Who's faster??

[stevo1210]

Is this new Intel Pentium Dual Core series of CPU faster than the older Pentium D series of CPUs??
I currently have a Pentium 920 2.8GHz with a 4MB L2 cache and I want to know if it's worthwhile getting a new CPU or not??
I am comparing my Pentium D 2.8Ghz CPU to the Intel Pentium Dual core E2140 to be precise.
What I've noticed is that they have the same bus speed (800MHz) as mine but have a much smaller L2 cache of only 1MB compared to the 2x 2MB (4MB) I have on my Pentium D. I can't compare core clock speeds because a Core 2 Duo E6300 at 1.8GHz would kick my Pentium D real badly.

Thanks.

[bgavin]

Re: Who's faster??

The real world benchmarks show that L2 cache is king.

Intel finally got their act together with the Core2 chips. Elegant design, much lower power dissipation, and rippin' front-side bus speeds.

Newegg is selling the new 45nm process chips with 6mb L2 at competitive prices. These are the hotrod FSB chips, and still run at fairly lower power.

I've picked up a few P4 northwoods in the $10 range, and they are a bargain for what they do. The 800 FSB northwoods are much more pricey. Too much, actually, but they run real nice in the 478 boards.

The Northwoods are faster and cooler than the equivalent Prescott chips. I don't know much about the Presler or Smithfield processes.

IMO, you won't get much of a noticeable difference from your current 920. Plus, yours is paid for. Yours still has a 95w dissipation factor, so consider running a Scythe or other premium cooler if you push it hard.

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Who's faster??

Why people feel the need to push their CPU's, when you use a drill you don't run need to run it at maximum speed or drive a car at it's top speed. Maybe you would if everyone was obsessed with over revving their drills and there was software like DrillMark2006 where the worlds drill owners posted screenshots of high drill speeds.

You know I run mine underclocked and undervolted at 800Mhz 0.975v,



I'm happy to run at 800Mhz and notice no difference from 1600Mhz. I enjoy high definition content, edit video, office applications, pictures, and browse the Internet at maximum speed that my router allows. I doubt you would gain much in going to a E2xxxx, maybe slower, from what I read the only noticeable difference will be in gaming but only really if you step up to a minimum of say a Wolfdale or the E6850, the higher bus speed together with higher bandwidth and lower latency RAM will make badly built bloated applications nippier.

PC games have become a bit of a joke that you need to spend ~$5000 to play them at their fullest and then soon after (usually a week after buying your new system) you have to spend another ~$5000. A few years ago all you needed do was buy a graphics card for $200 and you could play any game at max for months without thinking about upgrading. These days I just keep my money in my bank instead of blowing it all, maybe one day I'll have enough to play Crysis on high detail, alternatively I could buy a big house.

[Scenic]

Re: Who's faster??





i wonder if my C2D could keep up to stevos Pentium D (= Pentium 4 Prescott x2) ...um.. or vice versa

[gg1978]

Re: Who's faster??

Intel's Core 2 chips are better than P4's, as a general rule.. Cooler running, much better IPC.. I seem to remember a single core 1.6G pentium M Dothan as being equivalent to a 2.4 or 2.8 Prescott P4..

I wouldn't bother with an E2140 though.. Core 2's don't need as much cache as P4's do , but then again, more cache can be very helpful for some tasks.. I wouldn't buy anything less than an E6550 or E6750 Conroe as of right now.. I was lucky and bought one of the first 45nm E8400's from Newegg, when the price premium wasn't so bad..


It's really amazing how far the P6 design has come.. I know the Core 2 Duo isn't a P6 per se, but a grandchild it certainly is..

[Wizard]

Re: Who's faster??

Pentium Duo is powerful and *cooler* still even I went from athlon barton 3000+ with dual channel force2 chipset. Running E2200 cpu & HD3650 video card. Ran Doom3 like it there was slick grease in it's gears.

Our local store had 8400 then it went backorder for long time then disappeared from their listing.

Cheers, Wizard

[grss1982]

Re: Who's faster??

@stevo1210:

Do you play games? Check this:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu..._13.html#sect0

This was the only review I could find that compares the new E2xxx series to the old Pentium D series.

Hope that helps. :-)

[stevo1210]

Re: Who's faster??

@stevo1210:

Do you play games? Check this:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu..._13.html#sect0

This was the only review I could find that compares the new E2xxx series to the old Pentium D series.

Hope that helps. :-)

Yes, I do play games, but unfortunately I cannot play any decent games that i like because I am running Windows Vista.
I can't get rid of Vista simply because it cost me $349AU for Windows Vista ultimate when it first arrived in Australia.... this must have been one of the biggest mistakes I have made.

Anyway, nice find grss1982. I have a Pentium D 920 but I have a nice Cooler Master Vortex 752 copper heatsink.... so I plan to overclock this thing one day.

Thanks.

[grss1982]

Re: Who's faster??

@stevo1210: Your Welcome.