Intel Pentium Processor 965 Extreme Edition Review

The Extreme Edition Gets A Speed Bump

Like its predecessor, the Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 965 with Hyper-Threading technology boasts 1066 FSB, 4 MB total L2 cache configured as 2 x 2MB per core, Intel Virtualization Technology, Execute Disable Bit, and Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology. The Extreme Edition platform provides the horsepower and new capabilities that allow PC enthusiasts the flexibility to address the robust content creation and multitasking expectations of the high-end desktop market segment. Below is a chart comparing the latest Extreme Edition processor to the previous two flagship processors that it has replaced.

According to the above chart the only difference is the clock speed, but Intel has changed more than just the final frequency on the Extreme Edition.

Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 965

• 3.73 GHz dual core processor with Hyper-Threading Technology
• 1066 FSB
• 4 MB total L2 cache configured as 2 x 2MB per core
• Intel Virtualization Technology
• Execute Disable Bit
• Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T)

The 965 comes clocked at 3.73GHz (14.0 x 267MHz) with a 1066MHz front side bus. If this clock frequency rings a bell it should as it is the same core speed as Intel's fastest single core Extreme Edition processor, the Prescott-based chip Intel 3.73GHz EE that was launched in Feburary 2005. There are two separate 'Cedar Mill' cores on the same package that make up the Presler core. Many call the Presler the first true dual-core Intel processor.

If you are thinking of getting one of these processors Intel recommends using the Delta EPS12V 600W ? DPS-600MB M power supply or equivalent with a 2x4 (instead of a 2x2) 12V2 connector to provide headroom and allow for more current and power to be delivered to the processor. The processor Vcc, Icc, and power specifications provided with the Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 955 still apply to the new Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 965. Now that we know what the Intel 965 is all about let's take a look at the new stepping.

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Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 955

Intel Unleashes the Presler Processor

Usually around this time of the year we show you dozens of benchmarks with the next generation Intel Processor with the whole AMD versus Intel mentality. Reviews is still going to do that, but just not today. This morning at 10am Intel announced its new Pentium Processor 955 Extreme Edition CPU, formerly code-named Presler. This chip, which goes on sale to the public on January 16 for $999, is the second generation of dual-core consumer desktop CPU's from the chip giant. Intel has made a number of changes to it's dual core processor series and many will call this Intel's first true dual core processor. This processor features two separate cores with 2MB L2 cache each for a total of 4MB, a 266MHz Quad Pumped Front Side Bus for a solid 1066MHz system bus, Intel Virtualization Technology, and it was all done on the 65nm process over the previous 90nm package found on the previous Prescott and Extreme Edition processors.

After getting the Intel Pentium Processor 955 Extreme Edition "Presler", holy cow that is a mouthful, we quickly found out that a couple rumors going around the internet were not true. One was about the temperatures and the other being the overclockability of the processor in general. Without further ado let's look at the new gem in Intel's Enthusiast portfolio. Taking a look at the Presler (Shown above in the middle) we can easily notice that it looks different from the Intel 5xx, 6xx, and 8xx processors that surround the new kid on the block. Let's see if CPU-Z can read the processor correctly.

It looks like CPU-Z is showing everything okay except for the voltage that the Vcore is running at. Our unlocked processor is running at a multiplier of 13 with a front side bus (FSB) of 266MHz for a total core frequency of 3.46GHz. Not a bad core speed for a CPU having doubled the cache than the previous Extreme Edition, which was the Intel 840 with a total cache of 2MB.

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The Intel Pentium D 820..... Dual Core for the masses

Two months ago, after almost a year of hype, dual core processors made their general public debut. With the release of Intel's Pentium D 840, those who could afford the best of the best finally saw the benefits that dual core processors bring to the table. Today, with Intel's release of the Pentium D 820, Intel brings the benefits of dual core processors to the rest of us. What benefits can you expect from Intel's newest, much hyped processor? Is upgrading from a 5XX or 6XX series processor worth it right now?

