Core i7 vs Core 2 Duo..

[abu80]

First off, if this topic is in the wrong place, then i apologize and hope the admin would move it to the proper topic.

I've gone through many articles regarding the Core i7 vs Core 2 Duo, but failed to understand most of it..

Could someone explain to me what is the difference, what did they upgrade and all the stuff between these 2 processors..

[Rich-M]

First of all i-7 cpu's are all Quad core processors and they are the fastest known to man at the moment. So compare to the Core 2 Quads not Core 2 Duos.
Best explanation I have seen is here:

Native Quad Core, More Cache and Hyper Threading: All the Core i7 processors are Native Quad cores (4 cores), which means that they actually have 4 cores on a single die, while the older Core 2 Duo processors like the Q6600 (2×2 = 4 cores) had two cores on a single die, and two such dies merged together. This increases the processing speed greatly. They also have 256 KB L2 cache per core and a shared 8 MB L3 cache which has proven to be much better than any cache configuration in Core 2 Duo.
It also has HyperThreading support which means that each of the 4 cores can process 2 threads simultaneously, so you get 8 virtual cores. This helps in running many applications parallely and also in gaming.
Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) and On Die Memory Controller:
The Core i7 processors sport the new Quick Path Interconnect technology which replaces the FSB (Front Side Bus) to connect the various components in a computer. QPI is much faster than FSB and hence improves the overall performance. It is even faster than AMD’s similar HyperTransport 3.0 standard.
The Core i7 have an On Die Memory Controller which means that it can access memory much faster than the Core 2 Duo processors which had an external memory controller. Intel has borrowed this feature from AMD. All the four cores, memory controller, cache are on the same die which improves the speed and performance greatly.

http://www.pathikshah.com/blog/intel-core-i7-vs-intel-core-2-duo-the-difference/

[Plastic Nev]

Though this thread is getting on a bit now in its age, I will still say, good find there Rich. However that article is now nearly two years old and have therefore asked on the replies to it if AMD have released anything as good or better, and also if Intel have managed to improve on what seems to be the ultimate. I haven't seen anything myself, though must admit, haven't had the need to look.
Nev.

[Rich-M]

I didn't notice the dates but actually little has changed.