The Test

There are a few numbers that we are going to want to pay attention to in the following tests. First, obviously, will be the performance of the Celeron D compared to the Northwood based 2.6GHz and 2.0GHz parts and competing Athlon XP parts. Ideally, we would have dug up a multiplier unlocked Northwood Celeron and ran 2.8GHz, but the performance advantage of both the 330 and 325 over the 2.6 should be enough to show how a 2.8GHz Northwood based Celeron would perform versus the 335.

The second set of numbers that we want to look at are our FSB underclocked Celeron D numbers. We ran our Prescott Celeron at 20x100 for a direct comparison to the Northwood based core. With the same multiplier, FSB, and platform, we are able to take a focused look at the Celeron D performance difference due to architecture and L1/L2 size changes in the Prescott core. These numbers will be collected on the first page of benchmarks.

This time around, our D865PERL board could not be resurrected for testing the Celeron D. We had no choice but to retest our Celeron 2.0 and 2.6 on an ABit 865 board (which performs a little better than an Intel D875PBZ). The extra 5% or so performance improvement wasn't enough to help push the Northwood based Celerons out from under the bottom of the pile. Other than that difference, our testing set-up is the same as the one used in December.

Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s): Intel Celeron D 335 (2.8GHz)
Intel Celeron D 330 (2.66GHz)
Intel Celeron D 325 (2.53GHz)
Intel Celeron 2.6GHz
Intel Celeron 2.0GHz
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
AMD Athlon XP 2200+
AMD Athlon XP 1700+
AMD Duron 1.6GHz
RAM: 2 x 256MB DDR400 @ 2:3:3:6
Hard Drive(s): 2 x Western Digital Special Edition
Chipset Drivers: Intel Chipset Driver 5.00.1009
Video Card(s): ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256
Video Drivers: ATI Catalyst 3.9
Operating System(s): Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
ABit IS7 (Intel 865)

CPU Model Numbers and Pricing Celeron D vs. Celeron
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  • Marlin1975 - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    Don't forget they were comapring a AMD chip that sells for 20% or more less. And also the the Sempron is AMDs new low line.
    Lets see how Celeron handles the sempron :)
  • SDA - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    The hell? An XP 2200+ beating a 2500+ in compilation? I think you might need to rerun that one.. the 2500+ is clocked higher (only 33MHz higher, sure, but higher), it has more cache, and its FSB is faster. AFAIK, there is NO way in which it is worse than a 2200+, so it should not post worse numbers.
  • Minot - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    When are these going to be available? I'm sure I'd still pick an Athlon XP over the Celeron D line, but for competetions sake, it will be good to see a worthy value competetor from Intel in the marketplace.
  • PrinceGaz - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    Yes, Northwood Celerons have only 128K L2 cache while these Prescott Celeron 'D's have 256K.

    You could compare a Celeron D at 20x100 with an original Willamette core P4 2GHz (as they also had 256K L2 and 400FSB) if you wanted to do the comparison between core architecture excluding L2 cache and FSB. The gap would probably be a lot narrower.
  • Zebo - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    Typo above: I meant AMD still owns price and performance with a two year old part.:)
  • Illissius - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    Second Yomicron. I was under the impression that Northwood Celeron's have only 128KB cache. (Makes sense, considering each has a fourth of its P4 counterpart.)
    Also, iirc there was something of a price parity between Celerons and equivalently rated AXP's, so while these are certainly improvements (and not small ones either), they still fall clearly behind in price/performance (the 2.8GHz usually lost to the 2600+ as well as a few lower models).
  • Zebo - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    AMD will still owns price to performance with thier 2 year old parts and even more so with Semiporn. But this is still wonderful news for 2004 beleaguered Intel. Let's see pricing..should be worth $60-$90 starting.
  • Yomicron - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    I think there is a mistake about L2 cache sizes. It says that both the Prescott and Northwood based Celerons have the same amount of L2 cache. However, the Prescott version has 256KB while the desktop Celerons based on the Northwood core only have 128KB.
  • blackarc - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    hmm... if only i could use them in a dual system :D
  • Budman - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - link

    How much does it overclock to??

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