Intel Core Extreme Edition processors as a means of preventing space catastrophes

Space. The near (hopefully) future, the era of settling the nearest planets. The cruise ship “Goliath” has just pushed off from the Earth in the direction of Mars, on board there are almost one and a half thousand tourists eager for adventure and new impressions. They still do not know that they will get impressions beyond the flight indicated in the program, since an abnormal situation is already planned in the near-moon space ...
Do you think that before you is another fan fan of Lem or other classics of fantastic interplanetary travel? No, not at all. This is a story about the event dedicated to the launch of a new line of Intel Core Extreme Edition processors , held in Moscow on June 27. And about the processors themselves, of course, too. But first, all the same about the cosmos, more precisely, about the theatrical presentation of it.

Space part

Literally after the launch, Goliath receives a message from the lunar flight control center: in several nanoparcs, the Albatross research rover is in distress, the reactor is out of control and heated uncontrollably. Closer to the accident is another ship, but he himself has technical problems and it is not yet known whether he himself will have to be rescued ... The sector there, of course, is lively, but one way or another, the captain of the Goliath had to make a difficult decision: taking part in a rescue operation with a risk to the life and health of their passengers or leave the Albatross team in trouble.


Stewardess invites Goliath passengers to take their seats
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In the meantime, the situation on a ship in distress is rapidly heating up - in the direct and figurative sense. However, we will not escalate emotions - everything will end well. The Albatross team, shabby enough, will have time to leave the burning spaceship in the rescue capsule, people will be picked up and sent for treatment. Goliath passengers will experience some discomfort from unplanned overloads, but they will surely be proud of their unwitting participation in the rescue operation. Well, the flight control manager on the moon states: the incident is settled, all ships can continue to move along the planned routes.


The commander of the "Goliath" was literally between two fires

The cause of the tragedy will also be discovered: the Albatross on-board computer did not cope with the stream of incoming telemetry data. The system could not withstand the load - the iron turned out to be rather weak. But we know what to do with it ...


The rescue operation is managed by the flight control manager "Luna-1"

At this theatrical part of the event ended and the informational one began. Let us turn to the figures and facts characterizing the Intel Core Extreme Edition processors.

Information part

So, when the task cannot be solved by standard means, non-standard moves. Starting with distant Pentium 4, Intel creates top-end processors for desktops under the Extreme Edition brand - for those who want to squeeze the maximum out of their computer and a little more. And maybe twice to the maximum - depending on how you overclock. It was overclockers, gamers, creators of media content that were the main consumers of these processors, and the high cost of the product did not stop them - they knew that for their money they would get the most that Intel can offer now.


Naturally, the event was not without a demonstration super-duper PC

Announced in June, the new line of top-end processors is based on the Broadwell advanced microarchitecture (14-nm process technology) and consists of 4 models: three Core i7 with unlocked multipliers ( 6800K , 6850K , 6900K ) and the most productive 6950X . The proud name of Extreme Edition is only the last, the rest are just Intel High End Desktop Processors. Comparative characteristics of all four you will find under the spoiler.


Compared to the Intel Core i7 EE of the previous generation 6950X, it provides performance gains from 20 to 35%, depending on the type of load. This is achieved, not least by using the technology of adaptive frequency control Intel Turbo Boost Max 3. Let us dwell on it in more detail.


Gaming simulators are an excellent application area for top-end Intel processors.

The increase in the number of processor cores has a beneficial effect on the performance of applications that lend themselves well to parallelization. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. For cases where the main load falls on one core (for example, in games), Intel has developed technology Turbo Boost. In its previous, second version, the operating frequency of the first processor core could be increased independently of the rest. However, in reality, due to the peculiarities of the technological process, the processor cores are not identical in their characteristics. The main "trick" of the new Turbo Boost Max 3 is that the system can identify the fastest core and mark it as special. In order for the OS to know about this particular kernel and to load it in priority order, a corresponding driver is needed. Thus, here we need to talk about the combined hardware and software functionality. It is supported so far only in the Broadwell-E family.


Augmented reality technology allows you to bring the gameplay to a fundamentally different level.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that when using Turbo Boost, the processor is operating normally. This is not overclocking with additional energy costs and increased heat generation, but, if you wish, the search for internal reserves, is completely “free” up to 15% of the performance gain. A report on the detailed testing of Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and a comparison of its performance on real loads can be found, for example, on the 3DNews website .

Discussion part

Representatives of the overclocking community, the gaming industry and manufacturers of custom PCs were invited to the launch of Broadwell-E processors in Russia - which, of course, is logical, given the positioning of these processors. "Pictures from the exhibition," we have already looked along the way - now is the time to talk with professionals. Alexander Trifonov , PR director of Gaijin Entertainment , which adapted its War Thunder game to the capabilities of Intel Core Extreme Edition processors, told us about this process and about computer hardware from the point of view of igrodel.

Our game War Thunder is a free online action game, and system requirements should be as democratic as possible. The fact is that when a user buys a game (especially for $ 50-60), he is mentally ready to dig into the graphic settings and configuration files, because he wants entertainment, for which he gave money. But with a free game, he has no obligations to himself, and if the game slows down and works poorly, he will most likely remove it.


A powerful processor is not only spectacular demos, but also, most importantly, the ability to drastically improve the physics of the game.

At the same time, there are a huge number of players with outdated computers or laptops with integrated GPU, for which many modern games are not available - just look at the public Steam statistics , where four of the top 10 video cards are integrated solutions. And according to our internal data, the Intel HD Graphics family occupies a leading place among War Thunder players. Therefore, we support and constantly optimize the minimum settings mode, allowing you to play War Thunder even to owners of GPU and CPU a decade ago (the top ones at that time). However, owners of gaming PCs can unscrew all parameters to the maximum and enjoy the magnificent picture at the level of any modern AAA-project.


You can even improve that is painfully familiar since childhood. Another "Civilization"

With all this in mind, when we introduced destructible buildings based on NVIDIA's PhysX technology into our game, we could not only rely on the owners of powerful video cards. After all, this is not only a visual, but a very gameplay "chip". War Thunder is a multiplayer competitive game. If someone destroyed a house on the map, then it should disappear for all players in this battle - after all, you can now drive or shoot at enemies through this place, which changes the tactical picture of the battle. And it does not matter what the user plays - a powerful gaming PC, MacBook or PlayStation 4. In this connection, the “bottleneck” for the calculation of the destructibility of buildings is exactly the CPU.

When colleagues from Intel provided us with a new i7 Extreme Edition processor for the test, we prepared a special version of War Thunder. It greatly increased the number of fragments into which the building crumbles, and the time it takes for the debris to disappear. On a test configuration with a conventional processor, at the time of the destruction of buildings, the FPS sagged sharply, and the video “fell apart” when recording video. When the new build was launched on the same video card, but paired with the i7 Extreme Edition, the game worked without the slightest glitch at the maximum settings, and you can watch the recorded video in the video we prepared.