Intel's Core 2 Duo Chip Lives Up to Hype

Posted 19 July 2006 @ 12:41 am EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

New York (IBTimes.com) - The preliminary verdict for Intel's upcoming Core 2 Duo processors is in, with the bulk of independent chip reviewers giving the desktop chip a thumbs way up for performance. The evaluations, based on a series of benchmarks, indicated that the Core 2 Due chip outperforms chips from AMD and is available at a lower cost to boot.

Heretofore, the company had only released preliminary performance estimates for the chips. But, on Friday, the company gave a bevy of independent reviewers the permission to disclose their findings, none of whom had any trouble finding enough glowing terms to describe the chip's performance.

Intel, once again, has the fastest desktop processor on the market," wrote TK in the Reg Hardware review, "and AMD is either going to have to start competing on price again or pull something out of a hat to beat the Core 2 Duos speed.

AMD is by no means a lost cause, but if you're after the best performing desktop processor on the planet, your'e going to be shopping for an Intel Core 2 processor."

Chipping Away

Intel announced that it would replace its aging Pentium 4, also known as Pentium D, line of chips and introduce a new micro-architecture, combining the strength of Intel's NetBurst and Pentium M micro-architectures with some new features.
At the time, Paul Otellini, Intel's president and chief executive officer said the company would "'deliver factor of 10' breakthroughs to a variety of platforms that an reduce energy consumption tenfold or bring 10 times the performance of today's products." Other executives claimed that the Core 2 Duo would deliver a 20 percent lead over comparable chips from AMD.

"After a long gestation period, Intel has successfully delivered on its promise of substantially faster CPUs that use significantly less power," wrote Lloyd Case in the ExtremeTech.com review. "For the near term Core 2 looks like the must-have CPU for enthusiast and mainstream user alike." "So get out your credit cards," he added. "You want one. You know you do."

"There is no doubt that when it comes to editing video, manipulating images, or encoding music, the Intel Core 2 Duo and Extreme processors at 2.66GHz and above currently enjoy a healthy performance advantage over AMD's Athlon FX and Athlon 64 line of processors," wrote Hard OCP's Kyle Bennett. "Moreover, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Core 2 Duo and Extreme also do a great job of making the Pentium 4 look like a dinosaur. The official launch of the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Duo Extreme chips is not scheduled to take place until July 27 at Intel's Santa Clara, Ca-based headquarters. However, Intel is already shipping the Core 2 Duo, formerly codenamed "Conroe," according to George Alfs, an Intel spokesperson.