Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 vs P8600 vs T9400 Notebook Processors comparision

Intel core 2 duo t9400 vs p8400 vs p8600

Major laptop brands like HP or Dell offer any of these processor models like Intel Core 2 Duo 9400 , P8400 and P8600.There is always a confusion in the high end segment

The main difference between T9*** series and P8*** series is the power consumption and L2 Cache. Whereas the P9400 uses 35 watts and the P8400 and P8600 uses 25 Watts. The end result  being  your laptop with P8400 and P8600 might be comparitively cooler than the T9400 powered one. Even this is not very significant. The same goes with battery consumption T9400 will drain little more out of your battery than the other too. So its a very slight difference ultimately decided by cost.

The cost difference is almost 150$  between P8600 and T9400 and the performance improvement very slight for the price. Though the L2 cache is significant. The performance in terms of CPU Benchmark results is very close to call.

For the full list of common Mobile / Notebook /Laptop  CPU Benchmarks go here

Intel Core 2 Duo T9400  –  1595

Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 – 1558

Intel Core 2 Duo T8600 –  1354 (This value might not be accurate)

Intel Core Duo T8700 (This doesnt support 64 bit processing !!!!)

Intel Core 2 Duo T8400 – 1453

Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 -1434

Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 – 1375

Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 – 1244

If the price difference is significant as in case of T9400 and P8400 , it is better to go for P8400 as at this higher speeds above 2GHz you may not see much difference in processing speeds , even in Games. Also the L2 Cache above 2MB gives very less of advantage. But still if you are interested in pure brute force go for T9800 or T9600.

What is Intel stable image platform program ?

Intel’s stable image program is really not relevant to anyone except Business users who buy computers in bulk. The stable image program guarantees that OS image to be installed on the ‘Intel Stable image Program’ processors can be blindly installed for a period of 15 months from the launch without worrying about any driver updates.

Basically the processors and motherboards under this program are considered stable after a wide range of testing. And most of thes processors also have 7 year manufacturing availability. This helps big businesses in terms of maintaining a single image of Windows/any other OS. Also saves them time about updates and more.

So if you are a buyer not worried about maintaining ultiple systems then you should skip this column in CPU specifications.

In current laptop CPUs the following are considered to follow Stable Image Platform (SIPP) are Intel Core 2  Duo 9400,8400 and P8600.

Intel core 2 duo T5800 vs T6400 Notebook processors comparision

Notebook Intel Core 2 Duo processors comparision T6400 vs T5800
Notebook Intel Core 2 Duo processors comparision T6400 vs T5800

Specs:

T6400 – 2 GHz 2MB L2 Cache , 800MHz FSB, 45nm (lower better), 35watts, Penryn Family of processors.

T5800 – 2 GHz 2MB L2 Cache , 800MHz FSB, 65nm(lower better) , 35watts, Merom Family of processors

And both the models support native 64 bit computing

Review:

T5800 was the popular model of Intel’s midrange laptops but it has got a upgrade with a new T6400 processor after the 2008 Christmas season. Almost all the major laptop brands have started sidelining their T5800 models in favour of T6400 with almost the same spec.

Many have asked me what is the difference between T5800 and T6400. Typically should be no major difference between the two, but if you have the choice and the price difference is less than or around 50$ always go for the newer model(T6400), the newer models have better architecture better support and your laptop might get a better resale value if you decide to sell.

The only difference in terms of specs is T6400 follows 45nm technology and belongs to the penryn family, whereas the T5800 follows the 65nm architecture.

CPU Benchmark (cpubenchmark.com) values of a very small sample of T6400 show a markedly high improvement over the T5800, im not sure if this is because of the overall higher configuration associated with current T6400 based laptops or maybe inaccurate performance measurement at cpu benchmark. I haven’t included the benchmark values as it could be misleading.