Intel Core 2 Duo is here - could it be Intel's day to shine?

Intel Test System

Processor: Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955, Intel Pentium-D 940 and Intel Core 2 CPU's (Supplied by Intel)

Motherboard: Intel 975XBX Reference

Memory: 2x 1GB DDR2-1000 Corsair

Hard Disk: Seagate 7200.9 500GB (Supplied by Seagate)

Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 7800GT

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers: Intel INF 8.0.1.1002 and nVidia ForceWare 91.31

AMD K8 Test System

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ AM2 @ 2.6GHz (260MHz x 10)

Motherboard: MSI K9N Platinum

Memory: 2x 1GB DDR2-1000 Corsair

Hard Disk: Seagate 7200.9 500GB (Supplied by Seagate Australia)

Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 7800GT

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers: nVidia ForceWare 91.31 and nForce 570 9.1

This time around since the Intel 975XBX supports all of the processors we want to use we have chosen this board as our Intel test platform. Luckily we have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 on the AM2 platform and a supporting motherboard, so this is what we have chosen to run against.

We don't have an FX-60 or FX-62 because AMD doesn't have enough processors to send to all media around the world. Instead we had to make do and take a 3800+ and overclock it to 2.6GHz (260MHz x 10). In theory, this turns out 3800+ CPU into something like a 5000+ CPU.

We've benchmarked the Core architecture before but this time we test in our own labs and have more time with the processors. Is it Intel's day to shine and take back the CPU performance crown from AMD? Let's find out now!

SiSoft Sandra

Version and / or Patch Used: 2007

Developer Homepage: http://www.sisoftware.co.uk

Product Homepage: http://sisoftware.jaggedonline.com/index.php?location=home&a=TTA&lang=en

Buy It Here

SiSoft Sandra (System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is a synthetic Windows benchmark that features different tests used to evaluate different PC subsystems.

In our CPU raw performance benchmark we see that the Core 2 does fall behind Netburst's raw FPU and ALU results - this is likely because of the double speed ALU's that this CPU incorporates.

Memory wise its up on the mark against the Netburst but falls back on AMD due to a on die memory controller used by AMD. Intel still relied on the chipset to support its memory controllers and requires the FSB for CPU to memory communication.