"Penryn", "Penryn-3M" (medium-voltage, 45 nm) Steppings: C0, E0 (Penryn) M0, R0 (Penryn-3M).Penryn processors support Dynamic Front Side Bus Throttling between 400–800MT/s. Note that models T8100, T8300, T9300, T9500 are Penryn processors designed for Santa Rosa Refresh platforms with maximum FSB of 800 MT/s, whereas the rest of the Penryn processors are designed for Montevina platforms that can go up to maximum FSB of 1066 MT/s. T6xxx models are Penryn-3M processors with 1 MB L2 cache disabled.
2.2.1.4 "Penryn" (Apple iMac specific, 45 nm).
That is why Core 2 Quad Q6600 may be a more promising solution even if used in its nominal mode. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t forget that most upcoming applications and games are being designed with multi-threading in mind. As a result, the most optimal choice for a system working at nominal speeds would depends a lot on the type of tasks it is intended for. In this case Core 2 Duo E6850 with 25% higher clock speed performs better in a lot of applications, including games. However, those computer users who do not want to mess with processor overclocking may think differently. So, we think Core 2 Quad Q6600 seems to be a much more attractive offering these days than Core 2 Duo E6850. They defeat their rivals not only thanks to twice as many computational cores, but also thanks to twice as large L2 cache. As we saw there are very few tasks left, where overclocked quad-core processors cannot outperform overclocked dual-core CPUs. Moreover, we see this tendency even in those applications that are not optimized for multi-core processors and that are getting fewer day by day. In this case they can perform better than Core 2 Duo CPUs overclocked to their maximum. The overclocking potential of the Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor based on the new G0 core stepping is quite sufficient to help it compete successfully in almost any applications.Īccording to our tests and numerous overclockers’ reports online, quad-core Core 2 Quad Q6600 processors can overclock up to 3.6GHz with proper air-cooling. Our today’s test session revealed that this processor can really do great in skillful hands. By dropping the price of the youngest quad-core processor below $300, Intel made a great gift for hardware enthusiasts.