Intel's new launch just. . .er, launched

[3dilettante]

There's no guarantee that future processors from all vendors won't require expanded cooling systems. All indications are that Intel is only slightly ahead of the curve.

Unless we are willing to cap single-threaded performance right now, and multi-thread performance in the near future, any increase in those categories will come with an additional amount of heat.

 

[Sxotty]

All indications are that Intel is only slightly ahead of the curve.

I would not call this being ahead of the curve.

Also if you look at the info it seems amd will cut power by going to 90nm more than Intel did.

We just need some of those diamond transistors

"My processor is 5 carats, how bout yours?"

 

[Fox5]

All indications are that Intel is only slightly ahead of the curve.

I would not call this being ahead of the curve.

Also if you look at the info it seems amd will cut power by going to 90nm more than Intel did.

We just need some of those diamond transistors

"My processor is 5 carats, how bout yours?"

I don't think intel made 90nm northwoods, so they didn't cut power at all.

BTW, I may be mistaken but I seem to recall a review of a 2.5ghz liquid cooled g5 that ran as hot idle with liquid cooling as a 3.6ghz p4 with stock cooling under load conditions.

 

[3dilettante]

All indications are that Intel is only slightly ahead of the curve.

I would not call this being ahead of the curve.

Also if you look at the info it seems amd will cut power by going to 90nm more than Intel did.

We just need some of those diamond transistors

"My processor is 5 carats, how bout yours?"

Overall, Prescott's wattage per transistor is actually better than Northwood's. It's the doubling of the number of transistors (especially logic ones) for reasons open to speculation that make it so hot.

Unless you expect the number of transistors in AMD or other processors to stay permanently below Prescott's and clock speeds to forever hover below 4 Ghz, everyone's going to have a hard time keeping the wattage down.

Just for a data point, the A64 FX57 has a TDP of 105W. It's on 130 nm, so the 90 nm version will hopefully improve this, but it's not too difficult to eat away at the power advantage AMD is clinging to.

Dual core AMD chips will have a TDP of 95W, but will be about three speed grades behind the single-core chips. The foreseable future has everybody catching up to Prescott.

Diamond is not going to solve the problem, if anything it will only allow things to worsen. The high thermal tolerances mean that CPUs can put out more heat than before without failing. With that barrier relaxed, chips will be permitted to heat up even more and draw even more power.

 

[Guden Oden]

BTW, I may be mistaken but I seem to recall a review of a 2.5ghz liquid cooled g5 that ran as hot idle with liquid cooling as a 3.6ghz p4 with stock cooling under load conditions.

The liquid cooled G5 you're talking about is actually two CPUs on the same coolant loop, and the cooling system itself is designed more to be quiet rather than powerful. On top of that, you don't know the ambient air temperatures when the CPU temps were taken either...

So it's not really a comparable scenario at all.