We've mentioned before that Intel has no intentions of significantly ramping up the clock speed of their Pentium 4 processor until the second half of this year when they introduce the first 90nm Prescott core. The move to 90nm will provide for smaller, faster and cooler running transistors that will enable clock speeds of greater than 3.2GHz with relative ease (compared to on the current 130nm core), but until that time comes Intel is relying on improvements on the platform side of things to keep performance competitive.

Today we've seen the launch of Intel's brand new flagship chipset - the 875P (previously known as Canterwood); alongside the 875P, Intel is introducing their newest flagship desktop processor - the Pentium 4 C. The C designates 800MHz FSB support, much like the B designated 533MHz FSB support in the early days of the first 533MHz FSB Pentium 4 processors.

Eventually the C designation will fade away, but we're stuck with it initially in order to remove any confusion when customers see two identically clocked processors with different FSB frequencies. You actually won't have to deal with that confusion for another several weeks, as the first and only 800MHz FSB Pentium 4 processor being released at this time doesn't overlap in clock speed with any other Pentium 4.

The first 800MHz FSB CPU from Intel is the Pentium 4 3.0C which, as you can probably guess, runs at an even 3GHz - just 66MHz shy of the previous champ. There will be other 800MHz FSB processors to come, both lower and higher clocked than today's 3.0C, but for now this is all Intel is introducing.

Other than 800MHz FSB support, these new C processors will feature Hyper Threading (HT) and sell for a slight premium ($20 - $40) over other non-HT Pentium 4's courtesy of the improved performance provided by HT.

We've already provided quite a bit of information on the platform that Intel is launching with the Pentium 4 3.0C, so be sure to read our 875P review to get the details before continuing with this review.

What's in a faster FSB?

These next two pages are taken from our 800MHz FSB Sneak Peek article, if you haven't read through that already then contained within these pages is information relating to the practical benefits of an 800MHz FSB; if you have read the Sneak Peek article then we suggest skipping directly to the benchmarks.

Improving overall system performance is a game of removing bottlenecks and making paths that aren't already bottlenecked as fast as possible. When dealing with increasing the frequency of a FSB, there are two major factors that influence whether or not the faster FSB will actually improve performance.

The first factor is whether or not the transmit buffers on the FSB interface of the North Bridge (or MCH) will receive data fast enough to take advantage of the faster FSB. In order to understand this factor you have to have an understanding of how data flows from main memory into the chipset and finally to the CPU (and vice versa). When the CPU issues a read request onto the FSB, it sends the address of the data it needs in main memory onto the FSB. The address of the data needed is then forwarded on, via the FSB, to the chipset's FSB interface contained within the North Bridge, or in the case of the Pentium 4, the Memory Controller Hub (MCH). The FSB interface hands off the address to the memory controller, also contained within the North Bridge/MCH, and then the address request is sent to main memory and the North Bridge/MCH waits for the data at that address to be charged and ready to be sent from main memory. Once the data is ready, it is sent from main memory to the memory controller in the North Bridge/MCH, handed off to the FSB interface and then put on the FSB and sent to the CPU.

In the case of the Pentium 4's FSB, the actual operating frequency of the bus is 100/133MHz (for the 400 and 533MHz FSBs respectively). Addresses are sent twice per clock, which makes the FSB transfer addresses as fast as a 200/266MHz FSB would; and finally we have the quad-pumped data transfer rates, which means that data can be sent 4x per clock, effectively making the FSB transfer data as fast as a 400/533MHz FSB would. Since data, not address, transmission is what eats up the majority of FSB bandwidth, Intel gets away with calling the Pentium 4's FSB a 400/533MHz FSB. With the forthcoming 800MHz FSB, addresses will be transferred at 400MHz and data will be sent at 800MHz. What's interesting to note is that addresses will be transferred on the new FSB as fast as data was sent on the first Pentium 4 FSB introduced back in 2001.

