T2500 vs T7600

[taichi]

Is there much of a difference between a T60P with a Core Duo T2500 and a T60P Core 2 Duo T7600? Also the latter's gpu is a 5250 vs a 5200.

I know the Core 2 Duo can do 64 bit.

[ThinkRob]

Is there much of a difference between a T60P with a Core Duo T2500 and a T60P Core 2 Duo T7600? Also the latter's gpu is a 5250 vs a 5200.

Yes. The Core 2 Duo is a massive improvement over the Core Duo in terms of performance and power consumption.

I know the Core 2 Duo can do 64 bit.

It can, but it's not terribly useful for T60 since the T60 generation is limited to < 4GB. (It's a hardware limitation so there's nothing to be done about it.)

[ajkula66]

There is quite a big difference between T2500 and T7600. One of the most important aspects in my book is that T7600 actually runs cooler, especially under load.

The difference in V5250 vs V5200 is not as huge, although benchmarking tests have revealed it...once again, the newer is cooler.

My experiences only.

[Bminus]

I went from a T7700 to a T2500 and haven't noticed a huge difference so far in normal usage, but it is noticeable under load and multi-tasking.

Really, it comes down to how you use your computer everyday. The T2500 offers better price/performance in my opinion, but if you need the extra power, go ahead for the C2D.

The extra battery life I get isn't shabby either.

I know the Core 2 Duo can do 64 bit.

I can only speak for myself, but I've had better experience with x86 with 2gbs over x64 with 4

[ajkula66]

I went from a T7700 to a T2500 and haven't noticed a huge difference so far in normal usage, but it is noticeable under load and multi-tasking.

How did you do that?

T7700 is from T61 generation.

T2500 is from T60 range.

They are not interchangeable under any circumstances.

[TuuS]

I would take a 64bit processor anyday over a 32bit. I agree much of the advantage of 64bit is it's ability to use more memory, but there are 32bit windows versions that can use far more then 4gb of memory, some close to 200gb of ram in fact, even XP based versions that support 64gb of ram on a 32bit OS, its just that the typical end-user versions that come with most personal computers don't have Physical Address Extension enabled to use more then the 4GB of traditional address space on the x86 chip, but there are also other memory restrictions that apply. In this case if you have two T60 class system that are identical, one running 32bit windows and one running 64bit, both with 3gb of ram, an app running on the 64bit machine could use all 3gb of ram, where the same app on the 32bit system would only have access to 2gb. There is a microsoft tool that lets you tweak this setting, I think it's called 4GBM (4gigabit mode), where you can set how much of the 4gb is accessible by any one app... this can make a huge difference if you have an app that barely runs on 2gb, but runs well on slightly more, but with 64bit OS this doesn't apply.

I'm in full agreement that the 3gb hardware limitation of ram defeats much of the 64bit advantages, but the point I'm making is there are other limits besides the max ram that are improved with x86-64 architecture. It's just far superior in many ways.

ps. it would be more proper to compare the T2500 to the T7200, as they both have the same clock speed.

[ThinkRob]

I'm in full agreement that the 3gb hardware limitation of ram defeats much of the 64bit advantages, but the point I'm making is there are other limits besides the max ram that are improved with x86-64 architecture. It's just far superior in many ways.

It depends heavily on your workload.

amd64 binaries are going to have the benefit of way more registers... but they're also going to have the overhead that comes with 64-bit addressing. So as to whether you'll see a speed-up or a slow-down for your workload depends on exactly what you're doing.

My general recommendation is that if you have < 4GB of RAM, run 32-bit, if only for the memory savings. But hey, if you benchmark your code and figure out that amd64 > x86, by all means use it!

[Bminus]

How did you do that?

T7700 is from T61 generation.

T2500 is from T60 range.

They are not interchangeable under any circumstances.

I should've been more clear; I didn't interchange them. I'm comparing fresh installations of windows 7 on a t61 C2D and a t60 CD.

[ajkula66]

If that's the case, you were not really comparing CPUs but two different platforms/machines...a lot more comes into that equation than just the CPUs...