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Barefeats recently released another gaming comparison test, this one pitting the 17" MacBook Pro Core Duo against the 17" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo. The Core 2 Duo bested its sibling with speed improvements ranging from 5% to as much as 48%.

The MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo's advantage over the Core Duo version ranged from 5% to 48% depending on what 3D Game and what resolution. The faster core clock speed should provide an 8% advantage, so everything beyond that is "gravy." Of the 3D Games we tested, the one that benefited the most from the Core 2 Duo was Doom 3 -- especially at the native 1680x1050 setting.

Neither CPU clock speed nor larger L2 cache explains the gain. However, 3D games tend to become GPU bound as the resolution goes up. Doom 3's advantage on the MBP C2D increased from 10% to 48% when we increased the resolution from 1280x800 to 1680x1050. If, indeed, Doom 3 was becoming GPU bound, the next paragraph explains the C2D's advantage.

The Mobility Radeon X1600 in both units "idles" at 311MHz core clock speed and 297MHz memory clock speed when non-OpenGL apps are running or nothing is active. But when you launch a 3D Game like Doom 3 and run a live game sequence or timed demo, the core clock and memory clock speeds ramp up in both models of 17" MacBook Pro. We used Graphiccelerator to measure the core frequencies before, during, and after running Doom 3.

Barefeats: Core Duo vs Core 2 Duo

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