Wolfdale Processor Family: Core 2 Duo E8500, E8400 and E8200

The Wolfdale processor family announced these days that is based on 45nm cores will initially include three Core 2 Duo processor models: E8500, E8400 and E8200 with 3.16GHz, 3.0GHz and 2.66GHz respective clock speeds. Moreover, there will also be a CPU with E8190 model name, similar to Core 2 Duo E8200, but without the virtualization technology support. Later on the fifth CPU will join this lineup: Core 2 Duo E8300 with 2.83GHz clock speed. However, it should happen in Q2 2008 at the earliest. The table below offers a better look at the mass Core 2 Duo processors with 45nm cores:

The pricing info on the new Intel processors is a very important addition to the technical briefs given in this table:

• Core 2 Duo E8500 - $266;
• Core 2 Duo E8400 - $183;
• Core 2 Duo E8200 - $163;
• Core 2 Duo E8190 - $163.

It is very nice to see that Intel continues to pursue the price policy many of the computer users approve of: when the new processors are being offered at the same price point as the older ones, so that the old ones get ousted from the market in an evolutionary way. This time, Core 2 Duo E8500 came to replace Core 2 Duo E6850, Core 2 Duo E8400 steps in for the Core 2 Duo E6750, and Core 2 Duo E6550 gives way to Core 2 Duo E8200. In other words, those of you who will be shopping for new dual-core processors within the next few days will already be able to buy more advanced and higher-speed solutions at the same old price.

Let’s take a closer look at the CPUs codenamed Wolfdale:

Wolfdale (left), Conroe (right)

As you can see from the picture, the CPus on 45nm core look almost the same as their 65nm predecessors.

Wolfdale (left), Conroe (right)

Nevertheless, we can see different external electronic components at the bottom of the CPUs from two different generations.

CPU-Z diagnostic utility is already very well familiar with the new processors. It has no problems recognizing Core 2 Duo E8500, E8400 and E8200 CPUs.

Note that our test samples are based not on the first core revision – C0, and it will be the one to actually be used in mass production units.

We would only like to add one thing to the info you can get from the screenshot above. Wolfdale processors can support fractional multipliers, which allowed Intel to make the list of supported clock frequencies even richer. This is exactly what we see in case of Core 2 Duo E8500: it supports 9.5x clock frequency multiplier. Note that the mainboard BIOS also needs to support fractional multipliers for a CPU like that to function properly. However, all leading mainboard maker should release corresponding BIOS updates very soon, so there is no need to worry.