AMD E2-1800 vs Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 vs Intel Core 2 Duo SU9600

AMD E2-1800

The AMD E2-1800 (codename Zacate) is a dual core processor for small notebooks and netbooks. It offers a relatively powerful integrated graphics card and a single channel DDR3-1333 memory controller. Compared to the older E-450, the E2-1800 offers only slightly higher CPU (50 MHz)  and GPU (20-80 MHz) clock rates.

Inside the E2-1800 two Bobcat cores can access 512KB level 2 cache per core. In comparison to the Atom processors, the Bobcat architecture uses an "out-of-order" execution and is therefore faster at the same clock speed. However, the performance is far worse than similar clocked Penryn (Celeron) or Danube (Athlon II) cores. On average the cpu performance of the E-450 lies a bit beyond a Celeron SU2300 at 1.2 GHz or a Athlon II Neo K325 at 1.3 GHz. 

The integrated Radeon HD 7340 graphics card offers 80 shaders and an UVD3 video processor. Compared to the slow GMA 3150 in the Atom processors, the HD7340 offers a lot more performance and is about as fast as the Nvidia ION graphics solution. The difference to the older 6320 in the E-450 is a 20-80MHz higher clock rate.

The power consumption is rated with a TDP of 18 Watt by AMD. According to first reviews of Brazos prototypes the power consumption was between 11 to 29 Watt. This would be on a level of a (much more powerful) 11" MacBook Air using Windows 7.

Intel Core 2 Duo T9550

The Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 was the middle class dual core CPU for laptops at the time of introduction. It is similar to the Core 2 Duo P9600 except for the higher TDP of 35 versus 25 Watt.

Due to the relatively high clock speed and 6MB Level 2 cache, the T9550 offers enough performance for demanding games (in 2009) and applications. 

The T9550 uses a Penryn (Montevina Update) core that features 2 integer units, 1 floating point unit, 1 load unit, and 1 store unit in a 14-stages long pipeline. Due to the Wide Dynamic Execution Technology, the core is able to simultaneously execute up to four instructions.

The integrated Enhanced Speedstep is able to downclock the core dynamically to save power (in idle mode).

Intel Core 2 Duo SU9600

The Intel Core 2 Duo SU9600 is a power efficient subnotebook processor based on the Penryn 3M core. It features all functions of the Penryn core, like Virtualization (VT-x), Trusted Execution and Speedstep. Due to the low core clock, the performance is a bit limited, but should be sufficient for everyday tasks.