What's better than two cores? Quad cores! Intel's Core 2 Quadro chips are set to hit the market sometime in mid-October and a recent review by Toms Hardware show very impressive results. For most computer users, the extra cores are nothing to be excited over given that their current machines more than suffice. But here at Paramagnus where our soon to be launched podcast hosting service gulps down processing power by the core for media conversion (we convert to all the popular formats), this announcement is welcomed news. Here are some quick stats:
- FSB speed has been icnreased to 333 MHz compared with the 266 MHz for Core 2 Duo
- Power usage:
- 167 W / 0.79 A no load.
- 260 W / 1.3 A full load.
- CPU temperate rises to a sizziling 79 degrees celsius at full load
- Converting 5 minutes of Terminator 2 to MPEG 4 takes 3 minutes compared to 6 minutes with a Pentium D 920
- H.264 encoding and the WMV-HD conversion yielded performance jumps of up to 80% compared to the Core 2 Duo
If you want to see detailed statistics, I encourage you to read the review. Although the quad core chips did not win in every category, it does show a clear and tangible advantage in most areas. I wasn't able to find pricing on the new chips but undoubtedly, it will be beyond the average computer buyer. On the bright side, the release will probably mean a price drop for the already impressive Core 2 Duos.
intel quadro cpu cores paramagnus encoding