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An Overview of the Core 2 Steppings

10:28 - Tuesday 21 August 2007 by Bert Töpelt
Source: Tom's hardware UK – Keywords: overclocking, intel
Categories: Hardware

Table of content:
3 – An Overview of the Core 2 Step...
  1. 1 – Four Cores at 3 GHz: Intel’s Core 2 Extreme QX6850
  2. 2 – The New Core 2 Models with FSB 1333
  3. 3 – An Overview of the Core 2 Steppings
  4. 4 – An Overclocking Powerhouse: The new G0-Stepping
  5. 5 – Lower Core Voltage
  6. 6 – Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Rock Solid at 3.66 GHz
  7. 7 – Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Rock Solid at 3.66 GHz (Cont’d)
  8. 8 – Core 2 Duo: Going Strong at 3.60 GHz
  9. 9 – Core 2 Duo: Going Strong at 3.60 GHz (Cont’d)
  10. 10 – Power Consumption
  11. 11 – FSB1066 vs. FSB1333
  12. 12 – Which Board will run an FSB 1333 CPU?
  13. 13 – Pricing: Cheaper than the FSB1066 CPUs
  14. 14 – New Hard- and Software for our Benchmark Suite
  15. 15 – Benchmarks and Settings
  16. 16 – Benchmarks and Settings (Continued)
  17. 17 – Benchmarks - Video CloneDVD, DivX
  18. 18 – Benchmarks - Video Xvid, Premiere
  19. 19 – Benchmarks - Video Studio 11, Mainconcept
  20. 20 – Benchmarks - Audio iTunes, Lame
  21. 21 – Benchmarks – Applications HD-Video, AVG Antivirus
  22. 22 – Benchmarks – Applications Photoshop, PDF
  23. 23 – Benchmarks - Applications Cinema 4D, 3D-Studio Max
  24. 24 – Benchmarks – Applications Fritz, WinRAR
  25. 25 – Benchmarks - 3D Games Quake 4, Prey
  26. 26 – Benchmarks - 3D Games Serious Sam 2, Unreal Tournament 2004
  27. 27 – Benchmarks - 3D Games Warhammer, Supreme Commander
  28. 28 – Benchmarks – Synthetic Sandra CPU
  29. 29 – Benchmarks - Synthetic Sandra Multimedia
  30. 30 – Benchmarks - Synthetic Sandra Memory
  31. 31 – Benchmarks - Synthetic 3D-Mark
  32. 32 – Benchmarks - Synthetic PC-Mark
  33. 33 – Conclusion: New Overclocking Potential with the G0-Stepping

An Overview of the Core 2 Steppings

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So far, Intel has implemented several steppings for its Core 2 processors. When Intel first introduced the Conroe core, it started out using the steppings B0 through B2, with B2 being the most common. B0 and B1 versions, on the other hand, were usually only used in early samples or sent out as test samples to hardware developers (such as motherboard companies).

Among overclockers, the B2 stepping is the clear favorite. In the majority of cases, it offers the greatest overclocking potential while allowing stable operation.

foto die

Intel’s Core 2 Duo line of CPUs featuring the B2 stepping is nowhere near as energy efficient as AMD’s Athlon 64 processors. As our measurements showed, a Core 2 Duo E6300 (B2) draws about 12 Watts when idling, with Speedstep enabled. AMD’s smallest dual core processor on the other hand, the Athlon 63 X2 3800+ EE only requires 6.14 Watts when running at its slowest, thanks to its Cool & Quiet functionality.

To lower the Core 2’s power requirements with the processor idle, the core received an update called the L2 stepping. The tweak worked, as this processor only draws 8.62 Watts when idle. However, the processor is unpopular with buyers wishing to overclock their processors, since the stable frequencies that can be attained with this version are much lower than with the B2 versions.

b2 stepping

We were able to push our Core 2 Duo (B2 stepping) as high as 3 GHz without having to raise the core voltage. By comparison, our L2 version of the same processor only barely reached 2.8 GHz.

The quad-core processors we that we overclocked basically consisted of two full Core 2 Duo models with the B3 stepping, each with 4MB of L2 cache. Interestingly, there have been no dual-core processors with this stepping so far. Yields for a quad-core processor are never 100%. It follows, then, that a certain number of CPU cores from each production batch are likely to have L2 caches that are only partly functional.

Since Intel only sells quad-core processors with 8MB of L2 cache, this begs the question, what does the company do with the remainder of these cores? It’s entirely possible that there is no technological difference between the B2 and the B3 steppings, and that Intel chose this designation simply because there are two dies in one package. This would also explain why the overclocking results are identical to those of the dual-core models with the B2 stepping.


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Talkback
spuddyt 22/08/2007 03:46
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spuddyt

I hope Intel doesn't start 2 get a monopoly...

Cabelo 28/08/2007 04:19
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Cabelo

You're probably right to worry, but I read that AMD has taken a big upswing this month... hopefully it'll sort itself out.

I even fear the game monopoly :(

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