Intel challenges AMD on gaming

Intel will ship the desktop version of its new Core 2 Duo processor in July with the laptop version coming a month later.

Architectural enhancements in the dual-core Core 2 Duo include the ability to process more instructions per clock cycle, an increase in computing throughput and optimisations to enable the two cores to share Level 2 cache more effectively.

Also the move to a 65 nanometre manufacturing process allows engineers to craft smaller and finer silicon circuits than is possible with 90 nanometre technology.

Now that Intel’s focus is no longer on a clock speed (GHz) race with its rival AMD, it is marketing the Core 2 Duo as wider, smarter and faster.

The desktop Core 2 Duo will draw only 65 watts thanks to its adoption of Pentium M power-saving technology. Francois Piednol, senior performance analyst at Intel, urges end users to look “not just at the Core 2 Duo’s performance but at its power consumption too”.

The Core 2 Duo desktop clock speeds range from 1.86GHz to 2.67GHz, and most versions pack 4MB of L2 cache, greatly reducing the time taken to complete intensive tasks such as video transcoding.

In our tests a Core 2 Duo running at 2.67 GHz managed a PCMark05 benchmark CPU score of 6691. Scores such as this would leave the Core 2 Duo peerless in the consumer market.

Intel's new Core 2 Extreme could shatter AMD's reputation for being best for gaming chips. It will be more powerful than the Core 2 Duo, maximising performance at the expense of drawing more power. It is widely expected to run at either 2.8 or 3.0 GHz.

The architecture of the Core 2 Duo for laptops will be broadly similar to the desktop edition but optimised for long battery life.

Piednol is confident that Intel’s dual-core processors will outperform AMD’s. He says AMD dual-cores make inefficient use of L2 cache because the company wrongly believes this is best split up into 2Mbyte chunks.

Intel forecasts that by the end of 2005, 75 per cent of its desktop and 90 per cent of its mobile sales will be dual-core products.