Pentium 4 or Pentium D?

[darielgames]

I have 2 choices for my processor Pentium 4 3.2 GHz HT or Pentium D 3.0 GHz.
Currently I'm using the Pentium 4. I don't know if the Pentium D with 0.2GHz less will make a significant speed boost since its dual core.

Specs:
Ram: DDR2 3.5GB (1.75 per slot)
GPU: GT 430 Evga
CPU: Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz

I feel like my processor is bottle necking my pc's performance in games.

 

[lazyboy947]

Matters if the games ur playing utilize the HT of the pentium, personally if a 430gt, and a pentium current fit ur gaming needs, a AMD APU upcoming trinity with the built in gpu will be better than a 430, and of course is a quad core, and prob ur the rest of ur parts will work with a apu and new motherboard. except the ddr2 but 4gb of ddr3 is like $20
So new cpu and motherboard will maybe be like $200 tops if u get the best apu with a good motherboard and ram. a current A8 is $110 for the best one and a cheap good motherboard ranges from $70+, and ram can go from $15+

 

[darielgames]

I like to play Gotham City Imposters but its really lagy. I already have that processor I just need to know if it'll be faster. I don't have the money to buy those sort of things. Im using hand me downs from my brother's super pc.
I also try playing ps2 games but are slow as well, I just dont think its a matter of GPU.
Either way out of those 2 which is faster?

 

[lazyboy947]

ok, well the system requirements for the gotham city imposters is a dual core and i guess both cpus will work, but if the pentium single core with HT, and the celeron is a dual core with no HT, then it matters if the game uses the pentium HT, i looked quickly and couldnt find if it does, id look into that more or have someone tell u but if it does use the hyper threading for being a newer game i should, thats all i got lol.

 

[bucknutty]

The Pentium D would be about 50-75% faster than the pentium 4 in most games.
I personally had a p4 3.2 with 800meg fsb and 2 meg cach. I dropped a Pentium D 3.0 with 800fsb and 4meg cach in and 3dmark 06 went from 5,000 up to 7,900.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

A Pentium D is literally 2 Pentium 4 chips on the same die. It is by far a better choice than a Pentium 4 if those are your only choices. Almost every bit of software you use in a day unless you are running a Windows XP box from 2004 that has never had an update does better with at least a dual core processor. In fact having a quad core is pretty much the norm today especially for gaming.

You will never be able to play newer games on either of those processors but the Pentium D is by far the best of the 2.

 

[bucknutty]

Whats the chipset on your board? Although both chips are a socket 775 the mother board needs at least an intel 945 to use a pentium D.

An intel 945 should report the ram in each slot as 2gbs and not 1.75 with a 64bit OS.

 

[bucknutty]

A Pentium D is literally 2 Pentium 4 chips on the same die. It is by far a better choice than a Pentium 4 if those are your only choices. Almost every bit of software you use in a day unless you are running a Windows XP box from 2004 that has never had an update does better with at least a dual core processor. In fact having a quad core is pretty much the norm today especially for gaming.

You will never be able to play newer games on either of those processors but the Pentium D is by far the best of the 2.

\My pentium d with 4 gigs of 667 ram and an old 8800gt runs MW3 on medium ish at 1680x1050 no problem.

 

[darielgames]

It says the chip set is i945P/G/GZ. And are the 775 LGA and 775 ports any different? Or is lga irrelevant? My brother says that the mother board only supports 1.75g per PCI slot. And Im running on Windows 7 64 bit

 

[Deleted member 217926]

\My pentium d with 4 gigs of 667 ram and an old 8800gt runs MW3 on medium ish at 1680x1050 no problem

I'm surprised. I skipped the Pentium D. I bought a first gen LGA 775 Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz with HT and a 6600Ultra when I was at a time I was too busy to really do much gaming and by the time I had time to game again I grabbed a Core2Duo E6600 wth an 8800 GTS 320.

