Intel's Core 2 Duo product line supercedes the Core Duo product line.
Intel's Core 2 Duo product line is the second generation of the Core Duo product line. Both sets of CPUs (central processing units) are designed for mobile computing, but the Core 2 Duo processors improve on performance in benchmark tests.
Setting up the Benchmark Test
The NotebookCheck website conducted a benchmark test of two Intel mobile processors, a T5600 from the Core 2 Duo product family and a T2400 from the Core Duo product family. Both processors had a clock speed of 1.83 GHz, an L2 Cache size of 2 Mb and a Front Side Bus (FSB) speed of 667 MHz. The researchers used the same notebook computer for each CPU benchmark; only the CPU changed between tests.
Intel made some basic design changes from the Core Duo product line to the Core 2 Duo product line.
The Core Duo die size is 90.3 mm^2. The Core 2 Duo die size is 144.9 mm^2.
The Core Duo processors have 151 million transistors. The Core 2 Duo processors have 291 million transistors.
The Core Duo clock speeds are 1.20 GHz to 2.33 GHz. The Core 2 Duo clock speeds are 1.06 GHz to 2.4 GHz (and higher).
The Core Duo FSB speed is 533 MHz to 667 MHz. The Core 2 Duo FSB speed is 533 MHz to 800 MHz.
The Core Duo L2 cache size is 2 MB (shared). The Core 2 Duo L2 cache size is 2 MB to 4 MB (shared).
Benchmark Test Statistics
Running the PCMark 2004 benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 scored 4514 points. The Core 2 Duo T5600 scored 5153 points (a 14.2 percent improvement).
Running the 3D Mark 2001 benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 scored 4998 points. The Core 2 Duo T5600 scored 5226 points (a 4.6 percent improvement).
Running the 3D Mark 2005 benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 scored 463 points. The Core 2 Duo T5600 scored 461 points (0.3 percent worse).
Running the 3D Mark 2006 benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 scored 159 points and a CPU score of 73 points. The Core 2 Duo T5600 scored 173 points (a 8.8 percent improvement) and a CPU score of 79 points (a 8.2 percent improvement).
Running the Cinebench benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 single CPU test scored 114.6 seconds and the multi-CPU test scored 53.9 seconds. The Core 2 Duo T5600 single CPU test scored 84.5 seconds (26.3 percent faster) and the multi-CPU test scored 46.4 seconds (13.9 percent faster).
Running the SiSoftSandra benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 Dhrystone test reached 16549 MIPS and the Whetstone test reached 5094/6591 FPU/iSSE2 Mflops. The Core 2 Duo T5600 Dhrystone test reached 22305 MIPS (a 34.8 percent improvement) and the Whetstone test reached 5547/8171 FPU/iSSE2 Mflops (a 8.9 to 24.0 percent improvement).
Running the Quake 3 Arena benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 scored 115.1 fps. The Core 2 Duo T5600 scored 118.3 fps (a 2.8 percent improvement).
Running the Super Pi benchmark test, the Core Duo T2400 took about 41 minutes to calculate Pi to 32 million decimal places. The Core 2 Duo T5600 performed that calculation in about 31 minutes (a 32 percent improvement).
Benchmark Performance Evaluation
The testers concluded that the Core 2 Duo showed modest performance increases when performing 3D graphic operations. The CPU-intensive tasks showed more significant performance increases. The researchers took note of the Super Pi test and added, "Both processors performed equally well until 16 million decimal places...(when) run at the maximum configuration of 32 decimal places, the Core 2 Duo processor (T5600) clearly wins and is 23.1 percent faster."
Tags: benchmark test Core, Core product, Core T2400, Core T5600, percent improvement, test Core