Today, Legit Reviews will answer these questions, and give you our impression of Intel's budget dual core processor, the Intel Pentium D 820. Featuring a 2.8GHz core speed and 1 MB of L2 cache, the 820 not only promises vast improvement over hyper-threading when multitasking, but also a "smoother" performance in single thread applications

A few notable features, or lack of features, are the absence of hyper threading and the lack of EIST (Which makes sense as the Pentium D 820 is already throttled back to 2.8 GHz). Will the lack of Hyper Threading show much difference in overall performance? We'll see later on as we test the Pentium D 820 against its bigger brother the Pentium D 840, as well as the Pentium 4 620.

With the release of the Pentium D 840, users realized a major drawback to dual core processors, the lack of support with the 915 and 925 chipsets, so those of us who shelled out upwards of $200 a few months ago for a high end 925XE board are basically SOL. As of right now, only the 945 and 955 chipsets will support dual core processors. Which brings me to the next portion of this review.....the 945 chipset. As it did with the Pentium D 840 and 955 chipset, Intel released the Pentium D 820 with its optimized partner, the 945 chipset. Like the 865 and 915 chipsets before it, the 945 is a watered down version of Intel's current flagship chipset. Released in two versions, the "G", which has integrated graphics, and the "P", which does not, the 945 chipset incorporates almost all of the features found on its expensive big brother, the main exception being Intel's patented Memory Pipeline Technology (As Intel states, "Enhanced memory pipelining that enables a higher utilization of each memory channel, accelerating data transfers between the processor and system memory and resulting in higher system performance.").

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Intel Dual Core: Multi-Tasking Benchmarking

Last week when the dual core embargo was lifted LR brought you the usual processor article on the Intel 840. Today, we are going to focus on the multi-tasking abilities of the new dual core Smithfield processor versus that of the single core Prescott. For benchmarking we wanted identical clock speeds, so an Intel 840 was run versus an Intel 640. Both processors are very similar having EIST, EMT64, 2MB Cache, 800MHz FSB's, and 90nm cores. The only major things that these two processors don't have in common are price points ($285ish on the 640 and around $1000 for the 840) and the fact that one is dual core. The following benchmarks should show the advantages of dual core over single core if one is to be seen.

Over the past week we have had hundreds of e-mails on what to test for multi-tasking and to be honest 99% revolved around gaming and virus scanning. The other e-mails dealt with watching DVD's, downloading files from the internet, running Folding @ Home, Encoding DVD's, and other multi-tasking situations.

Software Used:

• Microsoft Media Player 10
• Power DVD 6
• DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15
• EZ CD Ripper 2.30
• Folding @ Home Console 5.02
• Symantec Norton 2004
• DOOM 3

Test System:

• Intel P4 640 & 840 -- Intel D955XBK (Intel 955X), 1GB (2x512MB) Corsair PC5400 @ DDR2 667 (3-2-2-8), Geforce 6800GT 256mb (Forceware 71.84), 120GB Seagate SATA150 HDD, Windows XP w/SP2 and DX9C.

Testing Procedure:

All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows XP Professional build 2600 with Service Pack 2 and DirectX 9.0c. All benchmarks were completed on the desktop with multiple applications open. No overclocking was done on the video card during any of this review.

Time to see how dual core works in a multi-tasking environment.

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Intel Dual Core: Pentium EE 840 Arrives

Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840

Dual Core Today:

For more than a year now the enthusiast community has been hearing the benefits of dual core processors. AMD was the first to announce their move to a dual core solution, and much was made of them beating Intel to tape, only one problem... On April 4th, 2005 Intel made it clear to the whole industry that they have dual core ready and will be launching parts this quarter. While in recent months it was clear AMD was not going to be the first to launch a desktop dual core part, Intel shocked even me when they told us to be ready to sample dual core in March! While Intel isn't officially launching dual core today, it is giving us a chance to "preview" these new processors now and share our thoughts with our readers. In the following weeks expect Intel to start shipping desktop dual core processors to the retail market. Pricing is not even set yet, but we expect them to be approximately the same price as any other Extreme Edition released from Intel.

