Since the Core 2 Duo E8500 uses a new processor core, we'll start with Sandra's CPU tests. Although the E8500 has the advantage of SSE4 support, benchmarks using these new extensions are not easily found, but the extra cache should help.

The lowest two settings show how the Conroe core compares to the E8500's new Wolfdale core at the same clock speed. The Wolfdale starts out a winner in Sandra Arithmetic, and it superior overclocking provides a significant lead when comparing both processors' fastest settings.

Clock-per-clock comparisons of Wolfdale to Conroe cores in Sandra Multimedia show little to no difference, but Sandra doesn't support the new SSE4 extensions. When overclocking, the E8500 breaks out far ahead of its predecessor.

The Core 2 Duo E6750's lower multiplier required overclocking its front-side bus higher, and the higher FSB provided greater memory bandwidth when overclocking. We could have dropped the E8500's multiplier to achieve similar results, but thought that the stock speed settings would speak for themselves. In spite of the fact that both the Core 2 Duo E6750 and E8500 use Intel's FSB1333 at stock speed, and the fact that the memory controller is on the motherboard, the E8500's Wolfdale core makes better use of available bandwidth than the Conroe core of the E6750.