Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 (page 1: Introduction)

Do you think that the Core 2 Duo is too expensive? Aware of this fact, but not too eager to cut prices, Intel has decided to release less efficient models in 2007. The first one of this series is the Core 2 Duo E4300.

A new stepping

We remind you that the Intel Core 2 Duo processor line includes the following products:

- X6800 (2.93 GHz, FSB1066, 4 MB L2) - $999
- E6700 (2.66 GHz, FSB1066, 4 MB L2) - $530
- E6600 (2.40 GHz, FSB1066, 4 MB L2) - $316
- E6400 (2.13 GHz, FSB1066, 2 MB L2) - $224
- E6300 (1.86 GHz, FSB1066, 2 MB L2) - $183
- E4300 (1.80 GHz, FSB800, 2 MB L2) - $163

As you may have noticed, in addition to slightly lower frequencies than a E6300, the main difference is the utilisation of FSB800, or 200 MHz in practice. Knowing that the bus is capable of transferring 4 instructions of 64 bit per clock cycle, the bandwidth between the chipset and the processor is reduced to 6,4 GB/s, from 8,5 GB/s for other models.

E4300 on the left, E6400 on the right
In practice, the Core 2 Duo E4300 is also distinguished because of the exclusive use of a new core. If the Core 2 Duo uses the stepping level B2 and the Core 2 Quad, B3, this one uses L2.

The 4 MB of cache of the Core 2 Duo B2 circled in red
What difference does it make? B2 and B3 include 4 MB of L2 cache and half of it is deactivated with the E6300 and E6400. With L2 stepping, introduced with the E4300 and with E6300 and soon the E6400, the cache is immediately 2 MB. Knowing that 4 MB of cache required 40% of the Core 2’s die, dividing it by two makes it possible to noticeably increase the number of die per wafer and production costs. Also, this stepping is supposed to noticeably diminish power consumption in stand by despite a similar voltage at 1.325V.