14 DAY TRIAL // Intel seems to be on its way to make another move on the central processing units market, and we should have been expecting it, since some of the long-announced next-generation Nehalem processors are almost ready to hit the market this year. And since the company is moving fast towards that 45nm area, some of the old devices that prove to be both expensive and inefficient comparing to others - still Intel branded - seem to have been proposed for retirement.
This is the case with the expensive QX6850, which was launched about a year ago, with a 3GHz core clock and 1333MHz front side bus, now listed at retailers at a $1,000 to $1,280 score. Besides QX6850, Intel also plans to pull out of the market the 2.93GHz QX6800. Both processors are rumored to be retired during July.
On the other hand, Intel is ready to launch another CPU, the Q6850. This new processor will also include a 3GHz core clock speed and the same FSB. The new feature Q6850 brings is the fact that it won't be unlocked, like QX6850. It is still a 65nm chip, still expensive enough ($1,100), yet the company is retiring other two.
Since it released the first quad cores, Intel has been struggling a lot to convince customers that these processors are the best choice. No doubt about that, we need to say, but it only applies to those who use their computer to run some more complex applications than Firefox and Office. The quad cores are still too expensive for most of the users, so dual cores are a better choice for them, at least for the moment.
For those that want to go extreme, while waiting for the Nehalem-based Bloomfield's arrival, it seems that 3.2GHz Quad core will remain the fastest Core 2 Quad architecture. And until then, we'll still have the 3.0GHz Quad core as the most affordable Core 2 Quad solution.