Today, for the very first time, Intel is letting the media show off the Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840. Legit Reviews has the pleasure of being among the first to use the Intel 955X Express chipset, the I/O Controller Hub (ICH7/R), and the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 processor. Like getting the keys to a rare sports car, I took the new platform for a test drive and found it to be everything I expected. I found amazing performance gains, pitfalls, and many interesting quirks that come with any advance in technology.

The Intel 840 EE is the first desktop processor featuring a dual core design to be given to the mercy of reviewers. Dual core means that the processor has two full execution cores, both running at the same clock, in one physical processor. In the case of the Extreme Edition 840, the two cores are each running at a modest 3.2GHz. The Extreme Edition 840 also features Intel's patented Hyper Threading, which means each processor core has two logical processors for a grand total of 4 threads to be used!

After waiting more than a year for dual core to arrive, lets get right to the details and take a look at what Intel is up to with the new Smithfield Core.

The Old Intel Pentium 4 Prescott Processor Core:

The New Intel Pentium D Smithfield Core:

Intel will produce a number of different multi-core processors. Initial silicon will feature a "monolithic" design where both cores are on a single die as seen below. The first Intel Pentium D "Smithfield" dual-core processors will use the single-die design. But in the case of 65nm Presler (a CPU slated for production in 2006), the two physical cores will be separate pieces of silicon placed side by side on the same processor in a "multi-chip" design.

As you can clearly see the Intel Pentium D Smithfield core is basically two Prescott processors that have been "bolted" together. Since the release of the Prescott, Intel has put a significant amount of time and money into the design, and has improved it greatly from the original problematic core that it once was. The first move toward taming the Prescott was the 5XXJ series (E0 steppings), which added XD-Bit and new technologies to lower temperatures (C1E & TM2). Intel was not done updating the Prescott core, and in February 2005 launched the 6XX series, which added EIST (Enhanced Intel Speed Step) technology for even better thermal properties as well as EMT64 support for next generation 64-bit applications. With the Prescott now fully mature, Intel was able to bring out Smithfield, which is more or less two Intel 6XX series cores attached together. (as seen in the above image)

With the Extreme Edition 840, each of the processing units will have an independent 1MB L2 cache, and Hyper-Threading will be enabled on both cores, which gives the system a total of four processing threads visible to the OS. Hyper-Threading is of course the technology Intel originally introduced in the Pentium 4 that allow a single processor core to handle two processing threads. As it was when Hyper-Threading first came out not all dual core processors will be offering it. For those not interested in the Extreme Edition series, Intel will have the Pentium D processor. The Pentium D will have two processing cores and 2MB of L2 cache, but the processor will not have Hyper-Threading support. As a result, the Pentium D will only have the ability to handle two threads, but reach retail shelves at a much lower price point.

Multi-core processors will be compatible with the just announced Intel 955X and 945 Express Chipset families (internally referred to as Lakeport and Glenwood).

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Intel 6xx Series Processors Arrive

Over the holiday weekend Intel officially announced the new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz processor and four processors in their Pentium 4 6XX series (rated as 660 to 630). Today we have the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition at 3.73GHz and the Intel Pentium 4 660 in house for testing. Both of these processors use a new Prescott core that features 2MB of L2 cache and are EMT64 enabled!

When the Prescott first came out the longer pipelines and the increased temperatures from the new 90nm core shocked even the most die hard Intel fans. With the Intel P4 6XX series Intel strived to add performance while at the same time lowering power consumption and temperatures. The new improved core is still manufactured using the 90nm strained silicon production technology just like the original Prescott, which has been in use on the Pentium 4 5XX processors for almost a year now. Since the Prescott core is by no means new or unknown let's jump right into the new features.

