Intel Prescott Out Monday

[Seraphim]

I'll post benchmarks on monday.

[Seoulstriker]

i heard prescott's new architecture is similar to wiliamette's new architecture in that we can expect worse performance at the same clock speed. i'm just hoping that they release up to a 4ghz model at first. if they release some 3.6 crap, i'm going to wait until tejas. even then, i'm not even sure if AMD will come out with some crunk-ass dope 64-bit processor for <$150. :)

[Seraphim]

By Robert Heron


Intel has announced four new Pentium 4 processors ranging in speed from 2.8 GHz to 3.4 GHz. Besides a slight increase in the operating frequency of the high-end part, the new processors incorporate the following enhancements.


90-nanometer process (shrunk from 130 nanometers)
Doubled L2 cache to 1MB
13 new instructions (SSE3)
Enhancements to Hyper-Threading technology

The new Pentium 4 is pin-compatible with socket 478 motherboards, which tells you that the new features are isolated to the chip itself. There are no new motherboards using DDR-2 memory. No PCI Express slots. No 64-bit retort to AMD's recently launched Athlon 64 processors.


Also, the 3.4-GHz Pentium 4 represents the end of the line for socket 478 speed improvements. Faster parts will be based on a new upcoming socket design.


The new SSE3 instructions offer improvements to floating-point/integer number conversion and complex arithmetic functions. Other new SSE3 instructions are for improving thread synchronization and media encoding functions. Taken all together, the new instructions are aimed at wringing more performance out of the complex Pentium 4 architecture.


The new Pentium 4 parts offer more features and potential performance, but let's examine how they compare to the other top desktop processors.


Benchmark update

We updated our processor benchmark tests for 2004. While our CPU-stressing game tests remain the same, we switched our video encoding test to Nero 6 Ultra's Nero Digital MPEG-4 encoder. Our audio encoding test is still based on the LAME encoder, albeit the latest version of the software.


Also new to our test collection is BAPCo's SYSmark 2004. Back and better than ever, SYSmark 2004 uses nearly 20 real-world applications to test a system under content creation and office productivity scenarios.


Hardware configuration

Our reference test systems for our CPU benchmarking share the following common components.


1GB (2x512MB) Corsair TwinX 3200LL Pro memory modules
Two Western Digital Raptor SATA hard drives (RAID-0 configuration)
ATI Radeon 9800 XT video card

The only exception to the above list would be our AMD Athlon FX-51 system, as it uses 1GB of registered ECC DDR memory.

The chips

Pentium 4 3.20E GHz Motherboard Intel D875PBZ
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Intel D875PBZ
Athlon 64 FX-51 Asus SK8N
Athlon 64 3400+ MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R


CPU price
$302 (est.)
$925
$728
$417




All prices except for the new Pentium 4 are an average of the five lowest prices found on Price Watch. Intel hasn't given a specific price for the new Pentium 4 parts other than to say they'll cost the same as the current Pentium 4 parts operating at the same speed.

Without a doubt, the Extreme Edition Pentium 4 with its beefy 2MB of L3 cache remains priced at a premium. The other processors listed above are equipped with 1MB of L2 cache.

BAPCo SYSmark 2004

Reported scores; higher is better.

SYSmark rating
Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 212
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 206
Athlon 64 FX-51 196
Athlon 64 3400+ 204


Internet Content creation
Pentium 4 3.20E 221
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 219
Athlon 64 FX-51 205
Athlon 64 3400+ 209



Office Productivity
Pentium 4 3.20E 203
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 194
Athlon 64 FX-51 188
Athlon 64 3400+ 200


With less than 8 percent separating our contenders, it's unlikely that the average person would notice a performance difference.


OpenGL gaming results


"Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory v1.02"
640x480x16; minimum quality/detail
Custom TechTV recorded demo
Results in fps; higher is better


640x480x16
Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 96.8
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 98.4
Athlon 64 FX-51 104.3
Athlon 64 3400+ 108




1600x1200x32
Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 59.9
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 30
Athlon 64 FX-51 62.5
Athlon 64 3400+ 61.4



Score one for AMD. The value of the Athlon 64 3400+ as a gaming CPU is clearly demonstrated in this popular OpenGL title.


Inexplicably, the P4 Extreme Edition choked on our high-quality test. When we added 4x AA to the high-resolution test, the FX-51 was unfazed and remained above 60 fps while all the others dropped to about 22 fps.


DirectX (D3D) gaming results


"Unreal Tournament 2003 v2225"
HardOCP's UT2K3 CPU Test
Results in fps; higher is better


640x480
Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 118
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 129.2
Athlon 64 FX-51 166.6
Athlon 64 3400+ 163.8


1600x1200
Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 65
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 65.4
Athlon 64 FX-51 65.3
Athlon 64 3400+ 65.4


For this DirectX 8 title, the Athlon 64 FX-51 proves its worth again as a highly desirable CPU for gamers. However, AMD's recently introduced Athlon 64 3400+ takes the crown in terms of price and performance.


The high-resolution results are there to demonstrate the performance bottleneck returning to the video card.


MPEG-4 encoding


Nero 6 Ultra: Nero Digital
8GB MPEG-2 to 700MB MPEG-4 conversion; single-pass encode
Results in seconds; lower is better


Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 2,265
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 2,271
Athlon 64 FX-51 2,474
Athlon 64 3400+ 2,505




With encode times hovering around 37 minutes for Intel and 41 minutes for AMD, the nearly 10 percent difference shows that Pentium 4 technology remains strong in media-intensive applications.


MP3 encoding results


LAME MP3 encoder
400MB WAV to 96 Kbps MP3 conversion
Time in seconds; lower is better


Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 129.3
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 113.3
Athlon 64 FX-51 118
Athlon 64 3400+ 117


As our numbers show, LAME doesn't appear to be the best audio encoder choice for the new Pentium 4. We're considering adding another audio-encoding application for our next round of testing

[cut]

A fearsome beast indeed...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2000/11/29/nrur29.jpeg (http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1376.asp)

[Jack Mehoff]

I think my overclocked AMD xp2500+ @2300mhz suffice for another year

[Seoulstriker]

i don't know if i should wait for tejas or to move to the 3700+ 64 in the next few months. :(