INTEL Core 2 Duo

INTEL Core 2 duo E4300

Processor INTEL Core 2 duo E4300

Then which elements make possible to distinguish Core 2 duo E4300 from the E6300 model? There is of course the frequency, but this is not all since Core 2 duo E4300 is attached on the level of FSB with a frequency of bus system limited to 800 MHz whereas all Core 2 duo used the frequency buses of 1066 MHz. This difference of FSB should not however hurt too much the performances, architecture Core 2 being in theory less sensitive to this type of parameter than that Pentium 4. Side frequency of operation, Core 2 duo E4300 work at 1,8 GHz against 1,86 GHz for the E6300 model.

Double-core and benefitting from the EM64T, technology 64 bits INTEL, Core 2 duo E4300 is distinguished from its big brothers, Core 2 duo E6000 series, by the absence of assumption to the technology of virtualisation. No VT on Core 2 duo E4300… we will add that the other functions INTEL like instructions SSSE3 (Supplemental SSE3), excute Bit for the protection of memory zones or Enhanced INTEL SpeedStep which will support energy saving still there. Let us specify in the past that Core 2 duo E4300 is certified INTEL Viiv.

INTEL Core 2 duo E4300: processor

Presenting itself at the format Socket LGA775 and always provided with a metal protecting its core, Core 2 duo E4300 is engraved like its predecessors in 65 Nm. There thus preserves the same thermal envelope fixed at 65 Watts and remains compatible with chipsets for processors Core 2 duo like P965 INTEL or nForce 6xx NVIDIA. With a frequency of operation 1,8 GHz and FSB fixed at 800 MHz, Core 2 duo E4300 uses a multiplying coefficient of 9x. Lastly, its supply voltage can lie between 0,850v and 1,3525v.

In addition our processor of test was provided with the new stepping L2 Conroe core whereas Core 2 duo use until now the stepping B2. The L2 revision implies to L2 memory in second level physically limited to 2 MB; . Another contribution of the stepping L2: the power consumption was re-examined , when the processor is in mode idle. Physically, the arrival of the stepping L2 results in a fitting different from the components located at the back of processor. Finally this new stepping should make possible for INTEL to have a better output during the production of processor

INTEL Core 2 Duo E4300 - CPU-Z

Core 2 duo E4300 by CPU-Z

We said at the beginning of this review that Core 2 duo E4300 is only one simple variation of Conroe architecture launched in the current summer 2006. This new processor thus offers any new functionality of existing architecture. What is perfectly normal since the only goal continued by INTEL with this processor is to popularize its range Core 2 duo with an offer more accessible financially speaking.

With less than 200 euros the unit, 159 dollars part per quantity of thousand , Core 2 duo E4300 remains a processor dual core , but it does have the same characteristics as its big brothers. It will be noted besides that INTEL clearly indicates the color while choosing a nomenclature in series 4000 and not in series 6000 as for Core 2 current. Concretely, this new model benefits from L2 cache restricted to only 2 MB divided between the two core.

INTEL Pentium D 935: last Pentium D?

Processor INTEL Pentium D 935

INTEL Pentium D 935: The processor

From Outside it s identical to Core 2 duo, Pentium D 935 uses also Socket 775 and have 376 million transistors. It is also engraved in 65 Nm, but its thermal envelope is higher since is fixed at 95 Watts. Its frequency of operation is 3,2 GHz, that with a multiplying coefficient of 16x for a frequency of buses fixed at 800 MHz. The processor integrates 4 MB in its second level with 2 MB for each core. The voltage of Pentium D 935 is variable and oscillates in general between 1,2v and 1,3375v.

INTEL Pentium D 935 - CPUZ

Pentium D 935 seen by CPU-Z

With those which even believed that Pentium D in process of disappearance, INTEL proves that such core still alive. Marketed with the price of 119 dollars part per quantity of thousand, this new representing of Pentium family is based on the Presler core. This processor Dual core does not propose any new functionality and we will find the well-known mistakes of Netburst architecture with FSB, 800 MHz only, The absence of direct communication between the core, The L2 cache is not shared between the cores and the latency times of cache is too high.

