Pentium D 3.4Ghz vs Core 2 Duo 2.6Ghz Test results

This is the story of 5th processor upgrade in my life. This core 2 Duo Processor (E7200 2.66GHz) which I bought from eBay works much faster than the old one. My old Pentium D performed fine, but its very hot and my cooling fans make a lot of noise in the room. i got this old Processor on 2007 Since Maldives is a hot country the temperature stays above fifty during the day time . When start using it from 2007 with default Intel cooling fan the system goes off quit often when I play games. Because my Bios default was set to shut off the system when the CPU core temperature reaches above 85, well this is hot right; Then I changed my Fan to Cooler Master CM Sphere (black) (RR-CCZ-LL11-GP): The problem solved.

Setup:

To do this before removing the old processor (Pentium D 3.4GHz) I did a system benchmark test using various benchmarking tools. The best two software's I used were Futuremark's PCmark05 and Passmark performance test.

The room temperature.
Since Maldives is a hot country, I guess the temperature would effect the performance of the system during the benchmark. I check my room temperature monitor. It showed me inside: 29 ˚C , outside 30 ˚C and humidity 78% before the test. I made it control by switching on the air condition. After a while inside temperature reached 25 ˚C.

Basic system information

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.40GHz 775 65nm
Intel(R) Core 2 Duo (R) CPU 3.40GHz 775 45nm
Main board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5KPL
Main borad chipset: ASUS P35/G33/G31
Memory Modules : Kingston DDR2 800mhz total of 3.5Gb
Video Card: NVIDIA Ge Force 8500 GT

Note: This Computer refers to my setup with Intel(R) Core 2 Duo (R) CPU 3.40GHz 775 45nm
and new base line refers to Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.40GHz 775 65nm.

benchmark test

	PentiumD	core2duo
CPU - Integer Math	140.7	256.3
CPU - Floating Point Math	667.5	979.9
CPU - Find Prime Numbers	221.6	708.2
CPU - Multimedia Instructions	0.9	4.5
CPU - Compression	2040.4	2994.1
CPU - Encryption	9.4	8.4
CPU - Physics	76.4	113.3
CPU - String Sorting	1206.2	1365.6
Graphics 2D - Solid Vectors	1.2	2.0
Graphics 2D - Transparent Vectors	0.5	0.6
Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors	76.3	134.7
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text	98.7	156.4
Graphics 2D - Windows Interface	126.0	204.7
Graphics 2D - Image Filters	284.1	458.0
2D Graphics - Image Rendering	160.2	206.1
Graphics 3D - Simple	380.7	380.7
Graphics 3D - Medium	125.0	125.4
Graphics 3D - Complex	25.5	25.4
Memory - Allocate Small Block	1333.4	2667.6
Memory - Read Cached	1967.2	2067.5
Memory - Read Uncached	1795.2	1867.8
Memory - Write	1299.5	1594.2
Memory - Large RAM	820.8	1187.7
Disk - Sequential Read	101.5	101.9
Disk - Sequential Write	99.9	99.5
Disk - Random Seek + RW	3.1	3.0
CD - Read	2.4	7.9
CPU Mark	960.9	1739.9
2D Graphics Mark	210.8	327.3
Memory Mark	621.4	810.8
Disk Mark	739.6	739.1
CD Mark	289.7	967.9
3D Graphics Mark	313.1	313.2
PassMark Rating	671.4	997.5

PassMark(TM) PerformanceTest 7.0 Evaluation Version (http://www.passmark.com)

Results generated on: Wednesday, April 29, 2009





Note: This Computer refers to my setup with Intel(R) Core 2 Duo (R) CPU 3.40GHz 775 45nm (green bars)
and new base line refers to Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.40GHz 775 65nm. (red bars)

Test Result

Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz scoring 997.5 Points.
Pentium D 3.4Ghz scoring 671.5 points.

Conclusion

All Intel Pentium 4 & Pentium D 65nm family processors are hot according to most of Internet sites and with my own experience. This might be the reason that these chips perform less compare Intel's 45nm family processors. 65nm and 45nm refers to the size of electronic circuits inside the CPU. Less number means more circuits. Basic raw material for processor manufacture silicon is no longer used in 45nm processors. Intel used their own material to design 45nm processors called High K-gate. This results making smaller number of transistors inside the circuit, and produce less heat compare to 65nm processors. Other advantage like adding more L2 cache more instruction support and good for overclocking is supported in 45 nm processors. Intel also working to produce 32nm processor which performs much faster than 45nm series.


My recommendation

According to this benchmark I personally recommend to buy 45nm proceesor.