Back to the original point however, if the North Bridge/MCH isn't able to get data from main memory as quickly as it can send it through the FSB then there's no point to increasing the FSB frequency. Think of it like this; let's say you had a highway going straight into a mall, with an identical highway going straight out of the mall. Both highways have the same number of lanes and initially they have the same 45mph speed limit. Now let's say that there's a great deal of traffic flowing in and out of the mall and in order to get more people in and out of the mall quicker, the department of transportation agrees to increase the speed limit of the highway going into the mall from 45mph to 70mph; the speed limit of the highway leaving the mall is still stuck at 45mph. While more people will be able to reach the mall quicker, there will still be a bottleneck in the parking area leaving the mall - since the increased number of people that are able to get to the mall still have to leave at the same rate. This is equivalent to increasing the FSB frequency but leaving the memory frequency/bandwidth unchanged on a chipset, you're speeding up one part of the equation while leaving the other part untouched.

In this case, the focus is more on balancing FSB and memory bandwidth rather than frequencies (although it is important to have frequencies that are in sync with one another in order to keep latencies as low as possible). The Pentium 4 features a 64-bit wide FSB interface, and we've already explained the frequencies this FSB can run at. Simple multiplication shows us that the 533MHz FSB can offer a maximum of 4.264GB/s of bandwidth. The 845PE chipset has a 64-bit DDR333 memory interface, offering a maximum of 2.664GB/s of memory bandwidth, and the 850E chipset has a 32-bit PC1066 RDRAM memory interface that provides at most 4.264GB/s of memory bandwidth. As you can see just by looking at the bandwidth numbers, the 850E chipset is perfectly balanced for the amount of bandwidth offered by the 533MHz FSB, which is why it is significantly faster than the 845PE.

The 800MHz FSB will offer no less than 6.4GB/s of bandwidth, which would require either a 32-bit PC1600 RDRAM memory interface (note that the PC1600 standard does not exist) or a 64-bit DDR800 memory interface (also a non-existant memory technology). Well, if you can't get faster memory, you widen the memory interface in order to increase bandwidth. Remember that bandwidth is the product of bus width and transfer rate, so if you can't improve the transfer rate, you increase the width of the bus. In the case of the upcoming 865 and 875 chipsets, Intel took the 64-bit DDR memory interface of the 845PE chipset and added a second 64-bit channel along with adding DDR400 support. A 128-bit memory interface (2 x 64-bit channels) with DDR400 memory now offers exactly 6.4GB/s of memory bandwidth, perfectly balanced with the 800MHz FSB, without using exotic memory technology or speeds that aren't readily available.

With an increase in both the FSB frequency and memory bandwidth, the performance will not be hindered by bottlenecks in the platform itself, but we still have to ask the question of whether or not the CPU can benefit…

Feeding the Beast with more Bandwidth

The Pentium 4 architecture allows it to execute a maximum of 6 instructions per clock, courtesy of its multiple ALUs, FPUs and dedicated load/store units. However the number of instructions per clock (IPC) that are actually executed are nowhere near this maximum, thanks to a number of annoying factors. The fact of the matter is that most x86 code can't be made to be parallel enough on an instruction level in order to take advantage of a wide array of execution units, thus a number of the execution units of the Pentium 4 go unused during normal execution (this is where Hyper-Threading comes in handy).

Then there is the issue of actually getting instructions and data into the Pentium 4's pipeline so that they may occupy those execution units. Because of the extremely slow speed of memory (compared to the high speed on-chip cache of the CPU), the CPU burns a lot of execution time just waiting around to be fed new data to work on (or waiting for data that is necessary before existing operations may be completed).

Taking this idea of making the CPU wait to get data, you can see that if you decrease the amount of time that it takes the CPU to get data then the overall efficiency of the CPU will increase (its IPC will increase). Taking our highway/mall example from the previous page, let's focus on the number of sales that the mall can handle at any given point; assuming the number of sales are limited by the number of people we can get into the mall and the number we can get out of the mall after they're done, if we increase the speed of the two highways going to and leaving the mall then in theory, the number of sales transactions would increase. The number of sales that occur are analogous to the average IPC of a CPU, so you can see how increasing the FSB frequency and memory bandwidth would lend to a faster overall system thanks to an increase in IPC.