The New Features:

• More L2 Cache - Enthusiasts know that more cache means more performance and that is exactly what Intel did on these updated Prescott cores. They doubled the L2 cache in hopes of adding performance. The extra cache means more transistors, and in this case, over 40 million more! This increase in cache also increases the size of the die from 112mm² to 135mm². This is the only true "performance" upgrade made to the core this time around.
• EMT64 Enabled - Other than the extra L2 cache the newly launched Pentium 4 6XX processor family offers support for Enhanced Memory 64 Technology or EM64T as many know it by. Since this is nothing more than 64-bit extensions of x86 architecture they are identical to the AMD64 extensions, thus giving us the first AMD vs. Intel battle on the 64-bit Operating System. Now that both Intel and AMD have their 64-bit CPU's out the door and both are fully functional, with the latest public release of Windows XP Professional x64 expect to see this OS completed in the near future!
• Enhanced Power Management - Combination of EIST (Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology), C1E (Enhanced Halt State), and TM2 (Thermal Monitor 2). In an appropriately designed system, these features can deliver average power savings with little impact to performance by adjusting frequency & voltage. To go a little more in depth, all three technologies offer similar functionality initiated in three different ways. C1E is activated via Halt (idle) instruction execution. EIST operates via OS request based upon CPU load. TM2 operates via processor request based upon the thermal load on the processor.
• Execute Diable Bit Enabled - Intel Execute Disable Bit offers Improved Security when used with Windows XP SP2. With the Execute Disable Bit feature you can be protected from certain types of viruses and buffer overflow exploits. This is similar to AMD's NX technology and Intel has used Execute Disable Bit on the 5XXJ series processors.

The die increase that we talked about above can be seen below via the images of the old Prescott core and the Prescott 2MB with extra cache:As you can see the new core is very similar to the old core. From just looking at the die pictures it seems as if they just added more cache and made some other minor changes. Below are CPU-Z version 1.27 screen shots of our two processors that we are showing you today.

Both of our processors have 2048 KBytes of L2 Cache and are based on 90nm core technology. Both CPU's also feature a stepping code of 3 and a revision number of N0. The biggest difference between these two processors is the Bus Speed that they run at. The 660 is running at 800MHz, while the 3.73GHz EE is at 1066MHz. One more difference that can't be seen here, but can easily be spotted when you try to pay for these is the price difference. The Intel 3.73GHz Extreme Edition is priced at $999 in 1,000 unit quantities while the Intel 660 rings in at $605.

Many of our readers are enthusiasts that love overclocking so I know what you are thinking by this point -- An extra $400 for 66MHz FSB? I'm sure every overclocker out there just got a big smile on their face and so did we when we noted that the Intel Pentium 4 630 runs at 15 x 200 = 3.0GHz and costs only $224! With a multiplier of 15 and a sub $250 price this processor may easily hit close to a 1066MHz Bus Speed for less than a quarter of the price of the 3.73GHz Extreme Edition. As always you have to have the right hardware to overclock and don't forget it may void your warranty, increase temperatures, and overclocking is not endorsed by Intel. (Who themselves allow for overclocking up to 10% in their own boards BIOS options.)

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Intel's 925XE Chipset & 1066FSB Processors Arrive

Intel's 925XE Chipset & 1066FSB Processors Arrive

Finally... 1066FSB Arrives

The move from the Intel 865/875 chipsets to the more recent 915/925 chipsets brought noted improvements across the board that no one could ignore. Today (Halloween by chance) is the day that Intel makes public the updated 925X chipset and the new processor that can capitalize on it. Enter the 925XE Express Chipset and Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition with HT Technology at 3. 46GHz (13x266MHz). For those of you who don't know the Intel Pentium 4 processor has been running at a Front Side Bus (FSB) of 800MHz for some time now. To achieve this speed Intel was running the FSB quad pumped at 200MHz. Since the FSB dictates how much data can travel between the CPU and chipset, an increase is logical to gain overall system performance. Today Intel raises the bar on FSB performance and for the first time breaks the 1GHz barrier by running the FSB quad pumped at 266MHz, thus arriving at a FSB of 1066MHz.

The increase to a 1066MHz FSB will be the first time DDR2 memory will officially run in sync at DDR2 533MHz. Plus, now that DDR2 memory has matured seeing 3-3-3-8 timings with PC2-4200 memory is common. It is no shocker that Enthusiasts have been waiting months for this chipset, but we found it interesting that many companies have also been waiting on the 925XE chipset. The most noticeable is ABIT, who is going to launch the first ABIT-Fatal1ty gamer motherboard based on the 925XE chipset, thus gambling the success of their new product line off this chipset. The long-awaited FSB speed increase has arrived! Was it worth the wait?

