Which CPU Will Perform Better?

[AKM880]

Which CPU will perform better in games?

Celeron D Prescott 325 @ 2.8GHz SSE, SSE2, SSE3 (256k Cache) or Pentium 4 Northwood (512k Cache) @ 2.66GHz SSE, SSE2? Suprisingly the P4 is faster than the Celeron in Super PI, is this because the Celeron has half the cache of the P4? How big of a difference does cache make when playing games?

 

[I_want_GPU+CPU]

In Multimedia Applications- Celeron D
In Mutiprogramms- P4 (512 Cache)

 

[AKM880]

What about gaming? Celeron D?

 

[cjl]

In gaming, I'd expect the P4 to pull ahead due to the extra cache. It still wouldn't be remotely close to a modern CPU though.

 

[AKM880]

I was thinking the Celery D might pull ahead because it was released later than the P4 and it might have better microarchitechure.

 

[blackwidow_rsa]

prescott was actually slower than northwood, they increased the cpu pipeline from 21 to 31. the only way prescott had better performance is with loads more cache.

 

[AKM880]

So the Northwood will outperform the Prescott Celeron D unless I get a Prescott with something like a 1MB L2 cache.

 

[KyleSTL]

SSE3 makes a huge difference in a lot of modern programs, if the Celeron is late enough to have SSE3 (edit: sorry, reading error) there's a chance it could perform better. But like cjl said, this is no speed demon, and even a single-core Celeron 430 would spank either one (and that's not saying a whole lot).

For reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Celeron_microprocessors

 

[szymek]

In games you won't notice any dramatic difference. 5% maximum.

 

[megamanx00]

At the same speed the Northwood is slightly faster than the Prescott. It was also initially better at the higher speeds which is why the top socket 478 CPU, the 3.4GHz Extreme Edition, was based on the Northwood core rather than the newer Prescott core. The extra cache will also allow the slower clocked P4 to make up the speed difference.

Anyway, your question is like asking a bunch of stock car racers if a Prius is Faster than an Insight. The first thought that comes to mind is "WTF!", just so you know .

 

[AKM880]

Thanks megamanx00,

This is my LAN computer, I usually bring it to my friend's house. Don't worry its not my main computer...anymore :lol:

So lets say I have a Celeron D @ 3.2GHz vs the 2.7GHz Pentium, the P4 would still outperform in games?

 

[cjl]

Probably. The Celeron would feel a bit more responsive in Windows though, unless the Pentium was also a dual core.

 

[Sharft6]

i would suggest using your main computer as your lan computer if it is better thats what I do anyway.

 

[AKM880]

Probably. The Celeron would feel a bit more responsive in Windows though, unless the Pentium was also a dual core.

??? :/
The Celeron D isn't a dual core...

 

[cjl]

Sorry - I'm not quite sure what I was thinking there...

Ignore me...

(where's the "I'm a freaking idiot" smiley?)

 

[blackwidow_rsa]

if you have access to both cpus, why not run a little benchmark?

 

[Guest]

^ +1

 

[AKM880]

I used Super PI and the P4 was definitely faster than the Celeron D, but I thought that it might be different if the Celeron was clocked higher. Right now the Celeron is in a Dell so it can't be overclocked yet.

 

[cjl]

Completely OT question here:


moricon: Out of curiosity, are you Vern Knowles, or are you just using his rocket as an avatar?

 

[AKM880]

Okay,

I took the Celery D out and overclocked it to 2.66GHz, its actually really fast. Thanks guys.