In short, Pentium D 935 will not revolutionize the world of processors, and This is not the objective of INTEL with this new reference. The founder proposes Pentium D 935 primarily as a solution of update to the current owners of platforms Pentium D which do not want to change their motherboard to pass to Core 2 duo. we note in that Pentium D 935 is identical to Pentium D 940 except that it loses the assumption of technology virtualisation ,INTEL VT.

Overclocking

The first thing which comes to mind when we considers Core 2 duo E4300 is due of course to its potential of overclocking.. Thus, on our motherboard , we could without changing the multiplying coefficient to pass from FSB800 to FSB1066. Consequently, our given processor with 1,8 GHz operated at 2,4 GHz 33% improvement and this without any effort!

Of course, we were not satisfied with this result :-). We thus could reach the 2,7 GHz successively then the 3 GHz by increasing the frequency of the bus system and by maintaining constant multiplying coefficient. 333 MHz FSB, the system start to loose stablity and we had to increase the voltage in order to preserve a perfect operation. Thereafter, we push the processor successively to the 350 MHz FSB then the 375 MHz. With 375 MHz system bus , Core 2 duo E4300 worked at 3,4 GHz this is an increase of more than 88% of its initial frequency. To reach the 3,4 easily GHz, we had to change our memory to DDR2 Corsair PC8500 . After several benchs in loop, our Core 2 duo E4300 was surprisingly stable at 3,4 GHz for a maximum temperature of 65°C in full load. Let us specify besides that we preserved our INTEL box cooler for the tests of overclocking . alas the 400 MHz remained instable in our test .

Core 2 duo E4300 flashé to 3 GHz then with 3,4 GHz!

On its side, Pentium D 935 is also good overclocker. we easily could make him exceed the 4 GHz while passing the FSB with 266 MHz and by maintaining constant multiplyer coefficient. With a coefficient of 16x and a FSB 266 MHz, our processor worked at 4,27 GHz. While forcing a little we arrives at the 4,4 GHz at the price of increase in the vcore of processor. Beyond, the situation becomes complicated and we did not succeed in preserving a stable system with FSB 300 MHz.

Pentium D 935 working at 4,4 GHz!

To check the impact of our various overclockings in performances, we systematically launched our custum demo with FarCry. The results are expressed in the graph below and as u can see it the simple fact of passing from FSB 800 MHz by default to 1066 MHz increases 28% in the performances of Core 2 duo E4300. By reaching the 3,4 GHz our Core 2 duo E4300 does better than Core 2 duo E6700. . As for Pentium D 935, our overclocking boost its performances to 27%: it is well but not sufficient to equalize Core 2 duo!

INTEL Core 2 Duo E4300 - OC - FarCry

Power Consumption

We benefit from this test to check the electric consumption of the last-born children from INTEL. With this intention, we lanched during several minutes the utility Prime 95 then we noted the electric consumption delivered by our wattmeter for the whole configuration. Power Consumption is indicated in the table below and as u can note , Core 2 duo E4300 proves to be particularly modest, and this even in full load! Not more than 174 Watts in full work, when the machine Pentium D 935 reached all the same 214 Watts in full load.

	Total Power consumption of the system	Temperature
INTEL Core 2 duo E4300	174 watts	30 c
INTEL Core 2 duo E6300	180 watts	33 c
INTEL Core 2 duo E6700	194 watts	38 c
INTEL Pentium D 935	214 watts	48 c
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE	194 watts	47 c
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ EE	198 watts	50 c

To test the performances of the INTEL Core 2 duo E4300 we had recourse to the configuration whose detail appears bellow:

Motherboard Asus P5W-DH Deluxe (BIOS 1707),
2x1GIg Corsair Twin2X DDR2 6400 CAS3,
Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX,
2x hard disks Western DIGITAL Raptor 150 Gig Serial-ATA 150.

This platform allowed us to test Core 2 duo E4300 but also to confront it with its similar Core 2 duo E6300 and E6400. We will also integrate Core 2 duo E6600 as reference in our graphs. Naturally, we will not forget the offer from AMD and we will compare here Core 2 duo E4300 with Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE, its direct competitor in the same price range. To test Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE and also 4600+ EE, we had recourse to the following configuration:

Motherboard Asus m2 N32-SLI Deluxe (BIOS 0811),
2x1Gig Corsair Twin2X DDR2 6400 CAS3,
Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX,
2x hard disks Western DIGITAL Raptor 150 Gig Serial-ATA 150.

