Intel Core 2 Duo: affordable and powerful
Benchmarking
Test configuration for Intel LGA775:
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Motherboard
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Memory
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2õ DDR2-800 512 MB GEIL PC6400 (5-5-5-15)
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HDD
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Samsung HD080HJ (80 GB, 7200 rpm, 8 MB, SATA-300)
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Video Card
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Power supply unit
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SuperPower 480X, 480 W
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Housing
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COLORSit L8037-C45
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Operating system
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Microsoft Windows XP SP2
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Drivers
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NVIDIA ForceWare 91.31 WHQL
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As usual, we start with synthetic benchmarks.
We see quite a natural result. The indicators for the Core 2
Duo line are rising progressively due to the rising clock speed of each
processor. At the same time, we should note that the performance rise
from E6300 to E6400 (according to the readings by SiSoftware Sandra)
amounts to ~ 13%, and, in view of the fact that the rise of clock speed
from E6400 to E6600 is directly proportional to the two previous
processors, then the resultant 12% boost points to the minimum effect
of the cache memory in this case. A similar picture is seen in
PCMark‘05 as well. Overclocking of Core 2 Duo 6300 to 3030
MHz once again proves that the "redundant" 2 MB are not so much needed
to the processor. The other tested specimens demonstrate a natural lag,
at least in the test for the memory bandwidth AMD processor shows the
best result.
We now move on to practical tests of data compression
(archiving a folder containing programs and documents of 1 GB total
size), as well as audio encoding (540 MB *.wav into *.mp3) and vide
encoding (a 74 MB *.mpeg movie into *.avi). Here the faster is the
better.
But at archiving the situation is somehow different. While a
move from E6300 to E6400 would give only 8% of boost, then the boost
gained through moving to E6600 from E6400 is already as much as 16%.
Other processors are left well behind.
The influence of cache memory in this test once again shrinks.
The processors demonstrate a proportional growth in performance.
The same picture is seen at video encoding either. In fact,
this test has always been "biased" towards the high clock speed. It's
just due to that Pentium D looks not bad at all as compared to its
elder "congeners".
At SPECviewperf 9.0, the alignment of forces does not
radically change. Now AMD no longer yields to Core 2 Duo so easily, and
because of the poor optimization of the benchmarking suite for
multicore processors, the single-core Athlon 64 3200+ Socket AM2 was
even able to catch up with Core 2 Duo E6300. The same turned out to be
possible for Pentium D 945, due to higher operating clock speeds.
Futuremark's benchmarking suites demonstrate a traditional
dependence on video cards, so we don't see deep "drops" in performance.
In fact, installation of a more powerful graphic accelerator changes
the results somehow. We already were able to observe that in previous
materials devoted to Core 2 Duo.
Let's now move on to the favorite stuff - the games.
Quake 3 is very sensitive not only to the performance of the
CPU, but to the memory subsystem speed. The result for Core 2 Duo is
quite expectable - all is fine with it: at performance and at the
system bus which now has turned faster; and with the P965 chipset which
does not introduce latency when addressing memory.
Again we see a natural and quite expectable result. The
difference between Core 2 Duo processors is weakly felt. The
approximate gap between this series and Pentium D and competitor
solutions amounts to 25%, at Half-Life 2 the results are almost the
same (again due to the relatively "weak" video subsystem –
Core 2 Duo would perform much better with a more expensive 3D
accelerator).
Final Words
We believe the readers have already made the right conclusions
and no more comments are needed regarding all the above. The victory of
Core 2 Duo is evident. As regards the purpose of our research, all is
also clear. The reduction of cache memory size in E6300 and E6400 to 2
MB has not proved critical. At most tests, the difference is almost not
seen, if any. In other words, Core 2 Duo E6300 and E6400 are perfect
candidates for the "Must Have" title. They offer affordable price as
well as high overclocking capability provided there is a good
motherboard and well-arranged cooling system (the latter factor is not
as critical as it used to be). Besides, which is the most important, in
the pricing category in question there is no competitor which would be
able standing on par with the new offspring of the semiconductor giant.
We appreciate LLC PF "Servis"
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) for the processors and other equipment
presented for tests.
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VGA Card:
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CPU & Memory:
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