Intel constantly keeps pushing the technology limits- if not by raw speed then either by introducing new architecture like DDR2 and PCI-E interfaces on desktop boards, or, by shrinking the die sizes. The switch to 90nm process was a bit of a bitter-sweet step for Intel as they introduced the Prescott with its 31-stage pipeline- up from the 20-stage pipeline of the Northwood CPU. However, with the move to 65nm, there is no change in architecture at all which should theoretically translate in smaller die sizes, lower power consumption and higher clock frequencies.

With us today, we have the their highest end CPU- the 1066MHZ FSB based Intel Pentium 955 Extreme Edition clocked at 3.46GHz and featuring two cores with 2MB L2 cache for each core- specs that are certainly worthy of the Extreme Edition line-up. Frankly speaking, we were a bit disappointed with Intel’s previous EE CPU- the 840EE that was clocked at 3.2GHz but only features 1MB L2 cache per core and ran at 800MHz FSB. The only thing that separated the 840EE from Intel’s standard 3.2GHz Dual Core CPU was the inclusion of HyperThreading technology.

However, the Pentium 955 EE, as we mentioned earlier, has double the L2 cache per core as well as the higher 1066MHz FSB and HyperThreading technology. The 65nm process should also provide more room for overclocking. Since there isn't anything else thats new about this EE CPU besides what we just mentioned, lets get straight to the benchmarks starting with the testbed.

Motherboard:	ASUS 975X chipset.
Memory:	2 x 512MB OCZ DDR667 Memory Modules
VGA Card:	nVidia GeForce 7800GTX Reference Card
Optical/Hard Drives:	Generic 8X DVDRW, Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM/8MB Cache SATA
Monitor:	LG 19" Monitor
Operating System:	Windows XP Professional SP2
Drivers:	Intel Chipset Drivers, nVidia Forceware 81.98

For comparison, we've chosen AMD's latest greatest FX-60 (2.6GHz) and X2-4800 (2.4GHz) CPUs while on the Intel front, we have the previous generation 840EE and 840D CPUs- both clocked at 3.2GHz.The following applications were used to test these boards.

Syntethic Benchmarks	PC Mark 2005- Overall, CPU and Memory tests
Graphics Benchmarks:	3D Mark 2001SE, 3D Mark 2003, 3D Mark 2005, and Aquamark3- Default Settings.
Games:	Counterstrike: Source, Doom 3, Far Cry and UT2004 at 1280x1024 resolution
Audio/Video Encoding:	WorldBench: Jukebox, WB: Microsoft Media Encoder, WB: Adobe Premiere, AutoGK with Pirates of Carribian DVD, PC Mark: Audio/Video Multitasking test
General Applications:	WorldBench: Adobe Photoshop, Ahead Nero, Microsoft Office, Mozilla and Winzip
3D Workstation:	Cinebench, 3D Studio Max 7

If you would like for us to add any additional benchmarking software, please email us at suggestions@tbreak.com