Today we take a look at Intel’s Dual Core solution that comes in the name of Pentium-D. With us, we have the 820 which is the lowest-end dual core CPU from Intel clocking at 2.8GHz and has its Hyper-Threading and CPU Throttling features disabled. While we can understand the removal of CPU throttling as the 2.8GHz CPU doesn’t really get extremely hot, we’re not sure why Intel neutered Hyper-Threading from the entire Pentium D lineup except for the EE version. We certainly prefer the older “higher FSB and more cache” distinctions between the EE and non-EE CPUs. Regardless, we think that $250 is an excellent price for a dual core CPU so lets find out how the 820 compares to other CPUs of roughly similar prices.

FYI, we’ve updated our testbed and are now using the nVidia 7800GTX graphics card for all tests. Except for 3D Marks and Aquamark, all other tests are performed at 1280x1024 resolution. While we accept that the graphics card starts taking over the performance in 3D related benchmarks, we feel that 1280x1024 is the most common resolution amongst our readers. Since you will most likely be playing games or using your systems at 1280x1024, it doesn’t make sense for us to benchmark them at lower resolutions.

For comparison against the Pentium D-820 ($250), we’ve chose a non dual core Prescott based 2.8GHz Pentium 4 ($175) as well as a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 ($266). On the AMD side, we’ve selected the Athlon64 3200+ ($193) and Athlon64 3500+ ($267) CPUs.