Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 vs Pentium D 820 showdown - Gaming Tests

Well, here is the final part. (Or is it?). Real world tests. aka gaming. From here, one can tell how good a processor really is, not just by how fast it performs in synthetic tests.

Here, I used Half Life 2 as a benchmark. As you can see, the stock E4600 almost reached 200fps, using a 8600GT as the graphics card. After overclocking, it managed 211.98fps, which is rather impressive. The Pentium D, on the other hand, managed 131.58fps at stock speed, while it managed 138fps, after overclocking. Just a mere 7fps gain.

Other than Half Life 2, I also used Call Of Duty : World At War as a benchmark. Due to the fact that the game is very graphic intensive, none of my 2 chips managed to get an average of 40fps for smooth gaming. The stock E4600 managed 20fps, while after overclocking it managed 22fps. The stock Pentium D, other the other hand (literally!), managed an average of 19fps. After overclocking however, it did not ran the game. This show that the 8600GT does not have enough power to play World at War at 1600x900. If you toned it down to 1024x768 or 800x600, you should be fine.What is a 3D test without 3DMark? Well, I have no idea. Here, I did 2 different resolutions. One at 1600x900, the other at 1024x768. As you can see from the results, the E4600 totally annihilates the Pentium D, even after the Pentium D was overclocked. This is another example of synthetic tests.
Lastly, I used Need For Speed:Carbon as a benchmark. You may ask why I used this particular game. My reason is simple. The latest NFS, which is Undercover, is rather buggy and the framerates keep dropping for no reason. Therefore, I used a game which has no problems. I wated to use ProStreet, but I could not find my disc. Anyway, from the benchmark, it is quite clear that the E4600 pawns the Pentium D again.

Well, what is my conclusion? Simple. Want a fast computer, and yet consumes less power? Get the Core2Duo range. You won't regret it. Make sure to look out for this logo the next time you go shopping.
Maybe, just maybe, I will update this post, with a comparison with an AMD X2 5000 Black Edition. Just maybe.