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Intel Q6600 Stands Strong Against Q8200/Q8300

@ 2009/02/16

In spite of its age, the Core 2 Quad Q6600 still has some life in it. Intel is having trouble replacing it with anything really convincing, so much so that it is still in the Intel range, unlike many 65nm CPUs. Obviously constraints are more commercial than technical here:« although the Q8200/Q8300s aren’t much better, they are significantly more profitable!

But does the consumer really gain as much as Intel? In terms of efficiency, whether in load or at rest, these top drawer processors do have the advantage. Performance is also at a good level: the impact of the reduction in L2 cache is less significant than we might have thought and the Penryn (Core 2 45nm) brings several improvements on the Conroe (Core 2 65nm), sometimes making all the difference.

Comment from Kougar @ 2009/02/17

Very true, but as they said it is still much less profitable for them. Probably is why the Q6600 will be EOL'd and last orders taken May 8th.

Amazing to think just two years ago the Q6600 was $851, not $180.

Comment from Rutar @ 2009/02/16

They forget the aspect that some of the Intel fabs are still on 65nm, so the Q6600 has been an excellent way to put that production to good use while more and more capacity is switched to 45nm.

I expect however, that overall demand is so low now that the 45nm fabs aren't running at full capacity, hence it might be better to phase it out quicker than planned.

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