Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new?

A common problem of computer users is the need to upgrade the CPU. Some people believe that high-end CPUs are always better than the entry level CPUs, but there are many who have the idea that a new-generation CPU will be better than the old CPU. To test this, the article compares the Core 2 Quad processor - this is a high-end CPU nine years ago and tested with three other modern basic processors: Core i3-4150, Pentium N3700 and Athlon 5150 to test which CPU is faster.

1. 4 simple ways to check the configuration and hardware information of computers and laptops

It is important to note that this test is only intended to satisfy curiosity and not to compare CPUs tested because it depends on many other factors such as price, power consumption range. ability, etc.

Core 2 Quad Q8300 was released in 2008 and uses LGA775 socket, it became a popular high-end CPU in 2009, with four cores and (at the time) using 45 nm technology.

Note, the Core 2 Quad Q8300 is not the most advanced CPU at the time and is even considered the average processor, depending on usage criteria. At that time, Intel offered three desktop CPUs: Celeron (low), Core 2 Duo (average) and Core 2 Quad (high-end).

Core i3-4150 is a basic, medium-level CPU, belonging to the mail generation of Core i series, with two cores. The Pentium N3700 and Athlon 5150 are CPUs that consume less power, lower prices and both have four cores.

An important detail is that, on the Core 2 Quad Q8300, both memory and integrated video are placed in the chipset, while on the other three CPUs, these components are integrated in the CPU. Besides, Pentium N3700 and Athlon 5150 are "SoC" processors (systems on one chip), chipset functions are also integrated into the CPU.

The figure below shows the motherboard used for Core 2 Quad Q8300, a Gigabyte G41MT-ES2L, based on the Intel G41 chipset, supporting DDR3 memory modules.

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 1

CPUs are evaluated

The following table compares the main features of the above CPUs.

CPU

S core

HT

IGP

Clock in

Turbo lock

Core name

Technology used

TDP

Socket

Core 2 Quad Q8300

4

Is not

Is not

2.5 GHz

Is not

Yorkfield

45 nm

95 W

LGA775

75Core i3-4150

2

Have

Have

3.5 GHz

Is not

Haswell

22 nm

54 W

LGA1150

Pentium N3700

4

Is not

Have

1.6 GHz

2.4 GHz

Braswell

14 nm

6 W

FCBGA1170

Athlon 5150

4

Is not

Have

1.6 GHz

Is not

Kabini

28 nm

25 W

AM1

Below is the memory configuration for each CPU.

CPU

L2 Cache

L3 Cache

Memory support

Memory channel

Core 2 Quad Q8300

4 MiB

Is not

Up to DDR3-1066 *

Two*

Core i3-4150

2 x 256 kiB

3 MiB

Up to DDR3-1600

Two

Pentium N3700

2 MiB

Is not

Up to DDR3L-1600

Two

Athlon 5150

2 MiB

Is not

Up to DDR3-1600

One

On LGA 775 CPUs, memory is controlled in the chipset, not the processor. Therefore, these features refer to the Intel G41 chipset.

How to check

Performance tests using the configurations are listed below. In the test, replace each CPU and motherboard to match the different CPUs.

Hardware configuration

1. Motherboard (Core 2 Quad Q8300): Gigabyte G41MT-ES2L
2. Motherboard (Core i3-4150): ASRock Z97 Extreme4
3. Motherboard (Pentium N3700): ASRock N3700-ITX
4. Motherboard (Athlon 5150): ASUS AM1M-A
5. CPU cooler: Intel / AMD stock
6. Memory (Core 2 Quad Q8300, Core i3-4150 and Athlon 5150): 8 GiB DDR3-2133, two G.Skill Ripjaws F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH 4 GiB memory modules are configured at 1,066 MHz, 1,333 MHz or 1,600 MHz depending on the CPU
7. Memory (Pentium N3700): 8 Gib DDR3L, Kingston Kingston VRR16IS11 / 4 4GiB modules, configured at 1600 MHz
8. Drive boots: Kingston HyperX Savage 480GB
9. Video card: integrated
10. Video Monitor: Philips 236VL
11. Power supply: Corsair CX500M

Operating system configuration

1. Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
2. NTFS
3. Video resolution: 1920 x 1080, 60Hz

Driver version

1. AMD driver version: 15.7
2. Intel Inf: 10.0 chipset driver version

Software used

1. PCMark 8 2.4.304
2. Cinebench R15
3. DivX 10.2.3
4. Media Espresso 6.7
5. DVD Shrink 3.2
6. 3DMark 1.5.915
7. Adobe Photoshop CC + Retouch Artist Speed ​​Test 1.0

Range of errors

The error range is 4%, which means that products with a performance below 4% are considered to have similar performance.

