Intel Prescott: the benchmarks
Summary: Intel's new 'Prescott' Pentium 4 has double the L1 and L2 cache of its 'Northwood' predecessor. An extended 31-stage pipeline accounts for the fact that the new chip is mostly slower than the CPU it replaces
Intel’s new ‘Prescott’ Pentium 4 has double the L1 and L2 cache of its ‘Northwood’ predecessor. An extended 31-stage pipeline accounts for the fact that the new chip is mostly slower than the CPU it replaces.
Although Intel’s new processor has larger L1 and L2 caches and an enhanced set of multimedia instructions (SSE3), the company has resisted the temptation to call the Prescott chip the ‘Pentium 5’. You can identify a Prescott Pentium 4 by the ‘E’ that follows the clock speed -- as in, ‘Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology 3.40E GHz’. There are four new Pentium 4 processors with the Prescott core (see table below). However, the 3.4GHz version will not be available in large quantities at launch, which is why Intel did not send this variant to testers. A 3.4GHz Pentium 4 with the older Northwood core will also available -- although, again, it’s not currently available for test.
Although Intel’s new processor has larger L1 and L2 caches and an enhanced set of multimedia instructions (SSE3), the company has resisted the temptation to call the Prescott chip the ‘Pentium 5’. You can identify a Prescott Pentium 4 by the ‘E’ that follows the clock speed -- as in, ‘Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology 3.40E GHz’. There are four new Pentium 4 processors with the Prescott core (see table below). However, the 3.4GHz version will not be available in large quantities at launch, which is why Intel did not send this variant to testers. A 3.4GHz Pentium 4 with the older Northwood core will also available -- although, again, it’s not currently available for test.
Intel is also releasing another variant of the gaming-orientated Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, a 3.4GHz processor that will cost nearly $1,000. This Northwood-core chip has little relevance to business users, though: for more than the double cost of an equivalent desktop processor, the Extreme Edition delivers only 10 to 15 per cent more performance.
| Intel's new processors | |||
| CPU |
FSB |
HT support |
Price |
| Pentium 4 2.8E GHz (Prescott) | 800MHz |
yes |
$178 |
| Pentium 4 3.0E GHz (Prescott) | 800MHz |
yes |
$218 |
| Pentium 4 3.2E GHz (Prescott) | 800MHz |
yes |
$278 |
| Pentium 4 3.4E GHz (Prescott) | 800MHz |
yes |
$417 |
| Pentium 4 3.4 GHz (Northwood) | 800MHz |
yes |
$417 |
| Pentium 4 EE 3.4 GHz (Northwood) | 800MHz |
yes |
$999 |
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Talkback
Unless the company wants to have a distributed, always on, heating system, there is now no reason to choose Intel over AMD.
I'll remember to look for more reviews on ZDNet in the future - to make sure that I avoid them.
Athlon 64 features only a single channel memory interface. Therefore it is irrelevant to have two DIMMs installed. The Athlon FX offers a Dual-Channel-Interface. With this processor it is important to have two DIMMs installed to get the best performance out of it, as with P4 systems.
Sorry Kai, I was thinking about the socket 940 FX.
Also, I shall retract my statement about ZDNet. After further review, some of the benchmarks you performed are different enough from the "standard" that (when balanced with other reviews) helps to paint a better overall performance picture. Thanks.
And I'm impressed by the fact that you're using F1 simulations to do some testing of the hardware. Haven't seen that anywhere else. You must be an F1 fan.