Our two systems operated under Windows XP Professionnel Service Pack 2 and were provided with the last driver and BIOS available to the date of test.

3DMark 06 - CPU - v1.1.0

Like alwais, we start our benchs with the test processor of 3DMark 06 used here in its most recent version. Without surprise, Core 2 duo E6700 arrives first followed by Core 2 duo E6400. Core 2 duo E4300 finishes with equality with Core 2 duo E6300 whereas Pentium D 935 is very close. Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE signs an identical score for its part. Difficult thus to decide between our four processors low-end-range with 3DMark 06.

PCMark 05 - CPU - v1.2.0

We have more chance with PCMark 05. we finds Core 2 duo E6700 at the head , whereas Core 2 duo E6400 arrives second at equality with our Pentium D 935 which posts beautiful remainders here. On its side, Core 2 duo E4300 is in withdrawal vs the model E6300, this last being swifter by 3%.AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE closes again the ball but it is hardly outdistanced by its competitor INTEL.

PCMark 05 - Memory - v1.2.0

INTEL Core 2 Duo E4300 - PCMark 05 Memory

Always under PCMark 05, we check this time the memory scores. Core 2 duo E6700 remains untouchable whereas our Core 2 duo E4300 falls in the last place, the fault undoubtedly with its limited FSB. Even Pentium D 935 performe better than it . As regards to our AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE it post here good performance while being as fast as Core 2 duo E6300.

Sandra Xi -Processor Test

INTEL Core 2 Duo E4300 - Sandra Xi CPU

Sandra Xi made in favor the Core 2 duo E6700 . In all the cases Core 2 duo E4300 seems as powerful as Core 2 duo E6300 whereas Athlon 64 X2 4200+ is equal with Core 2 duo E6400 in the level of MFLOPS, but it loose when MIPS are considered.

Sandra Xi - Memory Test

INTEL Core 2 Duo E4300 - Sandra XI Memory

Side of memory performances, Sandra prefers Athlon 64 thanks to their integrated memory controller . Those are largely at the head, whereas Core 2 duo E6700, E6400 and E6300 are with equality. Core 2 duo E4300 is penalized here by its lower FSB, it finishes last just behind Pentium D 935.

ScienceMark 2.0 - Primordia

Mathematical test ScienceMark , forever was favorable to Pentium 4 and other Pentium D, Pentium D 935 thus finds itself last preceded by Core 2 duo. The E6300 model is here almost 4% faster than Core 2 duo E4300 whereas Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE is here showing good performance. Making equal with Core 2 duo E6400 it is 20% here faster than Core 2 duo E4300.

Cinebench 9.5

Cinebench 9.5 gives a score to our systems according to time necessary to render a 3D scene .Core 2 duo E6700 arrives here at the head whereas Core 2 duo E6400 makes equal score with Athlon 64 X2 4600+. Athlon 64 X2 4200+ succeeds in its side to do better than Core 2 duo E4300 with an advantage of 9%. Pentium D 935 is again at the end , Core 2 duo E6300 is 3% swifter than Core 2 duo E4300 in this test.

Adobe Photoshop CS2

The results are expressed here in seconds. Under Photoshop CS2 we measure time necessary to the application of radial blur on an image with resolution 2.048 X 3.072. Core 2 duo E4300 makes here red figure beeing slower than Core 2 duo E6300. Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE finishes third preceding Core 2 duo E6400. As for Pentium D 935 it does slightly better than Core 2 duo E6300.

Windows Media Encoder 9.0

The test Windows Media Encoder 9.0 consists in measuring the time necessary to compress with format WMV an AVI file. In fact, the results are expressed in seconds . Here Pentium D 935 finds good place. whereas Core 2 duo E4300 is with equality with Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE. Core 2 duo E6300 still better since it claims 18 seconds .

