Pentium E6300

The new Pentium E6300 is based on a 45 nm Wolfdale 2M core, which is derivate of the Wolfdale core with 6 MB of L2 cache. Cache reduction to 2 MB of total L2 cache resulted in a processor that has a die size of only 82 mm². While carrying the same family name, Pentium E6300 models have little in common with the older Core 2 Duo E6x00 series which were based on Conroe 65 nm cores.

Pentiums E6x00 are here to replace the soon to be EOL-ed E5x00 family, and except for higher clocks E6x00 models don't bring anything new to the market. Both cores on E6300 run at 2.80 GHz while the FSB speed has been increased from 800 MHz to 1066 MHz. This translates to DDR2 or DDR3 1066 MHz support, higher bandwidth and small performance increases per clock over E5x00 the Pentium family. With Pentium E6x00, Intel's Virtualization Technology is finally available on lower end models, and other than that there are no more differences between Pentium E6x00 and E5x00 processors.
Pentium's E6300 operational voltage ranges from 0.85 V to 1.3625 V, and on our tested sample it was set to 1.275 V. Maximum power consumption or TDP is rated at 65 W.

Pentium E6300 is based on Intel's "older" architecture and is LGA775 compatible, its memory controller is located in the motherboard Northbridge chipset which is connected to the processor via FSB bus communication, so you can expect lower memory performance and bigger latencies with these models. FSB bus support also determines maximum supported memory speed, and with 1066 MHz FSB bus on Pentium E6300 it supports DDR2 or DDR3 memory up to 1066 MHz. Memory type is dependant on the motherboard chipset and choice of memory type. Comparing it to newer generations of AMD or Intel processors, E6300 is really simple in its inner workings making it very overclocking friendly .



Although Pentium E6300 is simpler in design compared to its main competitor, Athlon II, it is still faster clock per clock, so a stock frequency of 2.80 GHz makes it noticeably faster than dual core Athlon II X2 and almost on par with Phenom II X2 processors. But the problem is when you compare the prices of Pentium E6300 with AMD's lineup. Intel is confident that E6300's two faster cores are more than enough to combat AMD's triple core Athlon II X3 425, hence the similar price tag. Pentium E6300 is also much more expensive than Athlon II X2 240, so it will have to offer some impressive numbers to justify its heavier price tag.

Specifications

In the table below you can review detailed specifications of Pentium E6300 and other models that will show up later in the performance graphs. AMD's competition in this market segment comes in form of the Athlon II X3 425 which has one extra core compared to Pentium E6300.