If you look at what Intel has said about their Socket 775 it is their long term solution platform. They have made public comments at the Intel Developer Forum and other events that the 915/925 chipset family will more than likely power Intel's next generation dual core processors. These new processors are expected to come out in mid 2005 -- best guess would be late Q2 or early Q3. Between now and then the Intel 925XE looks to be the Intel enthusiasts' chipset of choice for their next system build.

The New Intel 3.46GHz EE 1066FSB Processor:

The new Intel 3.46EE processor is based on the old 130nm Northwood core (also known as P4 "C"). It comes with 2mb of L3 Cache and does not have SSE3 or XD-BIT instructions. The 3.46GHz processor only differs from the previous generation Extreme Editions by being able to run at 266MHz on the FSB. We actually tried to run our "old" 3.4EE at 13x266MHz and it failed to successfully load Windows at such speeds. The new Intel 3.46EE is basically a cream of the crop Extreme Edition processor that can run at a high front side bus frequency.

Let's take a look at pricing for 1,000-Unit quantities and also compare the new 3.46GHz EE to some other socket 775 prices.

• Pentium 4 3.46EE 1066FSB - 3.46GHz -- $999
• Pentium 4 3.40EE 800FSB - 3.40GHz -- $925
• Pentium 4 560 - 3.60GHz -- $417
• Pentium 4 550 - 3.40GHz -- $278

As you can tell the new Pentium 4 3.46EE is not close to the price range for any college student (wouldn't it be nice if Intel offered student discounts like Microsoft??), but is priced just like the original P4 3.4EE when it came out several months ago at $999. That happens to be more than double the Intel 560 processor, which is the flagship of the "mainstream" Intel socket 775 processors.

Below are some shots of our Intel 3.46GHz EE processor running on our test bed.

While the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition will be the first and currently only processor to work with the new quad-pumped system bus at 266 MHz there are more processors coming. Intel also affirmed that its Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (EE) 3.73GHz and 600-series desktop CPUs, which should be launched in the first quarter of next year, will feature Intel's Extended Memory 64 Technology, or Intel EM64T. We asked about XD-BIT (Execute Disable bit) and were told not to expect any of the current P4 EE's to come with it, just the Prescott processors with a 'J'-suffix will have XD-Bit enabled. All the enthusiasts looking for a "mainstream" cost efficient 1066FSB processor will have to wait till the 600 series is launched!

Let's move on and see what the new Intel reference board offers.

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Intel Pentium 4 2.8E

Early this month we posted our original Prescott review and then followed it up with an article taking a closer look at Prescott temperatures. This is the third article we have written on the Prescott, but it's also the first using a Retail Prescott purchased by ourselves. While Intel has admitted that the first generation of Prescotts will not offer a "huge" performance increase over equally clocked Nothwood processor they did hint that once clock speeds get above 3.6GHz the processor would be impressive. So, we wanted to see how well the Prescott overclocks and the results are in. This was a tricky adventure, since we still have no idea what a higher Vcore can do to this chip (default on our retail Prescott was 1.35). With some motherboard manufacturers purposely limiting the Vcore options (as in, "giving none") we can see that we are not the only ones concerned with the new power requirements.

Our Test System:

• Intel Pentium 4 2.8E (Prescott)
• Asus p4c800e deluxe (Bios version 1014)
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
• Thermalright SP-94 / Panaflo 92mm Medium speed fan (Air Cooled)
• 2 x Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10,000rpm, 8mb cache hard drive
• Antec True Control 550W Power Supply
• 1gb (2 x 512mb) OCZ 3700 Gold Rev2 Memory (for 5:4 mem ratio) testing, 1gb (2 x 512mb) OCZ 4000EL (for 1:1)
• Timings used: at 5:4 on the OCZ 3700 Gold Rev2 we used timings of 2-3-3-6, the OCZ 4000EL was run at 3-4-4-8

Testing Method:

To get some idea of stability, we ran our overclocking stability tests using Futuremark's 3dMark 2001, Super pi, and cpu burn all running at the same time. We also did DVD encoding and burning at the selected speeds while running the UT 2003 demo.

