Faster CPU - Old or New?

[edikat]

Hi there

I have a choice of machines (again) 2002 vs NEW:

QUAD CPU
4 X Northwood XEON 3.0GHZ HT with 4MB L3 cache per CPU
So 8 threads at 3GHZ....
and fast 10K RPM Disks and 8GB
($200)

OR

A cheap 4GB 2.0GHZ Dual Core (not sure of model) Workstation ($150 used)

I am doing FFT math (very numerically intensive) multi-threaded in gcc

Which one would be faster?? Size is not an issue nor noise or power here. The old Server consumes around 240W and is quiet...

Many thanks.

 

[hunter315]

Definitely find out what model the dual core in the workstation is, if it is a much newer chip it may be much faster than a quad core northwood would be. If its only a core 2 duo is going to be less impressive than an i3 2100 would be.

I would also suggest finding out how many threads the app you are using can run, if it is only running 2 or 3 then the hyperthreading on the Xeon isnt going to help at all.

 

[AMDGuru2011]

Well normally quad is better then dual like 4 is better then 2 right? common scene.

But like Hunter said check it out because some times the smaller one is the better one like the hair and the turtle and plus 90% of newer cpu's are a lot faster then the older generation


Chris.

 

[edikat]

Many thanks.

I'll look into the Newer Dual Core and report back.

But the older system has *8* of these reported from x86info (4 Physical CPU in machine):

Family: 15 Model: 2 Stepping: 6 Type: 0 Brand: 12
CPU Model: Pentium 4 (Northwood) [C0] Original OEM
Processor name string: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) MP CPU 3.00GHz

Feature flags:
fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflsh ds acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cntx-id xTPR
Extended feature flags:

Cache info
Instruction trace cache: 12K uOps, 8-way associative.
L1 Data cache: 8KB, sectored, 4-way associative. 64 byte line size.
L2 unified cache: 512KB, sectored, 8-way associative. 64 byte line size.
L3 unified cache: 4MB, 8-way associative. 64 byte line size.
TLB info
Instruction TLB: 4K, 2MB or 4MB pages, fully associative, 64 entries.
Data TLB: 4KB or 4MB pages, fully associative, 64 entries.
The physical package supports 2 logical processors

Thanks guys!