On February 18, Franck Delattre released version 1.57 of the very useful CPU-Z Utility. Here is a list of the new features:
- Intel Xeon “Westmere-EX” support
- GPU frequency report on Intel Sandy Bridge processor
- AMD Zacate/Ontario processors support
- Report TDP on main page when available
- Cores clocks on floating menu
- P67/H67 stepping report
Since Intel Xeon “Westmere-EX” support is listed, I hope that means that the Westmere-EX is getting close to being released. The Westmere-EX is a 32nm die shrink of the previous 45nm Nehalem-EX server processor, that will have 10 physical cores, plus hyper-threading, for a total of 20 logical cores per physical processor. These are used in four socket and greater database servers. Keep in mind, you will need both Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 to be able to use more than 64 logical cores with SQL Server. With Westmere-EX, you could have 80 logical cores in a commodity four-socket machine.
Here are a few screenshot examples, from some of my personal systems. One new feature that I really like is the listing of the Max TDP (Thermal Design Power) for the processor, on the CPU tab, just to the left of the processor logo. This gives you a rough idea of the power efficiency of the processor. It is supposed to be used as a design guide for systems designers when they are considering cooling design for a system. You can see that both of my Sandy Bridge desktop systems have a Max TDP of 95 watts, while my little 3.2lb 32nm Arrandale laptop has a Max TDP of 25 watts. The older 45nm Desktop Core i7 920 has a Max TDP of 125 watts.
You can also right-click next to the processor selection combo-box, and get a floating menu that lists the current clock speed of each physical core of a given processor. With Intel Turbo Boost, you will see the core speed jumping around based on the overall load on the system. If you have a newer Intel processor that supports Turbo Boost (Xeon 5500, 5600, 6600, or 7500 for servers, and Core i5 or Core i7 for desktop and mobile) you should always have it enabled, in my opinion.
Some systems allow you to disable it in the BIOS, but I really cannot think of any good reason to do that. Turbo Boost is basically intelligent over-clocking that gives you a nice single-threaded performance boost. All modern Intel processors have plenty of thermal head-room, so there is no danger of overheating the processor or the system because of Turbo Boost.
Figure 1: Sandy Bridge Core i7 2600K system
Figure 2: Sandy Bridge Core i5 2500K system
Figure 3: Arrandale Core i3 350M system
Figure 4: Bloomfield Core i7 920 system
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