Intel Core i7-4600M vs Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550

Core i7-4600M vs Core 2 Quad Q9550 specs and performance

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i7-4600M performs better than the Core 2 Quad Q9550. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core 2 Quad Q9550 in all gaming tests too.

With info from our database, we find that the Core 2 Quad Q9550 has significantly more cores with 4 cores whereas the Core i7-4600M has 2 cores. But they both have the same number of threads. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i7-4600M has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core 2 Quad Q9550. A Core i7-4600M CPU outputs less heat than a Core 2 Quad Q9550 CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i7-4600M has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.