I am going to buy a new CPU. I have Intel Core 2 duo 4300. I've already chosen Intel i5-2500/i5-2500k (Sandy Bridge) as my new target CPU. I've read a lot of details about Sandy Bridge family, P67/H67 chipsets. My question is about TXT/VT-d.
As Intel COMPARISON pages shows there is a (major/minor?) difference between these two CPUs: lack of TXT/VT-d in i5-2500K model.
My question is.. when exactly and in what software do these options matter? Please, share some (or many) examples of real application of these two technologies.
Best Answer
There are two different aspects:
vt-d is a useful technology allowing VMs direct access to the hardware. Beyond the obvious performance gain the other advantage is that the VM does not have to rely on the hypervisor or host OS support of the HW.
TXT however is a potentially nastier kind of beast. Although it is presented by Intel as a security improvement for the user it is above all a device allowing vendor lock-in and DRM enforcement. And you and I know that you can't trust vendors to use these device in the sole customer's interest. I'm not saying we should boycott these CPUs, they will eventually be ubiquitous, however if you are in the process of selecting a CPU, that's probably one thing you might want to be aware of.