Intel Core i7-860 vs Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650

Core i7-860 vs Core 2 Quad Q9650 specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core 2 Quad Q9650 beats the Core i7-860 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i7-860 in all gaming tests too.

Our spec comparison shows that they have an identical amount of cores but the Core i7-860 has more threads. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core 2 Quad Q9650 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i7-860. 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.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. Indeed, the Core i7-860 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.