It's hard to believe 15 years have Girls in the Night Trafficpassed since I tested the Pentium 4 series for the first time. At this point I honestly don't remember many of my experiences with the P4 range, if not because of its age then because it was a pretty rubbish series. I do have many fond memories of testing the Core 2 Duo series however.
Six long years after the Pentium 4, we reviewed the first generation Core 2 Duo processors with the dual-core E6000 range and then the quad-core models a year later. To this day the Core 2 Quad Q6600 might be the most popular enthusiast processor we've seen. In fact, almost all Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad chips were notoriously good overclockers and many users still claim to be running overclocked LGA775 processors.
Today we are going to take a look back at the Core 2 CPUs and compare them to the current generation Haswell Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 parts.
Along the way we will be testing processors such as the 2009/2010 Nehalem Core i5-760 and Core i7-870, as well as the Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge chips, comprising almost 10 years of Intel mainstream CPUs.
| Year | Process | Price | Base / Turbo | Cores / Threads | Socket | |
| Core i7-4790K | 2013 | 22nm | $339 | 4.0GHz / 4.4GHz | 4 / 8 | LGA1150 |
| Core i5-4670K | 2013 | 22nm | $242 | 3.5GHz / 3.9GHz | 4 / 4 | LGA1150 |
| Core i3-4350 | 2013 | 22nm | $138 | 3.6GHz | 2 / 4 | LGA1150 |
| Pentium G3220 | 2013 | 22nm | $64 | 3.0GHz | 2 / 2 | LGA1150 |
| Celeron G1820 | 2014 | 22nm | $42 | 2.7GHz | 2 / 2 | LGA1150 |
| Core i7-2700K | 2011 | 32nm | $332 | 3.5GHz / 3.9GHz | 4 / 8 | LGA1155 |
| Core i5-2500K | 2011 | 32nm | $216 | 3.3GHz / 3.7GHz | 4 / 4 | LGA1155 |
| Core i7-870 | 2009 | 45nm | $562 | 2.93GHz / 3.6GHz | 4 / 8 | LGA1156 |
| Core i5-760 | 2009 | 45nm | $205 | 2.8GHz / 3.33GHz | 4 / 4 | LGA1156 |
| Core 2 Quad Q9650 | 2008 | 45nm | $530 | 3.0GHz | 4 / 4 | LGA775 |
| Core 2 Quad Q6600 | 2007 | 65nm | $530 | 2.4GHz | 4 / 4 | LGA775 |
| Core 2 Duo E8600 | 2008 | 45nm | $266 | 3.33GHz | 2 / 2 | LGA775 |
| Core 2 Duo E6600 | 2006 | 65nm | $316 | 2.4GHz | 2 / 2 | LGA775 |
The only mainstream processor series missing is the Ivy Bridge architecture, though we decided to skip it as the performance leap from Sandy Bridge to Haswell wasn't significant. Fifth-generation Broadwell processors are also missing as they are not available yet and with Skylake arriving soon it seems this series is being skipped entirely.
Obviously today's processors are going to be faster than those that are almost a decade old. What we feel is of interest is finding out just how much faster they are in modern applications such as Photoshop CC, x264 HD encoding, and Excel workloads. We'll also look at gaming performance, albeit with an unrealistically powerful discrete GPU that we could've only dreamed of a decade ago.
Finishing up the benchmark phase we'll also compare power consumption to gauge how much more efficient modern day CPUs really are.
Haswell System Specs
| Sandy Bridge System Specs
|
Lynnfield System Specs
| Core 2 System Specs
|
The Core 2 series wasn't blessed with big memory bandwidths and back in the day AMD had one over Intel here with its Athlon64 range which peaked at around 9GB/s. As you can see below, we struggled to get 7GB/s out of the Core 2 Duo E8600 and Core 2 Quad Q9650.
The jump from the Core 2 range to the first Core i5 and Core i7 processors was massive as the i5-760 managed 17.1GB/s and 19.2GB/s for the i7-870. The Sandy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 processors didn't improve on this with roughly 18GB/s.
