Core 2 Duo vs i5 Benchmarks

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Hola. I have had these benchmarks for a bit, but finally got around to doing some comparisons today. To give you an idea of the timeframe, I built the Core 2 Duo rig somewhere in 2007, while the i5 machines were built within the last few months. Keeping the differences of spec in mind, you should be able to get a decent idea of how much of a performance bump you'd get, going from a Core 2 Duo to an i5 Rig.

 

Both machines were running Windows XP (SP2 on both I believe at the time of benchmarking).

The Core 2 Duo 6400 is the older rig, rocking @ 2.13GHz

The i5 650 is @ 3.20GHz

Both of these are Dual-Core CPUs. They are also running @ stock clocks. I have been sticking with Intel boards for the office machines, as they have grown on me, and I dig the reliability.

 

The Bench data was obtained with SisSoft Sandra Lite 2009.SP4, and since it was almost 3 years between the 2 models, the versions of Sandra do vary. However, the raw numbers should still prove valid to give an idea on performance gains. Re-doing the Core 2 Duo benchmarks, as some metrics are completely different.

 

I will list the scores from each benchmark, and attach the Screencaps in 2 additional posts for you. :)

 

Performance Gains of i5 650 over Core 2 Duo 6400:

• Cache: 187.33% Increase
  
• CPU Arithmetic: 264.59% Increase
  
• CPU Multi-Media: 251.51% Increase
  
• Cryptography: 758.39% Increase
  
• .Net Arithmetic: 287.83% Increase
  
• .Net Multi-Media: 243.61% Increase
  
• Memory Bandwidth: 147.37% Increase
  
• Memory Latency: 104.81% Faster
  
• Multi-Core Efficiency: 432.26% Increase
  
• Power Management: 246.88% Increase

 

I am re-running the benchmarks on the Core 2 Duo rig with the same version of Sandra, so I can chart more effectively. These are done, and as you can see, the i5 blows the doors off the Core 2 Duo in this benchmark run. The Memory sees a dramatic jump, as the boards go from running DDR2, to DDR3.

 

Another huge improvement is with the latency of the multi-cores. The i5 rocks an inner core latency of 14ns, while the Core 2 Duo is @ a latency of 114ns. Serious business right there. :P

 

As you can see, the benchmarks certainly show the i5 taking some big strides over the Core 2 Duo faction of CPUs. Now you know that a budget Core 2 Duo rig may be less in your interests, if you wanted to save some bucks.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Pic0o

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Core 2 Duo E6400 Benchmarks.

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i5 Benchmarks.

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I thought I found out this morning, that the Core 2 Duo memory is only DDR2 400! (according to CPU-Z. Verifying physical specs shortly.) After checking the sticks, they are actually PC2 6400 Sticks, thus 800 is what's in here, so my theories on performance hit are null. :)

 

For the sake of post relevance, the Core 2 Duo rig is running an Intel DG965WH Mobo and has 2x 1GB sticks of Corsair PC2 6400 in here. I did some checking and it seems the DDR2 5300 to DDR2 6400 performance metrics are minor, yet running DDR2 6400 will limit your max RAM to 4GB, over 8GB with the DDR2 5300 flavor.

 

Tested BIOS Info (Old)

Version MQ96510J.86A.1618.2007.0117.1535

Date 01/17/2007

I am applying the latest FW from Nov of 2008. I am such a slacker. :o Woot to .ISO image for applying FW, especially since this is the advised method for Linux users to flash their FW, via Intel. Considering how many fixes were rolled out since the old ass BIOS I have on here, I'll flash and see if Benchmarks change heavily.

 

Crucial DDR2 667 (2x 2GB) is looking like a valid suitor. I even checked the supported Mobo specs list.

 

FYI, new alt utility for getting PC Specs I saw mention of is Speccy. Same folks that made CCleaner.

Edited September 13, 2010 by Pic0o