Desktop processors comparison – Intel Quad Core Q8200 vs Q9400 vs Q9550

Name

Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q8200 (4M Cache, 2.33 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB)

Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9550 (12M Cache, 2.83 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB)

Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9400 (6M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB)

Status

Launched

Launched

Launched

Launch Date

Q3’08

Q1’08

Q3’08

Embedded

N

N

Y

Supplemental SKU

N

N

N

Lithography

45 nm

45 nm

45 nm

Max TDP

95 W

95 W

95 W

1ku Bulk Budgetary Price

$163.00

$266.00

$213.00

Processor Number

Q8200

Q9550

Q9400

# of Cores

4

4

4

Clock Speed

2.33 GHz

2.83 GHz

2.66 GHz

Cache

4 MB L2 Cache

12 MB L2 Cache

6 MB L2 Cache

Bus Type

FSB

FSB

FSB

System Bus

1333 MHz

1333 MHz

1333 MHz

Instruction Set

64-bit

64-bit

64-bit

Core Voltage

0.8625V-1.237V

0.850v – 1.3625v

Intel® Demand Based Switching

N

N

N

Intel® Dynamic Speed Technology

N

N

N

Intel® 64

Y

Y

Y

Execute Disable Bit

Y

Y

Y

Halt State

Y

N

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology

N

N

N

Enhanced Intel® Speedstep Technology

Y

Y

Y

Intel® Trusted Execution Technology

N

Y

Y

Intel® VT-x

N

Y

Y

Package Specifications

Tcase

71.4°C

71.4°C

71.4°C

Package Size

37.5mm x 37.5mm

37.5mm x 37.5mm

37.5mm x 37.5mm

Die Size

164 mm2

214 mm2

164 mm2

# of Transistors

456 million

820 million

456 million

FSB Parity

N

Y

N

Sockets Supported

LGA775

LGA775

LGA775

Halogen Free Options Available

Y

Y

Y

The three processors Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q8200, Q9400 and Q9550, are the three options most Desktop buyers would be looking to choose between (Sorry for the AMD users, we will come back to AMD comparison soon) if they are looking for Quad Cores. All these processors have four cores and are in the entry to mid level of the Quad Core segment (All in premium end of overall processors). Price wise all of them fall in medium to premium segment costing between $150-$260 on their own ( Rs 9000.00 to Rs 15000.00 INR )
The highlights of these three processors are they all follow 45nm architecture, 95W power consumption and all are supported in LGA775 socket. So you can choose your motherboard and decide between these three procesors. All these processors use 1333 MHZ System Bus.
The main difference is the processor speed at 2.33GHZ, 2.66GHz and 2.83 GHz respectively which isn’t a big difference for the cost. Other significant difference in terms of technical details is the Cache which is 4MB L2, 6MB L2 and 12 MB L2 for processors Intel® Core 2 Quad Processor Q8200, Q9400 and Q9550 respectively. But the performance improvement of the increased cache can be hardly felt as most hardware experts say beyond 2MB L2 cache the difference in performance is minimal.
When we check the performance of the processor as per CPU benchmark results the results are very much progressive.

See the price vs performance ratio of the Quad Core desktop processors here.

CPU benchmark for Intel and AMD Laptop / Notebook processors

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html. Where the higher value means better the processor.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processors + AMD X2 Processors comparision in CPU Benchmark- CPU benchmark Values

Higher the value better the processor.

Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 – 1724

Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 – Not available

Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 – 1594

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

Intel Dual Core T4200 – 1194

Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 – 1077

Intel Dual Core T3200 – 1055

AMD Turion X2 Dual Core Mobile RM-72 – 903

AMD Turion X2 64 Mobile TL-64 – 788

AMD Turion X2 Dual Core Mobile RM-70 – 788

AMD Turion X2 64 Mobile TL-60 – 745

AMD Turion X2 64 Mobile TL-58- 730

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.