Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 - Quad-Core Assault

How we configured our test systems: When configuring our test systems for the following set of benchmarks, we first entered their respective system BIOSes and set each board to its "Optimized" or "High-Performance Defaults." We then saved the settings, re-entered the BIOS and set memory timings for DDR2-800 at 4,4,4,12 1T latency.  The hard drives were then formatted, and Windows XP Professional (SP2) was installed. When the Windows installation was complete, we installed the drivers necessary for our components, and removed Windows Messenger from the system. Auto-Updating and System Restore were then disabled, and we set up a 768MB permanent page file on the same partition as the Windows installation. Lastly, we set Windows XP's Visual Effects to "best performance," installed all of our benchmarking software, defragged the hard drives, and ran all of the tests.

HotHardware's Test Systems AMD & Intel Inside!

We began our testing with SiSoftware's SANDRA, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. We ran five of the built-in subsystem tests that partially comprise the SANDRA 2007 suite (CPU, Multimedia, Memory, Cache, and Latency) with the new Core 2 Extreme QX67700. All of the scores reported below were taken with the processor running at its default clock speeds of 2.66GHz. 

Preliminary Testing with SiSoft SANDRA 2007
Synthetic Benchmarks

CPU

Multimedia

Memory Bandwidth

Memory Latency

Cache And Memory Bandwidth

In terms of the more standard SANDRA scores like the CPU, Multimedia and Memory Bandwidth tests, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 scales roughly where we expected it to, that is to say that the QX6700 clocks in at slightly more than two times the performance of a Core 2 Duo E6700 at the same clock speed.  The Memory Latency numbers, however, look a bit more interesting perhaps, with Kentsfield showing better latency characteristics due to its combined cache area size of 8MB, once the benchmark begin to scale into the larger test range sizes.  Peak memory bandwidth shows the QX6700 at roughly two times the E6700 as well.  So far the synthetics are painting Kentsfield in a very flattering hue.