Comparing Intel Dual core and Core 2 Duo processors
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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Since the launch of these two processors, there has always been a confusion as to what is the better part of each of these processors by Intel, mainly due to a monotonous naming convention. Had it been for better names, people would have felt a hell lot easier to understand the differences between the two and could have easily chosen the better of these two processors suiting their needs. Let us see a comparison chart as to where these processors stand regarding various criteria.
- In architecture, there is not much difference as described by Intel. Both the processors use two combined processors in one physical package. Both these processors run at same frequency and use around 6 Mb of cache.
- When it comes to performance issues, core 2 duo wins the battle. There has been a significant advantage all through its working. Core 2 duo is available at faster clock speeds than its predecessor Dual core.
- Another important part of this discussion would be the ability to try and overclock these processors. The Core 2 duo processor can be overclocked easily up to 4.0 GHz and in extreme cooling conditions can also be taken up to 6.0 GHz. It is not so possible in the case of Dual core processors which can again be overclocked only about 30% of the original speed.
- When it comes to power consumption, Dual core leads the race. Though I don't see it as a reason for people to stop loving core 2 duo, yet Dual core processors consume fairly lesser amount of power than Core 2 duo processors.
- Regarding the amount of cache available, up to 6 MB cache is available in Core 2 duo processors, whereas Dual core processors come with a cache of maximum 2 MB. But on the other hand, we must not forget that Dual core processors are available at much higher clock speeds.
These being the broader category of differences, it would not be wrong to say that Intel deviced both processors on almost the same architectural basis but let out core 2 duo as its leading brand by enhancing some features which led to a better performance by the core 2 duo. These features have been listed above but some of them remain untouched. Wherein the Core 2 duo has front bus speed of around 1333 MHz, the dual core has been restricted to around 667 MHz. Regarding the cache available, L@ is the cache present in both of them, with differences being in the size. If it comes down to speed, core 2 duo processors out perform dual cores completely. There is a significant 30% shift in speed towards the core 2 duo. In case of performance as well, core 2 duos lead the dual cores, be it rendering graphics for a HD game or word processing. Overall, if you ask me which one would I go out and purchase, it would be a core 2 duo.
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