BeHardware - News - January 21, 2008

Yesterday Intel officially launched its Core 2 Duo processors engraved in 45nm (code named the Penryn). There are three models for the moment :

- Core 2 E8500 : 3.16 GHz, 6 MB of L2, FSB1333, 266$
- Core 2 E8400 : 3.00 GHz, 6 MB of L2, FSB1333, 183$
- Core 2 E8200 : 2.66 GHz, 6 MB of L2, FSB1333, 163$

We can see that Intel didn’t take advantage of the occasion to lower the prices of other models ; however, the E8200 is at the same price as the 2.33 GHz E6550, the E8400 is equivalent to the 2.66 GHz E6750 and the E8500 is sold for the same as the 3 GHz E6850. Just like the E6750, the E8400 is the most interesting processor in the line. Moreover, it has already been integrated to our Core 2 Extreme QX9650 test.

You may recall Penryn architecture improves performances 2 to 8% compared to the Conroe used in the 65nm Core 2 at equivalent frequencies. However, the difference is especially felt in terms of energy consumption as an E8500 reaches roughly 33W in load versus 52 Watts for a E6850.

Due to a lack of a K10 architecture dual core, Intel thus strengthens its position in a segment where the Athlon 64 X2 carries little weight. You may recall quad core versions of these processors won’t arrive until the end of February/beginning of March due to a bug discovered at the last minute.