Conclusion

Despite Intel's platitudes that the latest D0 core stepping consists of nothing basic circuitry housekeeping to clean up some bugs, it is certainly more than that. For one thing, Core i7 processors based on the D0 stepping have a lower operating voltage. This difference alone has far-reaching consequences, at least for the hardware enthusiast community.

A lower operating voltage directly translates into a correspondingly lower power consumption and thermal output for the processor. Environmental reasons aside, the lower voltage and thermal output gives processors based on the D0 stepping a lot more room for overclocking than those based on the C0 stepping. This is naturally of greatest interest to the overclocking community, but what about the rest of us?

If the already substantial carrot of bug fixes, reduced power consumption and thermal output isn't enough for you, then you will be glad to know that the D0 core is also significantly faster than the older C0 core. Our tests have shown that the D0 core is generally about 2-3% faster than the C0 core. That's a free upgrade of about half a speed bin in performance.

The speed of the processor's QuickPath Interface (QPI) seems to affect the amount of performance boost you can expect from the D0 stepping. In the case of the x264 HD Benchmark 3.0, a higher QPI speed was essential in maximing the performance boost from whatever internal changes Intel made to the D0 core.

Even 3D games will benefit from the D0 core's improved performance. Our tests using Left 4 Dead showed that frame rates can improve as much as 5.5% although notoriously graphics-intensive games like Crysis Warhead will register minimal to no improvements in frame rate. This is expected as most games are graphics-intensive in nature. If you check our Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide, you will see that even a low-end Intel Core 2 Duo processor is powerful enough to run most 3D games.

With all of that in mind, we highly recommend you opt for a D0-based Core i7 processor, if you are in the market for an Intel Core i7 processor. There is little point in opting for a C0-based processor when you can get a D0-based processor that runs better, faster, cooler and cheaper. We have even prepared a small table here for you to separate D0-based processors from C0-based processors.

For the lowest price on the D0-based Core i7 processors, head over to Pricegrabber!

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