Intel Core 2 Duo, what performance?

The new multicore processors from Intel just arrived. They are supposed to offer exceptional performance (with two computing cores in a single package) for an outstanding price.

Model Frequency Bus L2 cache Price
Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz 1066MHz 4MB $999
Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz 1066MHz 4MB $530
Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz 1066MHz 4MB $316
Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz 1066Mhz 2MB $183
Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz 1066MHz 2MB $163

The first real tests are popping up all around the web:

Mostly, this is a magnificent machine for a substantially lower price than originally expected from multicore technology. All applications do not take advantage of two cores, but in some cases, this becomes a boon (for example, in FarCry, an Intel Core Duo X6800 does from 20% to 30% more than an AMD Athlon 64 FX2; But both processors are priced around 1000€).

Intel visibly took very seriously the task to challenge the recent crown of AMD in terms of pure performance. The next offers from AMD will be interesting to watch. All this happening in a commercial environment that looks quite favorable to price falls (see my previous articles), we must keep an eye on how all this evolves in the near future (including for the entry-level processor offers).


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

One response to “Intel Core 2 Duo, what performance?”

  1. Yves Roumazeilles Avatar

    And, according to The Inquirer, AMD immediately replied (to this flurry of new benchmarks showing that Intel is back at the top of the league) with the announce that they will fight back with price reductions on the Athlon 64 X2 line (but not the entry-level CPUs).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.