Final Core 2 Duo Mobile benchmarked; eh, it's ok

So, now that you're totally and completely freaking sick of hearing about the Core 2 Duo mobile (aka Merom) laptops that were launched today, perhaps it'll interest you to find out exactly how well these machines perform compared to their original Core Duo counterparts? Well, without taking away too much of the reason to hit the PC Perspective benchmark bonanza that pitted the Core 2 Duo T7600 against the Core Duo T6700 -- both today's and yesterday's 2.33GHz Intel Core chips -- we can tell you that the performance was in all cases better, though not typically much more than marginally so. Under heavy load Core 2 Duo was only 2 to 6 degrees cooler (and even in some cases hotter) than the Core Duo, though in one test it did score an entire half hour more battery life. So what have we learned? Well, you can walk -- don't run -- to pick up your Merom laptop, if at all. Us? We'll be fine with our Core Duo (even our Pentium M) machines a while longer yet, thanks; somehow we don't think that 2 or 3 degrees of heat shaved off the top is really going to finally help us conceive.

[Thanks, Mark W.]

[thalassicus @ Aug 29th 2006 4:11AM]

I wouldn't downplay the jump to Core 2 Duo. A lot of us want to watch HDTV, render video, and do all kinds of things on our laptops that will benefit from a 20% increase over Core Duo in those areas. BTW, which processor is that Vaio AR sporting that you are giving away in your commercial contest?

[Brado @ Aug 29th 2006 4:54AM]

Nice to know that my iMac is finally upgradeable just by CPU swapping, but I'll wait till I find my computer is slow. Btw, these T-Series Core 2 Duo's are the only ones able to be swapped in an iMac right?

[pableu @ Aug 29th 2006 6:33AM]

@Brado
Yes.

[Tom @ Aug 29th 2006 7:12AM]

I recently bought a Dell Inspiron E1505, with a 2Ghz core duo, would I just be able to swop it over for the core 2 duo equivalent/ upgrade? or is that only the macs?
I dont think its worth it at the moment, but maybe the quad core processors could be worth an upgrade, will these be swoppable too?

[Rev. Otto @ Aug 29th 2006 7:15AM]

Swappable is a dubious term, don't forget your bios, gents.

[PEZ @ Aug 29th 2006 10:30AM]

2 to 6 degrees is A LOT when it comes to cooling CPUs.

[Tom @ Aug 29th 2006 9:58AM]

so, would dell release a bios update that enabled my to swop around the processors? or is this not like them?
just for future reference thats all

[Kevin @ Aug 29th 2006 10:31AM]

@Rev Otto

1: Intel Macs no longer use a "Bios" it's an EFI.

2: A swap to merom has already been down on an Intel iMac and Mini. The chips works just fine, albeit OS X doesnt know what it is. Once Apple updates OS X upon getting the new CPU's this shouldnt be an issue.

[Steve @ Aug 29th 2006 10:58AM]

Does anyone know if retail outlets will have any Core 2 Duo laptops in stock by the weekend? I've tried calling Best Buy and of course no one picks up the phone.

[Gilbert J. Garcia @ Aug 29th 2006 3:43PM]

why does it say "final" benchmarks when the website they refrence clearly says that the 2 processors used weren't even production cpu's. The Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33 GHz) was a Production Sample. And the Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.16 GHz) was an Early Sample. So what is so final about that? Plus they still havent reviewed the T7200, T5600, or even the T5500. So what is so "final" about this?

[unimog @ Aug 29th 2006 12:00PM]

Steve: units won't be available for 10-14 days.

[Digi Smalls @ Aug 29th 2006 12:32PM]

what of the gains from being able to run 64bit apps?

.

[Alex K. @ Aug 29th 2006 1:47PM]

We'll see when Vista comes out if you guys will say it isn't a worthy upgrade. Just for x64 support alone, it is a worth upgrade. Also, 103 minutes battery life increase isn't too shabby neither.

[Digi Smalls @ Aug 29th 2006 6:55PM]

anyone want to to explain the real-world, preferably non-Vista (ie Mac) implications of the coming Rosa chipset?


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