Core 2 Duo E6850 VS. Quad 4 Q6600

[TE_Taylormade]

I have both of these processors and cannot figure out which one I want to RMA back.  I would like to hear pro's and con's of both from any of you guys who have them or know more about them than I do, which is not a hell of a lot.  I did some research on Tom's hardware and noticed that the Core 2 duo has better benchmarks on most everything but still can't make my mind up.  I have the Striker II board with 4 gb of ocz 800mhz ram and going to be running vista too. I am mainly looking for speed in applications and gaming, that is about it..   Thanks for your help.

Tmade.

[MR|337]

One thing about it, there isnt many games out that use four cores. I do notice all of them in use sometimes when I'm multi tasking. The 6600 has been my first and really only multi core experience. I can say it works great and it's always nice to have a little more in reserve for future apps or hardware upgrades.

[Hitman Smurf]

I have a E6850 and it smokes everything I play. Not may games are capable of using 4 cores but, as 1337 said, it may be useful in a multi-tasking environment, but thats if you have an OS that is capable of using it to it's full potential. The quad is great if you want to be ready for the future as well, but remember, they always improve, and a better, newer, more advanced quad may show up in the future (when everything can use it). Both are good and your good either way you go.

[TX_Bandit]

2 Decent Article and compasrisons on the two below:

http://forums.devshed.com/cpus-104/core-2-duo-e6850-vs-core-2-quad-q6600t-482974.html

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Intel-E6750-Q6600-MSI-Gigabyte,review-29731.html

Myself I'd go with the Intel Dual Core  I usualy go with Intel's as I never have had an issue.  Currently am still running a Dual core Prescott a couple of years old

   Intel Pentium 4 570J, 3800 MHz (19 x 200)
Field   Value
CPU Properties   
CPU Type   Intel Pentium 4 570J, 3800 MHz (19 x 200)
CPU Alias   Prescott
CPU Stepping   E0
Instruction Set   x86, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3
Original Clock   3800 MHz
Min / Max CPU Multiplier   14x / 19x
Engineering Sample   No
L1 Trace Cache   12K Instructions
L1 Data Cache   16 KB
L2 Cache   1 MB  (On-Die, ECC, ATC, Full-Speed)
   
Multi CPU   
Motherboard ID   DELL Dim XPSGEN3
CPU #0   Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.80GHz, 3790 MHz
CPU #1   Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.80GHz, 3790 MHz
   
CPU Manufacturer   
Company Name   Intel Corporation
Product Information   http://www.intel.com/products/browse/processor.htm
   
CPU Utilization   
CPU #1 / HTT Unit #1   0 %
CPU #1 / HTT Unit #2   0 %

[snyper133]

For gaming the 6850 is better due to the faster FSB and usually higher clocks. Also it be a bit easier to over clock if you wanted to that is. I like the quad core because I run my games on the two cores that are not running system processes, does this help.... probably not.

If your going for pure speed and gaming go with the 6850.

If your video encoding, audio encoding, multi-tasking or other processor intensive take go with the Q6600. The only reason I have a quad core is because I would have been retarded to not buy it at the price that I bought it at.

Snyp

[Walmart Security]

well this is how i can best simplify the issue...

core2due has 2 cores split.  providing memory for each core on 2 channels so here is a break down.

2 cores     2g memory   1 meg per core of memory. good

quad core  has  2 cores per channel  shareing channel memory and if you had 2 g of memory it would only allow 512 of memory per core  bad

so if you decide to go quad core plan on getting 8g of memory or you may not see an advantage over the core2duo.


as far as os seeing and using the quad to its fullest... welll you will only see the other processosers kick in when the load or thread on one core is taxes to off load to another... with only 2g you might see it kick if you have several things going on  dual monitor cs and downloads and browser windows all going at the same time.

i have a old core2duo on 1066 4 gig ram and my cores never go over 50% nforce570 split a
now my amd x2 4000 2000 mhz bus with 4g 800mhz ram both core's hover at 33% nforce 405


summarry_______________________________________________________

quad core is a good now if you can get enough ram and a good futre investment... open the pocket book for 8g ram.

core2duo   2-4 gig and your in a sweet spot.


Walmart Security

[Walmart Security]

Oh.... here  is another good point   the core2duo only has to divide its cache on 2 cores not 4  so if you quadcore cache is divied into 4 witch is another factor on top of system board memory shared....

get 8 g to run quad good
4 gid for core2duo

if you pocket book can rock the 8g memory "i say go quad...."

if you want to stay cheep go core2duo with 4 g


Walmart Security

[TE_Taylormade]

I'm gonna rock 8gigs of ram I think and stay with Quad Core... Not sure yet.

[MR|337]

I'm going to get another 4 gigs.  Already got 4 now- and this stuff is priced right too...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3404049&CatId=3412

[TE_Taylormade]

same ram that I have leet

[snyper133]

well this is how i can best simplify the issue...

core2due has 2 cores split.  providing memory for each core on 2 channels so here is a break down.

2 cores     2g memory   1 meg per core of memory. good

quad core  has  2 cores per channel  shareing channel memory and if you had 2 g of memory it would only allow 512 of memory per core  bad

so if you decide to go quad core plan on getting 8g of memory or you may not see an advantage over the core2duo.


as far as os seeing and using the quad to its fullest... welll you will only see the other processosers kick in when the load or thread on one core is taxes to off load to another... with only 2g you might see it kick if you have several things going on  dual monitor cs and downloads and browser windows all going at the same time.

i have a old core2duo on 1066 4 gig ram and my cores never go over 50% nforce570 split a
now my amd x2 4000 2000 mhz bus with 4g 800mhz ram both core's hover at 33% nforce 405


summarry_______________________________________________________

quad core is a good now if you can get enough ram and a good futre investment... open the pocket book for 8g ram.

core2duo   2-4 gig and your in a sweet spot.


Walmart Security

Where did you get the above information from?

Oh.... here  is another good point   the core2duo only has to divide its cache on 2 cores not 4  so if you quadcore cache is divied into 4

The Q6600 has 8 MB of L2 cache roughly speaking 2MB per core. The 6850 has 4MB of L2 cache roughly speaking 2MB per core. FYI

[Walmart Security]

Sorry i was looking at the wrong quadcore.....


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Retail

I'm on the same page now.

[snyper133]

That's not that big of a deal

Where'd you get your other information from? I've never heard of that and it sounds like bs to me. That is not how RAM works. It's almost as erroneous as saying "well i have a 2.4GHz dual core so i have a 4.8GHz computer."

[Walmart Security]

please check here for direct comparison results

http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showchart.aspx?mmID=885492,890642&familyID=1&culture=en-US

here is processer specs and how it uses memory.

http://download.intel.com/design/processor/specupdt/31559321.pdf



here you go snyper133   i can refrence specific point in the manuel to corespond with my generalzation....

[snyper133]

I knew about the processors themselves, as far as the memory addressing to each core I would like to see that reference as I have not found it my first time through the document you linked which is the Errata for some of the quad core and extreme edition processors.

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