect top-flight gaming performance with integrated graphics--even with the new DirectX-10 driver. Typically, the frame rates in games using integrated graphics pale against the frame rates allowed by discrete graphics chips from Nvidia and AMD-ATI. More information here.
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