Intel was first to the market with Dual-core CPUs when they released their Pentium D 800 series, and they have yet again beat AMD to the market with the first Quad-core solution, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700. Hot on the heels of the desktop PC version, Intel has already planned the release of a Quad core Zeon CPU for the server market. The Quad Xeon MP, Intel’s first Quad-core sever processor, will be released later this month. The approach Intel has used so far to release Quad-core CPUs is similar to how they began their release of Dual-core CPUs. Intel began by first releasing a desktop PC version and then releasing a version aimed towards the server market. AMD, on the other hand, released their first Dual-core processors as part of their Opteron server series, and then released one for the mainstream desktop PC market.

Intel has released the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 at 999 USD. Since Quad-core technology is still relatively new and is still not a mainstream technology, it will take a while for prices to recede. The price of the Core 2 Extreme raises the question of whether the CPU is actually worth its price. The answer is relative to what the intended use of the CPU will be.

As our gaming benchmarks have shown, current games do not take very good advantage of Quad cores. To be frank, many games don’t even take advantage of multiple cores yet. Keeping this in mind, it wouldn’t be the wisest of decisions to immediately purchase a Quad-core processor if your sole reason would be to use it for gaming. It is understandable that there aren’t many game engines that can truly take advantage of multiple cores due to the complexity of its programming, however, we would really like to see more games being published that actually benefit from multiple cores. For gamers, the hardware industry has gotten ahead of itself. Without proper support for multiple cores, their performance is nothing compared to what it should truly be. For gamers, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 would be little more than a novelty.

The story is different for users who are oriented for a more professional use. As our tests with 3DS Max 9 proves, the QX6700 allows for obvious performance advantages in rendering applications. The reductions in time to perform these tasks can greatly increase productivity, thus ultimately justifying the cost of buying the Kentsfield.

Kenstfield also has a lot of headroom for overclocking. In our tests, we were able to reach a maximum stable clock of 3.3GHz. Although we were able to reap the obvious benefits that come with higher clock speeds, the overclock came with some problems of its own. Because of the higher operating frequency, we ended up also having higher operating temperatures meaning we had to meet additional cooling requirements. Moreover, total power consumption of the system was increased.

In around two weeks’ time, AMD will be introducing their own Quad-core platform known as 4x4. This new technology, instead of immediately jumping to four cores on one processor, will split up the job between two dual-core Athlon 64 FX processors, adding up to a total of four cores. Once 4x4 is released, it will be a good reference point to see the actual effectiveness of Intel’s Core 2 Extreme QX6700.