Core 2 Quad Q8200

At the same time Intel created a junior quad-core series that currently has only one model in it: Core 2 Quad Q8200. Of course, Q8000 processor family that should welcome new members in November already will eventually replace the outdated quad-core CPUs with 65nm cores. However, we are not going to talk about it today. Today Core 2 Quad Q8200 is positioned as an intermediate solution between Q6600 and Q9400, because the price difference between them is still too big.

Like all the upcoming Q8000 processors, Core 2 Quad Q8200 uses 45nm cores with even more limited functionality. The main loss here is even smaller L2 cache than the one on Q9400. The L2 cache of Core 2 Quad Q8200 is 4Mb total, 2Mb per each dual-core die. In other words, Core 2 Quad Q8200 looks like a CPU made of two processors from Pentium Dual-Core E5000 budget family. In fact, it is not quite correct to compare them, because Q8200 supports 1333MHz bus. The clock frequency, however, was lowered to the minimal level for a quad-core CPU: 2.33GHz.

You can see all this clearly from CPU-Z report:

Note that this processor supports SSE4.1 instructions, the feature that has been disabled in Pentium DC E5000. However, it did lose some of the high-end technologies available in more expensive models. For example, Core 2 Quad Q8200 doesn’t support virtualization technology. It is the first quad-core processor without this feature.

Q8200 uses the same R0 processor stepping as Q9400: both these processors use the same physical dies. In other words, Intel uses Q8200 not only to fill in the gap on the price-list, but also not to let the valuable scrapping go to waste. By disabling some of the L2 cache memory, the company is able to give a second chance to some of the semiconductor chips that may not be used for more expensive CPUs.