Performance:

First off, we decided to test the 2.8E at its default vcore and see what she could do. We were very happy to see that we were able to run at a stable speed of 252fsb, which equaled a speed on the cpu of 3528mhz. This was a nice overclock for default Vcore.Here is a CPU-Z screen of our default Vcore efforts.

We were obviously never planning on keeping it at default Vcore, so we moved on to see how far we could push this chip. We decided we would go to a max of 1.55 on this retail 2.8E, so we slammed the vcore to that and re-ran our stability tests. Our results were quite pleasing, though no where near what we have seen some of the ES chips attain. Something else that we noticed is that the Asus P4C800E - Deluxe motherboard that we use has a tendency to overvolt. At our default vcore settings, it did just that as you can see from the screen shot, but once we set the vcore to 1.55 in the bios, the Asus no longer over-volted. Though it was a nice surprise to us, it was somewhat unexpected, since the Asus has over-volted every chip we have had in this board.

Anyways, with our Vcore set at 1.55, we were able to get an overclock of 270MHz FSB, which gave us a cpu speed of 3,780MHz. We did this speed at both 1:1 overclocking with our OCZ 4000EL and at a divider of 5:4 with our OCZ 3700 Gold Rev2. We would have to say that this chip absolutely screamed at these speeds. As far as temps go, we expected and got much higher temps as the Vcore was raised. At. 3.8GHz our cpu idled at 42°C and at load it reached 53°C. The temperatures did not seem to hinder our overclocking by any means.

Let's look at some of our screen shots from this overclock compared to default settings of the chip. Default pics are first, then pics at 270MHz FSB

Testing:

Let's look at some of our screen shots from this overclock compared to default settings of the chip. Default (200MHz FSB) pics are on the left, then pics at 270MHz FSB on the right.

Memory:

We were very surprised to see the read results, especially on the overclocked result -- over 7600MB/Sec! We re-ran the test several times, and this was a repeatable result! Look at the writes now:

This was a pretty good increase as well, but nothing out of the ordinary here. Sandra unbuffered is next.

The overclocking faired good results on Sandra Memory Bandwidth testing also. We noted an 800MB/sec increase in unbuffered bandwidth. This represents a 31% increase in bandwidth from default clock speeds. Pretty impressive!!

3d Mark 2001 SE:

Here we see a very nice 16% increase from 200MHz FSB to 270MHz FSB. Pretty nice scores here, especially considering there is no overclocking on the video card.

Super PI:

Our default test of Super Pi to 2 million places came in at 1 minute 49 seconds, so there was a dramatic improvement with the overclocking.

Conclusion:

Jason's thoughts:

Going into this review we had high hopes of our retail processor. We reached 3.75GHz, which is just shy of a 1GHz overclock. Not only is this a very nice overclock on an early production core, but it was also done with air cooling. This Means that all you enthusiasts at home on a budget have something that can be reached without dumping your wallet out. We did take it easy on the Vcore, as 1.55 would not be extreme for the Northwood. From what we have found during overclocking this looks like a promising beginning of the Prescott core! We should see it scale quite well with the socket change.

While many have pointed out the downfalls of the new core, it is in all reality just the first step in the process of moving forward to higher clock speeds and a new socket design in the near future. Right now the Prescott is a tad slower than the Northwood at equal clock speeds, but Intel has told us that the Prescott will get better as Intel comes out with higher clock speeds. The sweet spot for the Prescott is rumored to be around 3.6 - 4.0GHz, which are speeds that we are able to get with the retail 2.8E processor with good air cooling. Most benchmarks we have seen seem to place it slightly behind the Northwoods, but when ours was overclocked to the 3.8GHZ, we can certainly tell you this was one fast chip!

Lastly, keep in mind that Intel is making some slight modifications to the Prescott core right now. These changes should help address the heat issues that we noted on in the past. Once we get the newly modified core from Intel we will be sure to let you know the differences in temperatures and if any performance differences can be noted.

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