Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, Eco-Friendly Performance

by Guest Thu May 29, 2008 8:39 am

It has been surprising and frankly somewhat satisfying to see the success to date of the "Wolfdale" core architecture in Intel’s Core 2 lineup of processors. "Wolfdale" is Intel’s first 45nm based dual-core design, and is an interesting product beyond first glance. When it was first announced, there was a bit of doubt throughout the industry of the chip’s viability in the market. The doubt was that it would be foolish of Intel put major weight behind a dual-core processor architecture, as the future is clearly quad-core processors and beyond. More cores are always better, right? A modern dual-core processor can still bring exceptional performance for today’s high-end machines. While quad-cores definitely have more appeal for the heavy multi-tasking power user, dual-cores can typically accomplish most tasks with performance to spare, but can do so with much lower power consumption and heat production. In addition, if your application of choice is only coded to handle two processor cores, it can actually run faster on a highly-clocked dual-core compared to a mid-range clocked quad-core. While the wave of multi-core software is rising every day, we still haven’t seen truly compelling numbers in main stream applications showing that quad-core processors are worth their premiums for many average, everyday computing scenarios.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, Eco-Friendly Performance Small_e7200_2

Intel's Core 2 Duo E7200 Processor Engineering Sample

The Core 2 Duo E7200 is a bit of an anomaly on Intel’s dual-core product lineup, much like the Core 2 Quad Q9300 is the anomaly for the quad-core product lineup. Both the E7200 and Q9300 are the only models in their lineups which have half the L2 cache of other models in their families. In addition, both run at 2.5 GHz clock speeds and both are priced very competitively for the performance they offer. The E7200 is a based on a simple, modern dual-core design, whereas the Q9300 uses two of these processor dies to create a quad-core version . Beyond the raw core count, the chips are nearly identical. With the release of the Core 2 Duo E7200, it’s now possible to get a fast “Wolfdale” dual-core chip for about $130, about half the price of today’s high-end “Wolfdale” models. Let’s see if this newbie can live up to the high-bar set by preceding 45nm dual-core parts from Intel.

Specifications

2.53 GHz Clock Speed, Dual-Core
"Wolfdale" Core Architecture
45nm Manufacturing Technology
128 kB L1 Cache (Data/Instruction)
3 MB Shared L2 Cache (Full Speed)
1066 MHz Front Side Bus Speed

Socket-775 Form Factor Design
1.2V Default Core Voltage
Supports 32/64-bit Processing (EM64T)
Supports SSE / SSE2 / SSE3 / SSE4.1
Supports Intel Speedstep / C1E
Supports Execute Disable (xD) Bit

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, Eco-Friendly Performance Small_e7200_3

Core 2 Duo E7200 - Top

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, Eco-Friendly Performance Small_e7200_4

Core 2 Duo E7200 - Bottom

The Core 2 Duo E7200 is the slowest speed 45nm dual-core processor released to date at 2.53 GHz stock speed, the next closest offering being the Intel Core 2 E8200 model, which runs at a slightly higher clocked 2.66GHz with a full 6MB of cache. The E7200 processor runs at 5% slower clock speed and has half the cache at 3 MB, but also costs 30% less overall, and is currently selling for around $130, which would be considered high-end Celeron territory previously.