Many readers have been getting back to us regarding the unusually positive reports about AMD lately. I guess we became colored a bit by our love for the Radeon HD 2900 XT cards when no one really cared for them, but then again our favorite games are of the 3DMark series and not of the interactive type, and there the Radeon 2900 XT was a lot of fun. However, we always used Intel's processors together with the card(s), and even though we don't see a change in that anytime soon, the everyday overclockers may get a change of heart with the new AMD models based on the Deneb core.
A while back we reported on a recent interview with AMD General Manager of AMD's Server and Workstation chip business, Pat Patla, where he claimed that Shanghai is much more than a mere die-shrink and that it is 20% faster than Barcelona clock per clock. We've been told by a second source that 20% may be a bit much, but that there is an IPC boost to expect, but closer to 15% than 20. In either case it's just a nice boost. This is applies for Deneb as well we've been told.
The source even indicates that since Nehalem isn't that much of a desktop upgrade, but server mostly, Deneb will become the gaming processor to get. We have no secondary confirmation at this time, but we wanted to forward the information. In fact, source also says that Deneb was able to do 4.3GHz under a Scythe Mine cooler, stable of course. It's very important to use the right motherboard though, you will need the SB750 southbridge to begin with.
Most people should be able to hit 3.6GHz with a decent cooler, source says. The most amazing is that the processor should still run fairly cool and consume less power than Intel equivalents. Comparing Intel's new processors to AMD's new, Intel is gaining on the server market, while AMD will be trying to get back the retail market. We will not have to wait long for it to happen either, mass production is well under way and launch is approaching.
