Intel Core i7-860 vs Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400

Core i7-860 vs Core 2 Quad Q9400 comparison

In our benchmarks, the Core i7-860 beats the Core 2 Quad Q9400 in overall performance. Despite this, the Core 2 Quad Q9400 has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

When comparing these CPUs we notice that they have the same number of cores but the Core i7-860 has more threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i7-860 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core 2 Quad Q9400. Both these chips have an identical TDP (Thermal Design Power). This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

The more cores a CPU has, the better the overall performance will be in parallel workloads such as multitasking. Many CPUs have more threads than cores, this means that each physical core is split into multiple logical cores, making them more efficient. Indeed, the Core i7-860 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.