Apple to get exclusive early access to 6-Core “Gulftown” processors?
It wouldn’t be the first time you know. Apple has over the years received special attention when it comes to the brainy silicon chips that power everything inside our computers. Everyone is currently rantin’ and ravin’ about the Core i7 iMac’s (both good and bad). And for most general consuemrs, the Core i7 (heck, even the Core 2 Duo and i5 variants) are more than plenty. But we’re not “normal” are we?
New word on the streets is that we can expect to see Apple enjoy a similar exclusive period as years past on Intel’s latest and greatest — namely the Core i9 980X and i9 970 processors. The former has a clock speed of 3.33GHz, 12MB of L3 cache and 12 threads (2 for each core…super hard math). The slightly cheaper though still screaming i9 970 will of course be clocked slightly slower and with a little less L3 cache. And for the enthusiasts, expect a dual 6-core option to bump the thread count to 24! Ya, pretty intense.
The numbers alone on the 980X are pretty drool inducing and make the wait until March (launch month) all the more harder. I know everyone in the world isn’t an Apple fan so let’s ask: Are you for or against Apple getting preferential treatment from Intel and access to the latest chips early?
Shocker! 6 cores are better than 4 with the up and coming top dog Core i7 chips performing roughly 50% faster on complex, optimized programs. I can already see you drooling, thinking out loud: “The Core i7 is just becoming mainstream and we’re already talking about it’s replacement?” Such is the world we live in folks, it never stops. But apart from constantly evolving “top dogs”, I have to say that the Core i9 power advantage is compelling to shell out extra for it. It won’t come cheap, though prices haven’t been officially loosed just yet. Another strike against the newcomer is it’s insatiable thirst for those cute little electrons — 130W continuous to be exact. It may not sound like much, but compared to the Core i7′s 95W power draw, 130 seems veracious. Even still, 6 cores of fury all packed into one small sliver of silicon is uber cool…
