Intel's Pentium 4 2.4GHz: Taking the Lead

Final Words

As the last 100MHz FSB Pentium 4 processor there's not much you can say about the 2.4GHz part; on the one hand it has given Intel the performance crown in all of the measurable categories, but on the other it lacks the 133MHz FSB support that will give its successors a little extra boost.

The Athlon and Athlon XP processors have been outperforming Intel's Pentium 4 line ever since its release in November of 2000; but now with the Northwood core and higher clock speeds, the performance game is much more competitive. Bringing the 133MHz FSB to the table will grant these CPUs another 0 - 15% boost in performance (depending on the application, but most will be around 5%) and that performance delta will only grow as applications become more demanding and the Pentium 4 increases in clock speed even more.

In terms of frequency headroom, the Northwood core definitely has a lot of breathing room. It's not difficult at all to take even these 2.4GHz CPUs up to close to 3GHz levels without resorting to anything other than conventional air-cooling. It will be very interesting to see what sort of headroom the 0.13-micron AMD Thoroughbred core offers as it could bring AMD some very compelling clock speed options going forward.

The one area where AMD still holds the advantage over Intel (at least in the DIY enthusiast market) is in pricing. The Athlon XPs are still more affordable than the Pentium 4s when comparing model numbers to identical clock speed Northwood cores (e.g. XP 2000+ to a Pentium 4 2.0A). The move down to 0.13-micron cores will grant AMD even more pricing flexibility if necessary. On the Intel side, the use of 300mm wafers helps cut production costs by significant amounts as well.

By now we have already said good-bye to two of the most highly anticipated CPU cores in recent memory. Intel's Northwood won't change much outside of being officially validated for 133MHz FSB operation while AMD's Thoroughbred will put their 0.13-micron process to the test. Intel has the potential to pull ahead even more in the performance game provided that AMD doesn't introduce Barton with any architectural enhancements. However, the rules of the game will change once Hammer hits.