Platform and performance summary
We haven't fully tested megatasking or Windows Vista yet, so we don't want to definitively say Quad FX has had its bottom whipped by Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX6700. We should also wait until AMD and ASUS have fixed the NUMA issues in the L1N64-SLIWS mainboard BIOS before making an absolute declaration. But there were few areas in our testing so far where AMD's new quad-core platform came even close to Intel's with this pre-production preview system, despite the potential technical superiority of the platform.
As so much seems to hinge on the mainboard BIOS issues being fixed, it appears to us that AMD, like other manufacturers, has once again been at the mercy of ASUS. And it's worth pointing out that, as we reported here when ATI tried to bring to market its RD580 chipset, ASUS appear to be maintaining a track record of being woefully slow at supporting its partners at critical times.
That said, surely it must have been AMD’s choice when to formally introduce this 4x4 platform…
We do expect significantly better results with an updated BIOS, so keep your eyes on HEXUS.net for our follow-up articles. But it looks like AMD really is going to have to wait until the sequel to the Quadfather arrives to regain ground against Intel. The K10 is just around the corner, but until then Intel's Core Microarchitecture remains the performance leader.
We'll reserve our final judgement until we've evaulated Quad FX with Vista RTM and, hopefully, with a newer BIOS. Stay tuned, folks.
