Intel Core 2 Duo performance preview
Lars-Göran Nilsson
4th June 2006
Preview Last week, Intel gathered the European press in Munich for a sneak peek at its the Core 2 Duo chip - aka 'Conroe'. Reg Hardware was there. We were limited to running a set of pre-installed benchmarks on the systems provided so this isn't a conclusive performance review of what Core 2 Duo is capable of...
Nonetheless, the numbers are very impressive, but let's start with a look at what's on offer and why you should consider moving to the Core 2 Duo platform. Intel is touting Core 2 Duo as a power-efficient processor that also offers better performance than the Pentium 4 and Pentium D chips.
Intel was keen to highlight some of the new functions of the Core 2 Duo processors. First of all there will be versions with either 2 or 4MB of shared cache - ot Intel Advanced Smart Cache, if you're into marketing wording. The two cores have to "fight" between themselves for cache allocation, and Intel claimed this technique delivered the best performance in their simulations.
One of the most important features is what Intel refers to as Wide Dynamic Execution, which allows for more data to be processed per clock cycle compared to previous generation of products. The Core 2 Duo processors can processes four full instructions per clock cycle, compared to the NetBurst architecture's three. A part of this is a technqiue Intel refers to as "macrofusion" which enables common pairs of instructions to be combined into a single instruction. The result: certain types of data can be processed in less time than it took on previous generations of Intel processors.
Smart Memory Access has been designed to lower memory latency and improve data access. The key to this is "memory disambiguation", which allows the execution cores to pre-load instructions that are about to be executed before the previous instruction has finished. This is based on a set of intelligent algorithms and it doesn't work under all circumstances, although it means that in most cases the processor will spend less time idling and more time processing data. A better memory pre-fetch system, with twin pre-fetches in both the L1 and L2 cache, should also improve the rate at which the correct data is being made available for the cores to process.
This takes us on to Intel Advanced Digital Media Boost - and I thought long, silly technology names where reserved for Asian companies - which is just an improved version of SSE. What Intel has done is to allow a 128-bit SSE operastion to be executed in a single processor cycle, which means that SIMD operations that previously have taken two clock cycles now complete in half the time.
Many of Conroe's power saving features aren't really power saving as such, but rather related to the more efficient processor design, which means that more data can be done in less time. In turn, that equals less power usage. However, Intel has lowered the TDP to 65W on the desktop parts, which is nonetheless very impressive.But enough marketing material. Let's start with the test systems that Intel had set up for us. The processor was clocked at 2.67GHz and it should be known as the E6700 when it hits retail. As you might already have guessed the machines had an Intel-branded motherboard and as the Core 2 Duo processors operate at a 1066MHz frontside bus, the motherboard of choice was the Intel D975XBX. This is a top-of-the-range model from Intel. We weren't permitted to change any BIOS settings.
On a side note, 'Merom', Intel's notebook-oriented Core 2 Duo, was also demo'd, though we weren't allowed to do any testing. Intel claims Merom delivers up to 25 per cent more performance while maintaining the same power efficiency as the current Core Duo platform. But for those not satisfied with a dual-core processor, there was a final treat: 'Kentsfield'. Although for some bizarre reason this quad-core processor was only used to host the PowerPoint slides we where shown. Talk about waste of CPU power...
But back to the Core 2 Duo. At a predicted retail price of $530 for the E6700, this performance doesn't come cheap, but the 2MB cache versions are much more affordable and one of the Intel representatives claimed that even the E6400 which is clocked at a mere 2.1GHz would outperform an AMD Athlon 64 FX-60. Time will tell if this really is the case, but it goes to show that Intel is confident in its new range of desktop processors. Now, let the price war begin.
Intel wouldn't confirm a launch date, but processors will be shipping to its partners some time this month, so one can only presume that the launch isn't too far away. Yields are said to be very good and there shouldn't be any shortages of processors, although officially Intel doesn't comment on yields, so we'll just have to wait and see.
Verdict
My first impression of Core 2 Duo is very positive, though the testing had to be conducted in a 'controlled' environment. We'll bring you an in-house review as soon as Intel sends over a review kit, so stay tuned for a more in depth follow-up to this preview.
Source: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/06/04/preview_intel_core_2_duo
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