CPU Question, your thoughts?

Alright, so usually I am the one answering questions here but now I have a question for you!

I have a Pentium D dual core CPU @ 2.88 gHz

I want to get an Intel core quad @ 2.66 gHz

Question is, despite the clock difference, and despite the number of cores, do you think the intel quad will be faster on a single core then the Pentium D?

The quad is quite a few years newer then the Pentium D, I think the improvements in design will make the lower clock speed on a single core irrelivent. Your thoughts?

/me thinks you are right.

The Core 2 Quad is much faster than the Pentium D.

This is stepping a little outside my specific expertise, but here's what I THINK the answer is.

If you're comparing just the amount of operations per second inside a single processing core, then quite obviously 2.88 is faster than 2.66. In that respect, your Pentium D is "faster". However, looking at it in isolation like that does not give you an accurate picture. The core is not the only thing that determines the effective speed of the chip.

Take a look at the following links to get an idea:

http://processorfinder.intel.com/list.aspx?ProcFam=2112
http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ProcFam=2774

As you can see, all Pentium D's have an 800 MHz bus speed, whereas Core2 Quads have either 1066 or 1333. So data can flow to and from the Core2 Quad 30-60% faster than to and from the Pentium D.

Also, Pentium D's have only a 2 or 4MB cache, whereas Core 2 Quads have anywhere from 4-12. So up to 3 times as much information can be buffered directly on the chip with the Core2 Quad, where it can be accessed much faster than if it it's bounced to main system RAM. Larger caches technically do operate more slowly than smaller ones, but still not as slowly as memory that is external to the chip.

So, my best educated guess is that the 30-60% increase in bus speed, and the up to 300% increase in cache capacity, more than make up for the measly 7% reduction in core clock speed.

All that said, the discussion is pretty academic, since the reality is all your cores are very likely to be in use when running any piece of modern software.

Thank you this is perfect

I have always loved your answers here.

NetBurst, the Pentium 4 core, was intended to push the clock speed at the expense of clock efficiency. It gets less work done per clock than the P6 core used in the Pentium III, but can be run at a significantly higher clock speed as a result. It didn't end up scaling up as high as Intel wanted, and most of the real performance advantage of the P4 over the PIII was due to the improved bus architecture.

The "Core" processor is basically an improved P6-family core, like the Pentium III, with an improved bus architecture. It smokes the P4 clock for clock.

you completely correct the quad would be faster. the fact that it has a lower clock speed is irrelevant