However, by the time Haswell came around Intel was pushing well over 20GB/s on this mainstream platform. This means even the cheapest Haswell desktop processor has roughly 4x the memory bandwidth available when compared to the fastest Core 2 processors.
Virtual Reality: The True Cost of Admission (and Why It Doesn't Matter)
Now That “Happy Birthday” Is Legal, Can TV Be More Normal?
On the Everly Brothers’ “Bowling Green”
At the Whispering Gallery
Best Amazon deal: Get a $5 Amazon credit when you spend $30 on home essentials
On the Uses and Abuses of the Literary Orphan
X Social Media sues Elon Musk's X over the 'X' name
Now That “Happy Birthday” Is Legal, Can TV Be More Normal?
Apple iPhone 17 Pro leaks highlight major new design change
Writing a Sonnet for Stephen Hawking
NYT mini crossword answers for April 24, 2025
'Heardle' is a 'Wordle' clone that wants you to guess the song
On Robert Seydel’s visionary, genre
Writing a Sonnet for Stephen Hawking
Testing Windows 10 Performance Before and After the Meltdown Flaw Emergency Patch
White male leads don't equal box office success. But executives and studios are still biased.
9 best websites for cat owners
An author and an illustrator talk collaboration—and Melville.
Amazon Big Spring Sale 2025: Save $170 on Dyson Hot+Cool
An Absolute Truth: On Writing a Life of Coltrane
Give Your Graduate The Paris Review’s Commencement Gift BoxJust a Taste: The Photographer’s CookbookLife, Like This Painting, May Contain Hidden Skulls“Morning Street,” a poem by Carlos Drummond de AndradeMarisol, the Mononymic Sculptor, Is Dead at EightyWhat the World Needs Now Is More Geodesic DomesJohn Betjeman Reads “The Licorice Fields at Pontefract”The Joys of the Flea MarketTimbuktu’s Massive Book HeistThe Joys of Eating a Hot Dog Standing up at the AirportBefore ASCII Art, There Was … This 19thGlen Baxter Week, Day Three: Sex, Trees, Florists, ProgressGive Your Graduate The Paris Review’s Commencement Gift BoxFour Episodes in the Life of Einstein’s MotherH.L. Mencken, Unforgivable and UnforgettableLife, Like This Painting, May Contain Hidden SkullsIn Defense of “Moist”It’s Official: Furniture Is Made out of ShitWant to Know True Beauty? Take a Look at a MothHow to Live Like a Musician: Eat Only White Foods Elon Musk fails bid to restore $55.8 billion Tesla pay package Raiders vs. Buccaneers 2024 livestream: How to watch NFL online Best TV deal: Save $250 on Samsung Q80C QLED 4K TV Best Beats Studio Pro headphones deal: Save $150 at Best Buy NYT Connections Sports Edition hints and answers for December 5: Tips to solve Connections #73 Amazon Echo Dot deal: Get it for $22.99 Clemson vs. SMU football livestreams: kickoff time, streaming deals, and more NYT Connections hints and answers for December 5: Tips to solve 'Connections' #543. Best Sony Bravia TV deal: Save $1,000 on Sony 75 'Severance' Season 2 trailer: 12 burning questions we have Best AirPods deal: Save $40 on Apple AirPods 4 Best Sony WH1000XM4 headphones deal: Save $150 at Best Buy Online glee over UnitedHealthcare CEO murder riles content moderators Best Target Circle deal: Get 10% off Target gift cards Australia vs. India 2024 livestream: Watch 2nd Test for free JBL Vibe Beam deal: $24.95 at Amazon Best TV deal: Save $150 on the TCL Q5 65 Webb telescope exposes secrets of a famous cosmic metropolis Microsoft Copilot Vision, your internet The strange new worlds scientists discovered in 2024
2.4361s , 10133.34375 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【Girls in the Night Traffic】,Evergreen Information Network