FiringSquad reviews Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 processor
Now that they've got the Core 2 launch solidly in their rear view mirror, it's now time for Intel to trickle that technology down into other markets. With the introduction of the Core 2 Extreme and quad-core, Intel's got a solid foothold in the high-end segment, while the Core 2 Duo E6300, E6400, and E6600 are the CPU of choice for enthusiasts in the mainstream markets. But despite this success, Intel continues to lose market share to archrival AMD. According to the latest numbers from Mercury Research, AMD took home 25.3% of the desktop PC market; this is the highest share in the company's history.
In order for Intel to get some of that share back, they've got to enhance the lower end of their CPU lineup. As everyone knows, the volume is in the value and lower-end mainstream segments, these are the sub-$200 CPUs Intel's Core 2 line largely doesn't cover: up to now, Intel only had one Core 2 CPU in this segment, the E6300. The rest of Intel's sub-$200 CPU lineup is dominated by the Pentium family, many of which ship with large 4MB L2 caches, making these CPUs costly to manufacture...
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