System Specs & Memory Performance

Hardware
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz) LGA775
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz) LGA775
- Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 (1.80GHz) LGA775

 

- x2 1024MB Corsair XMS PC-8500 CAS5 Module(s)

 

- Gigabyte 965P-DS3P (Intel 965P)

 

- OCZ GameXStream (700 watt)

 

- Seagate 250GB 7200RPM (Serial ATAII)

 

- ASUS Radeon X1950XTX (512MB)

 

Software
- Microsoft Windows XP Pro (SP2)
- Intel System Drivers 7.2.2
- ATI Catalyst 6.12

 


At standard frequencies the E6300 produces 22% more memory bandwidth than the E4300 due to the higher front side bus. There is a 33% difference in front side bus frequency so this is the only contributing factor here. Once overclocked the E6300 still has the FSB advantage as it required a 500MHz FSB to achieve the 3.50GHz overclock whereas the E4300 using a higher clock multiplier reached a 386MHz FSB.

This also meant that the memory frequency had to be lower for the 386MHz FSB configuration due to the available ratios. Nevertheless, once both processors were overclocked to the max on our setup the E6300 produced just 7% more memory bandwidth. The original memory bandwidth of the E4300 increased by 63% in SiSoft2007 once overclocked. Similar results were found in all three tests.