Difference Between Pentium D and Pentium Dual Core

Pentium D vs Pentium Dual Core

The Pentium D was Intel ‘s first dual core processor as it strived to compete with AMD who already had a dual core processor out in the market. It had a lot of flaws and quickly superseded by the Pentium Dual core processor, which was released just a couple of years later. The difference between these two processors that dictate the other aspects is the architecture from which they were based from. The Pentum Ds were based on the P4 while the dual cores have adapted the core architecture that was later used by the Core and Core2 lines.

Generally, Pentium Ds are able to run at much higher clock speeds compared to the dual cores. Pentium Ds were able to reach speeds of up to 3.7Ghz while the dual cores stopped just over 3Ghz. Heat was holding the Pentium Ds back and even at lower clock speeds, it still produced a lot more heat compared to the dual cores. The Pentium Ds have a TDP of between 95-130W while the dual cores only had 65W TDP. As heat generated is correlated to how much power it consumes, we can correctly conclude that the Pentium D is also very power hungry, which is a very bad thing when you are looking at a laptop.

The design of the Pentium Ds was simply two P4 cores sitting side by side. They do not share anything and they basically work independently. With the dual cores, the L2 caches of the cores are shared. Along with the differences in architecture, the dual cores outperformed the Pentium Ds in all aspect while consuming lesser power and producing less heat. Overclockers also preferred the dual cores for the very same reason.

The better design of the dual cores proved to be the saving grace of Intel as AMD had them beat when it comes to the very weak and seemingly undercooked release of the Pentium Ds. For some time, AMD held the top spot in terms of retail sales due to the failure of the Pentium D.

Summary:

1. Dual cores are based on the core architecture while Pentium Ds are based on the P4

2. Dual cores run on a lower clock speed than the Pentium D

3. Dual cores produce less heat than the Pentium D

4. Dual cores consume less power than Pentium D

5. Dual cores have a shared L2 cache while Pentium Ds have a non-shared L2 cache

6. Dual cores outperform Pentium Ds