The benefit of a faster FSB (and higher bandwidth memory subsystem) will only become more and more clear as clock speeds increase; the faster the CPU gets, the more it will depend on getting more data, quicker in order for it to keep from becoming too bottlenecked. We won't see the full benefits of a 800MHz FSB and dual channel DDR400 until Prescott ramps up (90nm Pentium 4) in clock speed in 2004, but that isn't to say that performance won't improve today.

The Test

Windows XP Professional Test Bed
Hardware Configuration
CPU	AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.0CGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz
Motherboard	ASUS A7N8X - NVIDIA nForce2 Chipset (green bars) Intel D850EMV2 - Intel 850E Chipset (blue bars) Intel D875PBZ - Intel 875P Chipset (red bars)
RAM	2 x 256MB DDR400 CAS2 Corsair XMS3200 DIMM 2 x 256MB PC800 Samsung RIMMs
Sound	None
Hard Drive	80GB Western Digital Special Edition 8MB Cache ATA/100 HDD
Video Cards	ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

Content Creation Performance

Content Creation Performance Content Creation Winstone 2003 Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 49.7 49.7 48.6 47.6 46.8 45.3 43.7 42.0 41.6 40.9 40.6 40.4 40.1 39.1 38.1 37.1 35.5 34.3 33.5 33.0 32.8 32.5 31.8 31.4 30.6 30.5 29.7 29.5 29.2 28.4 27.9 27.3 26.5 | 0 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 6

There are two factors at work here; first, the 800MHz FSB doesn't seem to do much in these types of content creation applications that are reasonably I/O bound and second, the lack of proper Intel Application Accelerator drivers for the 875P chipset holds back performance here as well.

General Usage Performance

Although not as performance-critical as content creation applications, it is the set of every day applications like Office and other general usage programs that the majority of users find themselves interacting with the most, thus performance here is also very important.

General Usage/Office Performance Business Winstone 2002 AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 39.9 38.0 37.5 36.9 35.5 34.9 33.6 33.6 33.5 33.0 32.9 32.8 32.8 32.3 31.9 31.7 31.6 31.0 30.2 30.1 30.1 29.7 29.7 28.7 27.3 26.0 24.5 24.4 23.8 23.4 22.6 21.9 21.3 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 40 | 48

Here we see a prime example of what happens without proper driver support - the lack of Intel Application Accelerator drivers are holding back the 875P platform, allowing its predecessor to offer higher performance without an 800MHz FSB. In any case, it does not matter as AMD is much stronger here to begin with.

Gaming Performance - Unreal Tournament 2003 (Flyby)

With this review we continue to use the final retail version of Unreal Tournament 2003 as a benchmark tool. The benchmark works similarly to the demo, except there are higher detail settings that can be chosen. As we've mentioned before, in order to make sure that all numbers are comparable you need to be sure to do the following:

-ini=..\\Benchmark\\Stuff\\MaxDetail.ini -userini=..\\Benchmark\\Stuff\\MaxDetailUser.ini

..\System\ut2003 dm-antalus?spectatoronly=true?numbots=12?quickstart=true -benchmark -seconds=77 -exec=..\Benchmark\Stuff\botmatchexec.txt -ini=..\\Benchmark\\Stuff\\MaxDetail.ini -userini=..\\Benchmark\\Stuff\\MaxDetailUser.ini -nosound

Gaming Performance Unreal Tournament 2003 - Flyby Benchmark - 1024x768 Maximum Detail AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 214.9 213.8 208.8 205.5 200.8 199.7 198.6 198.2 194.9 193.6 187.9 180.5 175.1 174.9 171.6 170.1 169.4 165.1 161.8 161.0 156.1 152.0 151.7 147.9 143.6 142.3 141.6 135.2 130.8 128.5 124.9 120.4 114.5 | 0 | 43 | 86 | 129 | 172 | 215 | 258

The 800MHz FSB brings the Pentium 4 directly upon the heels of AMD's Athlon XP 3000+.

