Conroe vs. AM2: Memory & Performance

Omega65

Anandtech takes a look at the memory performance of Conroe vs Athlon 64 using DDR2 memory.

With so much new and exciting information about Conroe's performance, it is easy to assume that since Core 2 Duo uses DDR2, just like NetBurst, then memory performance must therefore be very similar to the DDR2-based Intel NetBurst architecture.

Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. While the chipsets still include 975X and the new P965 and the CPU is still Socket T, the shorter pipes, 4 MB unified cache, intelligent look-ahead, and more work per clock cycle all contribute to Conroe exhibiting very different DDR2 memory behavior. It would be easy to say that Core 2 Duo is more like the AMD AM2, launched May 23rd, which now supports DDR2 memory as well. That would be a stretch, however, since AM2 uses an efficient on-processor memory controller, and the launch review found Core 2 Duo faster at the same clock speed than the current AM2. This is another way of saying Conroe is capable of doing more work per cycle - something we had been saying for several years about Athlon64 compared to NetBurst.

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While DDR2 Memory does not exhibit the same bandwidth or performance on the AM2 and Conroe platforms, they do perform at the same timings and voltages when going from one platform to another. This was clearly demonstrated in benchmarking tests performed on AM2 and Conroe platforms. This means readers can examine test results performed on a Core 2 Duo test bed with XYZ memory, and reasonably expect that XYZ memory to perform at the same speeds and the same memory timings and voltages on an AM2 platform - provided those settings are available.

Source: Anandtech

Leonardo

Fascinating. Thanks for the link.