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Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo – Investigation

Intel’s Merom Outperforms Yonah by 15%

by Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 08/07/2006 | 11:36 PM ]

It may be a new technology for desktop computers, but on mobile market Intel Core family microprocessors have been for some time now. In comparison to previous generation of mobile chips represented by code-named Yonah central processing units, mobile Core 2 Duo microprocessors, boast a number of improvements, but do those enhancements bring a really tangible performance benefit?

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Compared to Intel Core Duo (Yonah), Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom) has larger L2 cache, slightly deeper pipeline and added decode and execution units. In addition, Merom features more aggressive pre-fetch mechanisms than Yonah, as well as Intel’s Memory Disambiguation technology that allows for out-of-order loads. In other words, not only is Merom able to process more data at once, at a faster speed, but it can also get access to that data quicker.

In order to determine just how much Merom can be faster in real life applications, AnandTech has compared the newly released Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 to Intel Core Duo T2600 microprocessor. Both CPUs run at 2.33GHz frequency and are equipped with 4MB and 2MB of L2 cache, respectively.

The investigation was carried out on Asus Z96Js notebook which is based on Intel’s 945PM chipset and is outfitted with a 15.4” widescreen display with a 1280x800 native resolution, supported by a 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics chip and equipped with two 512MB PC2-5300 (667MHz) memory modules running at 5-5-5-15 memory timings.

“Overall, Merom may not be as big of an upgrade to Yonah as Conroe was to NetBurst, but the bottom line is that you get equal or better performance in every test without increasing cost or decreasing battery life. Owners of Core Duo laptops really have no reason to worry about upgrading for now, and waiting for the Santa Rosa platform before your next laptop upgrade seems reasonable. Those looking to purchase a new notebook on the other hand have no reason to avoid Core 2 Duo models, assuming pricing is consistent with what Intel is promising. There will be a delay of at least a few more weeks as we await availability, and testing and validation by laptop manufacturers may delay things a bit more, but within the next month or so you should be able to get a Core 2 laptop,” concludes AnandTech.