Gaming Performance - Unreal Tournament 2003 (Botmatch)

With previous versions of UT2003, Botmatch couldn't be used to compare different systems as there was a bug in the benchmark that could cause inflated numbers on AMD systems vs. Intel systems. We went to Epic with the problem and they provided us with a beta patch in time for this review, the fix will make it into the next publicly available patch release in several weeks.

For those of you that aren't familiar, the Botmatch test focuses mostly on physics and artificial intelligence performance in UT2003, the two areas that are the most CPU dependent in the game.

Gaming Performance Unreal Tournament 2003 - Botmatch Benchmark - 1024x768 Maximum Detail Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 81.4 78.1 74.7 73.8 70.4 69.6 69.1 67.7 66.0 63.9 61.8 61.5 58.1 56.9 56.7 56.6 55.2 55.0 53.9 52.1 51.9 50.7 49.3 48.7 47.7 44.7 43.6 41.5 41.1 40.2 38.7 37.0 35.5 | 0 | 16 | 33 | 49 | 65 | 81 | 10

Gaming Performance - Quake III Arena

An extremely dated benchmark, Quake III Arena has become much more of a CPU and platform test than anything because of the fact that current generation graphics cards are no where near stressed by it. We used our old 1.29f build of the game with the classic demo "four" at High Quality defaults, with everything maxed out at 1024x768.

Gaming Performance Quke III Arena - 1024x768x32 High Quality Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 353.0 329.4 328.7 317.6 315.6 306.9 305.9 301.0 297.1 296.3 290.1 278.1 267.9 262.4 261.8 249.8 249.4 245.2 238.2 235.3 233.5 227.2 222.3 220.6 215.9 212.7 209.9 208.0 203.5 200.7 192.5 185.5 180.6 | 0 | 71 | 141 | 212 | 282 | 353 | 424

Bound by no graphics limitations, the very old Quake III Arena engine ends up being a great stress test of FSB bandwidth and platform efficiency - the 800MHz FSB comes in handy here.

Gaming Performance - Jedi Knight 2

Gaming Performance Jedi Knight 2 - jk2ffa - 1024x768x32 High Quality Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 183.4 173.1 171.8 168.2 164.6 164.0 162.1 161.0 159.1 157.1 153.8 142.9 142.7 138.7 136.0 135.5 132.9 128.9 128.5 125.9 122.3 121.4 119.1 115.6 113.3 112.0 108.9 105.6 104.2 102.0 98.9 94.5 90.7 | 0 | 37 | 73 | 110 | 147 | 183 | 220

Once again we see a benefit to the 800MHz FSB, this isn't much of a surprise seeing as how Jedi Knight 2 is Quake III engine based.

Gaming Performance - Comanche 4

Gaming Performance Comanche 4 - Benchmark Test - 1024x768x32 Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 62.6 60.9 59.1 55.8 55.5 55.4 53.5 53.2 52.1 51.2 50.9 47.8 47.0 46.7 46.6 43.6 43.2 42.5 40.8 40.4 39.7 38.4 37.1 36.7 35.8 34.4 33.8 33.7 33.1 31.8 30.6 29.1 27.9 | 0 | 13 | 25 | 38 | 50 | 63 | 75

Video Encoding Performance - DiVX/XMpeg 4.5

What was once reserved for "professional" use only has now become a task for many home PCs - media encoding. Today's media encoding requirements are more demanding than ever and are still some of the most intensive procedures you can run on your PC.

We'll start off with a "quick" conversion of a DVD rip (more specifically, Chapter 40 from the Star Wars Episode I DVD) to a DiVX MPEG-4 file. We used the latest DiVX codec (5.03) in conjunction with Xmpeg 4.5 to perform the encoding at 720 x 480.

