What kind of performance increase does an extra 2MB cache offer?

[ss samy]

So i hear the E6420 has 2Mb more cache than the E6400. So what kind of performance increase does it offer? What applications really utilize the cache so that you would be better off with 4MB?

 

[Cogman]

it makes a difference but not a huge difference. As far as I remember, multimedia applications are the ones that benifit the most from more cache (DVD encoders, really compressors in general.)

Games do not receive to big of a boost from more cache. It makes a difference, but not a huge one. Still, I would go for the 6420 over the 6400 as the price should come out to be the same soon. (are they still making 6400 anyone?)

 

[BladeVenom]

It can be anywhere between 0% to 10%, but averages around 4% or 5%.

 

[Fallengod]

Try more like 1%. Its nothing you would notice, except in maybe like folding, or encoding.

With that said, you want the E6420 over the E6400. Not for the extra cache, for the fact they seem to overclock easier. If youre gonna get one, definitely get the E6420.

 

[Xvys]

I read it was about 2-3% overall. The larger cache had little effect on games, but for encoding video files it could be up to 10%. In SuperPi 1M test, the 4mb cache C2D's have a 10-15% advantage over 2mb. Although not probably worth upgrading to if you already own a e6300/6400...especially with Penryn and Nehalem, or whatever, coming up soon.

 

[Borealis7]

@OP: you are missing the point here. the E6x20 models come in at the same price as the E6x00 models post April 22. that means that you get the extra cache for FREE!

you were going to spend those ~200$ on an E6400, so now you can spend those exact same ~200$ and get more performance.

there was an article in XbitLabs about the new models with higher cache sizes, but it was moslty about the E4320 IIRC.

 

[magreen]

You can see comparisons in a lot of benchmarks here between a 2MB cache e4300 clocked to 3.38GHz vs. a 4MB cache X6800 at stock 2.93 GHz. Sometimes the e4300 wins, sometimes the X6800 at a lower clockspeed wins. That'll show the impact of the 4MB cache in various apps.

@Xvys: You can see from the link that the extra cache had a very large effect in games.

 

[yacoub]

You should look for reviews done when the core2duos first came out, because the E6600 had the 4MB cache and E6400 had 2MB and some review sites would downclock the E6600 to the same clockspeed as the E6400 to be able to best determine how much the extra cache really affected things on an apples-to-apples testing plane.

 

[integramodder]

NewEgg is pricing the E6420 3 dollars more.....

 

[coldpower27]

Here is a good review comparing the new models.

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=605&p=0