Core 2 Quadro Expected in November

Leading Taiwan motherboard manufacturers spread a rumor according to which Intel is to officially name its Kentsfield quad-core desktop CPU as "Core 2 Quadro". The first model is expected to be an Extreme version - Core 2 Extreme QX6700 - which should be available by mid-November.

The mentioned sources say that QX6700 will be clocked at 2.66 Ghz and represents Intel's counterattack on AMD's Socket-AM2 Athlon 64 FX-64 processor - 3.0 Ghz, 2 X 1MB Level 2 cache.

Intels' quad core targets the high-end gaming market as well as server-based markets.

Intel plans a more affordable line of desktop CPUs with the introduction of new 65 nm quad-cores, such as Core 2 Quadro Q6600 that should be available as soon as 1Q 2007. Compare this to AMD's intents regarding introduction of server-oriented Deerhound and desktop Grayhound quad-cores in 2007 and 2008 respectively. But AMD may reschedule this road-map in order to respond to Intel's strategies.

Q6600 will be clocked at 2.4 Ghz, will have a built-in 2 X 4MB Level 2 cache and support a 1066 Mhz front side bus. Taiwan sources claim that the upcoming Q6600 will integrate the highly-awaited Enhanced Intel Speedstep technology, Intel Virtualization and Execute Disable Bit functionalities.

A minor drawback for the release of Intel's quad-core CPUs will be the requirement of a slight change in the design of the power-supply module on P965-based motherboards.

Towshhardware website managed to take a sneak peak at a quad-core Intel CPU and, analyzing the performance of a quad-core put against a Core 2 Duo, the website reports that the most outstanding improvements can be observed in 3D rendering programs (100% improvement), video editing (80%), HD video encoding (70%) and standard video encoding (63%).The quad-cores are expected to cost around $1000 and should be able to overclock even better than the Core 2 Duo CPUs.