We set the encoding speed to Fastest, disabled audio processing and left all of the remaining settings on their defaults. We recorded the last frame rate given during the encoding process as the progress bar hit 100%

MPEG-4 Video Encoding Performance MPEG-2 to DiVX Conversion using XMpeg 4.5 & DiVX 5.0.2 (Frames per Second - Higher is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 100.8 97.9 97.0 80.5 80.5 77.6 74.2 71.1 70.5 70.5 69.2 68.2 67.9 66.0 62.4 61.7 58.8 58.4 57.4 57.4 57.2 55.9 55.6 54.8 52.9 52.6 50.9 50.3 49.5 49.0 48.8 48.8 45.9 | 0 | 20 | 40 | 60 | 81 | 101 | 121

Video Encoding Performance - Windows Media Encoder 9.0

For our next video encoding test we took Windows Media Encoder 9.0 and encoded the same chapter from the Star Wars Episode I DVD into a 2Mbps VBR WMV file using Media Encoder's built in 2Mbps DVD VBR settings. The time reported is in minutes to encode, lower being better obviously:

Windows Media 9 Encoding Performance Converting DVD to 2Mbps VBR - Lower is Better Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 7.97 8.00 8.13 9.90 9.95 10.03 10.23 10.33 10.37 10.65 10.88 11.30 11.32 11.77 12.28 12.60 12.63 12.63 13.08 13.53 13.93 14.02 14.03 14.55 14.58 15.13 15.22 15.33 15.77 16.33 16.90 17.08 18.28 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 2

3D Rendering Performance - 3dsmax R5

When the Athlon was first released over 3 years ago, 3D Studio MAX was a strong point of its performance. The Athlon's raw FPU performance was right up 3dsmax's ally and thus it put Intel's competing solutions (at the time, the Pentium III) to shame. Things have changed a bit, the latest version of 3ds max (R5) does have some Pentium 4 optimizations that keep things quite competitive between the Athlon XP and the Pentium 4.

For our 3ds max 5 benchmarks we chose all of the benchmark scenes that ship with the product - SinglePipe2.max, Underwater_Environment_Finished.max, 3dsmax5_rays.max, cballs2.max and vol_light2.max.

3D Rendering Performance 3DSMAX R5 - SinglePipe2.max (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 167 168 169 213 216 220 227 227 228 237 238 240 247 251 266 273 275 286 298 301 309 323 330 337 338 349 355 372 373 383 394 401 443 | 0 | 89 | 177 | 266 | 354 | 443 | 532

3D Rendering Performance - 3dsmax R5 (2)

3D Rendering Performance 3DSMAX R5 - Underwater_Environment_Finished.max (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 237 240 243 293 302 305 307 311 327 331 337 350 350 362 365 379 384 395 395 411 428 435 447 468 482 492 539 541 556 581 618 653 698 | 0 | 140 | 279 | 419 | 558 | 698 | 838

3D Rendering Performance - 3dsmax R5 (3)

3D Rendering Performance 3DSMAX R5 - 3dsmax5_rays.max (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 18 18 18 21 22 22 22 22 23 23 24 25 25 26 27 27 28 29 29 30 31 31 33 33 35 35 35 36 37 39 39 42 46 | 0 | 9 | 18 | 28 | 37 | 46 | 55

3D Rendering Performance - 3dsmax R5 (4)

3D Rendering Performance 3DSMAX R5 - CBALLS2.max (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 32 32 33 42 42 43 44 44 45 46 47 48 48 50 53 53 55 55 58 60 60 63 65 66 67 69 70 72 73 75 78 80 87 | 0 | 17 | 35 | 52 | 70 | 87 | 104

3D Rendering Performance - 3dsmax R5 (5)

3D Rendering Performance 3DSMAX R5 - vol_light2.max (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz 15 15 15 19 19 20 21 21 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 26 27 27 27 28 29 29 30 30 31 32 32 33 34 34 35 36 55 | 0 | 11 | 22 | 33 | 44 | 55 | 66

3D Rendering Performance - Maya 4.0.1

3D Rendering Performance Maya 4.0.1 - rendertest.ma (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 62 62 63 65 68 70 72 72 74 76 78 79 83 84 85 86 87 89 92 92 97 98 100 103 106 110 111 117 121 121 127 134 141 | 0 | 28 | 56 | 85 | 113 | 141 | 169

3D Rendering Performance - Lightwave 3D 7.5

While 3dsmax 5 is SSE2 optimized, the level of optimization is nowhere near what NewTek reported with Lightwave upon releasing version 7.0b. The performance improvements offered by the new SSE2 optimized version were all above 20% using NewTek's supplied benchmarking scenes.

