Core 2 Duo E7200 vs E6300

TEST SYSTEM SPECS & METHODOLOGY

I tested both CPUs on the following platform. The table shows its specifications with the CPU comparison following.

The method of testing is very important. You might be wondering why I would test two processors built on the same architecture with such a large gap in clock speed; one which would see the E7200 being some 36% faster than the E6300.

Simple … I’m not.

I will not be testing these CPUs at stock speeds. Core 2 Duo CPUs all have such wonderful overclocking headroom, that it is very hard not to take advantage of that. Both of these processors easily overclock to 3GHz and so that is where I will benchmark them … for a true clock-for-clock comparison.

There are several ways for these processors to hit 3GHz, although less ways for the E6300 with its limited multiplier of 7. That being said, the benchmarks will all be run at 3.003GHz using 429FSB and a multiplier of 7 for both processors.

I could have easily run the E7200 at 333×9 or 400×7.5 for 3GHz also, but then again, that might introduce FSB and RAM speed-related variables which I think would affect the results in one way or another. So the most accurate way is to keep everything the same.

With that said … let’s get to the benches!!