Benchmarking Intel Conroe Core 2 X6800, E6700 and E6600

Each year during Computex 2006 we always manage to benchmark something pretty cool and usually quite exclusive - this year we think it is safe to say we out did ourselves! It just seems to be the way here in Taiwan at this time of the year - each company is trying to out do the other and hence are more willing to help media with hot new content. This year we teamed up with Jon and our friends from Hard Info in Denmark to provide the most complete set of benchmark on Intel's full range of new Conroe Core 2 processors on a Gigabyte motherboard.

We've seen benchmarks this week from other websites but none have been able to provide a complete set like we have nor have they been able to produce actual photos of the new CPU or any form of screenshots - we aren't holding back, we are going to show you everything which we saw. Some websites posted benchmark results from a pre-built test system by Intel in Europe, which they really didn't have much control over. On the other hand, we tested using a retail Intel 965P motherboard from Gigabyte, the 965P-DQ6 to be exact, without any interference from either Intel or Gigabyte. We were left on our own to build the system from scratch, install all of our own software, use our own benchmarking demos - just as we would in our own labs - it's a truly independent set of benchmark numbers on a system you will be able to buy once Intel release their processors to the market.

Today we are thrilled to bring you the most complete set of Conroe benchmarks to ever be seen and we compare directly against a lot of other processors including Athlon FX-62, 5000+ and Pentium EE 955 and so on. We've not only got the E6600 Core 2 Duo like most other websites benchmarked but we also have the higher clocked E6700 and the top dog Core 2 Extreme X6800. The E6600 operates at 2.4GHz and has an effective FSB of 1066MHz with 4MB L2 cache and with Dual Core. The E6700 is clocked at a higher 2.66GHz and the X6800 Extreme does its thing even quicker again at 2.93GHz (11 x 266MHz). Gigabyte made some tweaks to their retail motherboard like most others do, so the FSB was actually 268MHz which resulted in the CPU running at 2948MHz.

At launch, Intel will have a full range of Core 2 Duo processors available from 1.6GHz all the way up to 2.93GHz. The E4200, E6300 and E6400 only have 2MB L2 cache and the E4200 is set to be the low-end part with just an 800MHz FSB and does not include Intel SpeedStep technology, EM64T or Execute Disable Bit while all the others do. Hyper Threading technology stated to be disabled for all processors at the moment but we could see Intel releasing a new Core 2 Extreme processor with HT enabled at clock speeds over 3GHz. Later on Intel will also release their code-named Kentsfield processor which will use a Quad core design although at this stage clock speeds and so on have not been disclosed.

We benchmark in a range of applications and games such as Doom 3, Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. to give you an idea of how Intel's next generation CPU will perform. Apparently, Intel is set to delay the release of the processors into the channel until September, so now you may have to wait a little longer for what we really feel is going to be a CPU design for Intel which will really change the industry and what gamers consider as the CPU of choice. AMD Athlon processors have clearly been the CPU of choice for gamers for many years now, but will this change soon?

Let's get straight into the benchmarks after have a quick look at the test system specifications and some photos of our benchmark system and then analyze all of the data.