We chose three benchmarks to use, two of the lesser SSE2 optimized scenes and another that is more optimized just to get an idea of the potential that lies for Pentium 4 users running heavily optimized application.

3D Rendering Performance Lightwave 3D 7.5 - raytrace (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) 98.6 98.8 101.5 106.2 107.9 113.1 118.6 121.7 126.5 131.2 132.1 134.1 136.0 137.2 141.2 148.0 150.1 163.1 166.0 167.7 169.1 174.2 176.2 183.2 184.9 186.0 191.3 193.0 199.3 203.4 208.7 214.1 218.5 | 0 | 44 | 87 | 131 | 175 | 219 | 262

3D Rendering Performance - Lightwave 3D 7.5 (2)

3D Rendering Performance Lightwave 3D 7.5 - sunset (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz 41.9 43.7 43.7 45.5 47.3 50.8 51.2 51.8 52.6 55.0 55.3 55.8 57.0 58.6 59.1 61.5 61.7 62.4 64.6 65.0 68.1 69.0 71.0 71.0 77.6 78.1 81.7 86.2 86.8 91.4 97.1 97.8 103.6 | 0 | 21 | 41 | 62 | 83 | 104 | 124

3D Rendering Performance - Lightwave 3D 7.5 (3)

3D Rendering Performance Lightwave 3D 7.5 - radiosity_reflective_things (Render Time in Seconds - Lower is Better) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (875P-800MHz) Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz (875P-533MHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.50GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.20GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0AGHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz) AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.167GHz) Barton Intel Pentium 4 1.6AGHz Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (2.167GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.083GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33GHz) 47.8 47.9 48.2 51.6 52.4 55.8 57.6 59.2 61.5 63.9 66.7 72.7 78.6 80.2 82.4 86.1 88.5 89.8 90.0 90.9 91.7 95.2 95.6 99.9 101.7 110.0 114.1 118.9 123.5 129.0 134.1 140.3 147.0 | 0 | 29 | 59 | 88 | 118 | 147 | 176

Final Words

As we expected, the 800MHz FSB improves overall performance between 0 and 12% as you can see by this chart:

Benefit of 800MHz FSB Performance Improvement of 800MHz over 533MHz FSB Content Creation Winstone 2003 Busines Winstone 2002 Unreal Tournament 2003 (Flyby) Unreal Tournament 2003 (Botmatch) Quake III Arena Jedi Knight 2 Comanche 4 MPEG4 Encoding SPECviewperf - 3dsmax01 SPECviewperf - drv08 SPECviewperf - dx07 SPECviewperf - light05 SPECviewperf - proe01 SPECviewperf - ugs01 0.0% 1.6% 4.7% 5.8% 7.3% 8.3% 2.5% 6.1% 5.0% 11.6% 6.1% 7.9% 9.4% 0.0% | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 14

Combine the improvement of the 800MHz FSB with the benefits of Hyper Threading and you've got some relatively tempting performance improvements to the Pentium 4, but it's nothing that's going to blow you away. The true benefits of both the 800MHz FSB and Hyper Threading will be realized with Prescott later this year as the processor will push higher frequencies and contain Hyper Threading specific architectural improvements that should improve performance even more.

The introduction of new platforms, the 800MHz FSB and Hyper Threading into the mainstream won't replace the need for higher clocked processors in order to remain competitive, but until AMD can respond with faster Athlon XPs and eventually with the Athlon 64, Intel will be just fine with their new C line of Pentium 4 processors.