Files Compression WinRAR 3.62

Expressed in seconds, the results of our test , compression under WinRAR give Core 2 duo E6700 the lead. New Core 2 duo E4300 finishes before the last in front of it its direct competitor Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE and with equality with Athlon 64 X2 4600+ EE. Core 2 duo E6300 spends seven seconds less to compress our 14 files. Surprise, Pentium D 935 show good performance better than Core 2 duo E4300 and also E6300.

3DSMax 8 - Radiosity

The test of 3D rendering under 3DSMax 8 with effects of radiosity and instructions SE to calculate a scene in 800x600. Here also the results are expressed in seconds. Pentium D 935 have here the red figure . Core 2 duo E4300 and E6300 being with equality. Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE is for its part as powerful as Core 2 duo E4300 .

TMPGenc 4.2.3.193 Xpress

Under TMPGenc Xpress we measure time necessary for encoding in MPEG 2d video . TMPGenc has as a characteristic to benefit from instructions SSSE3 of Core 2 duo but also of the functions 3D Now of processors AMD. the model 4600+ EE makes equal performance with Pentium D 935 whereas Core 2 duo E4300 finishes fourth. The first three places are for processors Core 2 duo.

Pinnacle Studio 10.7

Once more results expressed in seconds. At the head we finds Core 2 duo E6700 followed by Core 2 duo E6400. Athlon 64 X2 4600+ EE finishes third with equality with Core 2 duo E6300. The small last of INTEL, Core 2 duo E4300 is 17 seconds here slower than Core 2 duo E6300 but this was enough to win over Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE. Pentium D 935 is here the slowest processor.

Mathematica 5.1

Mathematica 5.1 measures the arithmetic of our various processors. Here Pentium D 935 appears is lost whereas Core 2 duo E6700 has the full lead. Between these extremes, Core 2 duo E4300 is slightly in front of Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE whereas the E6300 model delivers similar performances .

Doom 3 v1.3 - 1024x768x32

For Doom 3, Core 2 duo E6700 is without any doubt the fastest processor. Contrary Pentium D 935 shows serious signs of weakness, in spite of its 3,2 GHz, whereas our Core 2 duo E4300 finishes before the last. Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE is faster here then E4300 by 1,3% whereas Core 2 duo E6300 is 3% faster.

Far Cry v1.4 - 1024x768x32

Pentium D 935 show poor performance here. On the other hand, Core 2 duo E4300 precedes here Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE with higher performances about 9%. comparing Core 2 duo E4300 with its brothers, we realizes that Core 2 duo E6300 is 5% here more powerful whereas the models E6400 and E6700 are largely at the head.

Call Of Duty 2 - v1.3 - 1024x768x32

Core 2 duo confirm here their advantage over Athlon 64 X2 whereas even Pentium D 935 succeeds in doing better than Athlon 64 X2 4600+ EE. On the other hand the difference between Core 2 duo E6300 and its little brother E4300 is far from being obvious whereas Core 2 duo E6700 is logically first.

Conclusion

Admittedly Core 2 duo E4300 is not the most powerful processor of this test but it is not either a the weakest one . In our eyes, This is the processor of the moment! Not only it makes possible to INTEL to financially extend its range of processors Core 2 duo moreover, it is about a splendid gift for the amateurs of overclocking. Without effort, the FSB of Core 2 duo E4300 can passe from 800 MHz to 1066 MHz with this increases in frequency will benefit largely the performances. But the small last of INTEL does not stop there and it could reach easily the 3,4 GHz in overclocking against an initial frequency of 1,8 GHz, that is to say practically the double! . Remain a small problem for INTEL, Core 2 duo E6300 is currently proposed at the same price as new Core 2 duo E4300, whereas the model E6400, expensive seems to lose its interest.

On its side, Pentium D 935 show modest overall . it is not a bad processor. It offers performances equal to Core 2 duo E4300 using default frequency, is negotiated with a completely advantageous price and it can easily be overclocked! we could make easily pass from clock speed of 3,2 GHz to 4,4 GHz! even if Pentium D 935 preserves the defects of family Pentium D, with a high consumption and important heating, it remains particularly interesting to update at few expenses an existing platform Pentium D. On the other hand, we will not advise Pentium D 935 for new equipment because of reduced evolutionarity which offers the attraction of Core 2 duo whose price is hardly 50 euros more expensive.