The test software

PCMark 8

PCMark 8 is a computer performance measurement software. Test with two versions: Home, including web browser checking, editing, lightweight games, photo editing and video chat; and Work, running tasks such as document editing, web browsing, spreadsheets, editing and video chat.

1. Check computer performance with PCMark

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 2

On the Home test, the Core 2 Quad Q8300 was 44% slower than the Core i3-4150, 4.7% faster than the Pentium N3700, and 8% faster than Athlon 5150.

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 3

On the Work test, the Core 2 Quad Q8300 was 29% slower than the Core i3-4150, 36% faster than the Pentium N3700 and 45% faster than Athlon 5150.

DivX

DivX is a tool in DivX package, to measure ecoding performance using this codec. The DivX codec has the ability to identify and use all available cores and SSE4 scripts.

The experiment performed the conversion of the .mov Full HD video file, 6 minutes long into an .avi file, using "HD 1080p" output. The following results are given in seconds, the lower the better the better.

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 4

From the table above, we see that the Core 2 Quad Q8300 is 41% slower than the Core i3-4150, 28% faster than the Pentium N3700 and 41% faster than Athlon 5150.

Media Espresso 6.7

Media Espresso is a video conversion program that uses the video processor of the video tool to speed up the conversion process. Convert 1 file GiB, 1920x1080i, 23,738 kbps, .mov to file smaller than 320 × 200, H.264, .MP4 to view on smartphones. The results below are calculated in seconds, so the lower the better.

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 5

Here the Core 2 Quad Q8300 is 43% slower than the Core i3-4150, 29% faster than the Pentium N3700 and 49% faster than Athlon 5150.

DVDShrink

DVDShrink is an old program but still very useful to "shrink" video DVDs larger than 4.7 GiB data to match normal DVDs. The results below are calculated in seconds and as above, the lower the better.

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 6

In this test, the Core 2 Quad Q8300 was 23% slower than the Core i3-4150, 65% faster than the Pentium N3700 and 84% faster than the Athlon 5150.

Cinebench R15

Cinebench R15 is based on Cinema 4D software, it is very useful to measure the performance achieved when rendering heavy 3D graphics. When running the CPU performance test, output a complex image using all processor cores (real and virtual) to speed up the process. Here are the results:

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 7

In terms of CPU performance, the Core 2 Quad Q8300 is 26% slower than the Core i3-4150, 81% faster than the Pentium N3700 and 96% faster than Athlon 5150.

Photoshop CC

The best way to measure CPU performance is by using real programs. The problem here is finding a method that provides accurate results. For Photoshop CS, use a script called "Retouch Artist Speed ​​Test", apply a series of filters to a standard image and allow Photoshop to run them. The results are in seconds.

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 8

In this test, the Core 2 Quad Q8300 was 22% slower than the Core i3-4150, 39% faster than the Pentium N3700 and 38% faster than Athlon 5150.

3DMark

3DMark is a program that includes many computer performance tests. The only tool running on graphics integrated with the G41 chipset, used by Core 2 Quad Q8300, is Ice Storm.

1. Check computer performance with 3Dmark

Which CPU is faster: old but 'quality' or 'popular' but new? Picture 9

As a result, the video tool used with the Core 2 Quad Q8300 is 76% slower than the Core i3-4150, 61% slower than the Pentium N3700 and 55% slower than Athlon 5150.

Conclude

Micro CPU architecture has changed a lot since 2008 up to now. If you only think of Intel models, the memory controller and GPU are combined with the CPU, the core microarchitecture and the production process have decreased from 45 nm to 14 nm, a basic or medium CPU like The Core i3-4150 can be significantly faster than the high-end Core 2 Quad Q8300, even with only two physical cores compared to the Core 2 Quad Q8300's 4 cores.

However, low-end processors such as Pentium N3700 and Athlon 5150, and even four cores do not achieve the processing performance of the Core 2 Quad Q8300. Of course, they are based on low-energy microarchitecture, not focusing on performance. And, to be honest, for most cases, it is better to use a 6 W CPU only like the Pentium N3700 than using the Core 2 Quad Q8300, which is 4% to 81% more efficient. , the power usage is more than 1500%.

A problem is integrated video. On the Core 2 Quad Q8300 (as well as on all LGA775 CPUs), the integrated video is controlled by the chipset, not by the CPU. We can see that today's integrated video, even on the most basic CPUs, is faster than the solution provided by the G41 chipset with Q8300. Therefore, it can be concluded that now is less dependent on video cards than in the past.

Therefore, the original question cannot have only one answer: in some cases, the old CPU may be more powerful than a modern processor. However, depending on the CPU age even if it is a high-end model at the time, a normal line or even a low-end modern processor can perform better.