 

[darielgames]

These are the requirements for Gotham city imposters:

Minimum
OS: Windows XP SP3
Processor: Dual Core CPU 2.5 GHz
Memory: 1.5 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 7 GB Hard Drive Space
Video Card: 256MB dedicated memory DX9 Video Card (GeForce 8600 or ATI X1800 or better)
DirectX®: DX9
Sound: DX9 compatible Sound Controller
Additional: Broadband Internet Connection

Recommended
OS: Windows 7
Processor: Quad Core CPU 2 GHz
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 7 GB Hard Drive Space
Video Card: 512MB DX9 High-Performance Video Card (GeForce 8800 or ATI X1900 or better)
DirectX®: DX9
Sound: DX9 compatible Sound Controller
Additional: Broadband Internet Connection

 

[darielgames]

I'm sorry I messed up on my ram 4.0 (3.5 usable). 1 stick with 2 GB and 2 sticks with 1 GB. I;m not sure what really is limiting how much is usable.

 

[mightymaxio]

Your 32bit OS is you need XP x64 which is worse than Vista in all aspects or Windows 7 x64 to utilize more than 3.5gb of ram.

Honestly though I laugh at people that want to spend a fortune to get old computers running when it only costs about 50-100$ to get a brand new machine that runs so much faster. If you don't believe me look at craigslist and look at some of those machines on there.

 

[darielgames]

I have windows 7 64 bit, I think its that my processor is 32-bit.

 

[mightymaxio]

If you have 64bit windows than you have a 64bit processor since thats a requirement meaning it won't install without a 64bit processor. What it sounds like now is a limitation of your motherboard which usually 99% of the time can't be fixed due to memory mapping.

 

[tajisi]

If your CPU is 32 bit, you can't be running a 64 bit OS. As for the CPU... the Pentium D will be faster in pretty much every way to the older Pentium.

Part of your problem is that your CPU is going to limit you in every game you play. PS2 emulators are very CPU intensive and some games only run at playable speed on 4+ GHZ i5 / i7 CPUs. It's simply not going to run on a Pentium 4, dual core or otherwise.

 

[darielgames]

Best answer selected by darielgames.

 

[mubin]

A Pentium D is literally 2 Pentium 4 chips on the same die. It is by far a better choice than a Pentium 4 if those are your only choices. Almost every bit of software you use in a day unless you are running a Windows XP box from 2004 that has never had an update does better with at least a dual core processor. In fact having a quad core is pretty much the norm today especially for gaming.

You will never be able to play newer games on either of those processors but the Pentium D is by far the best of the 2.

+1, Pentium D has 2x3ghz core inside. Theoretically double speed than P4.

 

[InvalidError]

+1, Pentium D has 2x3ghz core inside. Theoretically double speed than P4.

Except each of those cores are half as good as Core2's or anything newer than that while using ~50% more power.

If I were in the OP's shoes, I would bite the bullet and go with a platform upgrade to something like Pentium G2120. Around $200 total cost but almost 3X as fast as the Pentium-D (5-6X as fast as OP's current system) and using half as much power for the CPU.

Edit: and this also avoids confusion about "64bitness" while providing OP an opportunity to get 8GB DDR3 for much cheaper than doing so with his old DDR2 platform.

 

[Danra]

If you are having issues with less RAM showing than you actually have, you could have a hardware problem, such as some bad RAM on a stick for example.

You may have to flash your BIOS. Go to the web site of your motherboard manufacturer, get the information you need so you will know HOW to flash the BIOS. Make sure you type in or select the exact motherboard and version [such as version 1.0 for example], before you flash the BIOS. -- And, do not do anything to stop the computer, like shutting the power off or touching the on/off switch.

 

[luciferano]

I'm pretty sure that Pentium 4 (R) has a 64 bit instruction set (old EMT64 or something like that).

 

[amuffin]

I'm pretty sure that Pentium 4 (R) is 64 bit.

Nope!
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/581/Intel-Pentium-4-Processor/desktop

A majority of them are all 32 bit.

 

[luciferano]

Nope!
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/581/Intel-Pentium-4-Processor/desktop

A majority of them are all 32Bit, same thing with the Core 2 Duo's.

Still, some of them are. OP would have to check with OP's individual model to be sure. I know that my Pentium 4 3GHz HTT 2MB cache and my Pentium D 3.2GHz 2x1MB cache are both 64 bit because I've run 64 bit software on 64 bit operating systems on them.

EDIT: For example, there is a 3.2GHz 64 bit Pentium 4 (a Pentium 4 640).

Of course, P4 is inadequate for what OP wants to do and is thus irrelevant, not that I'm saying otherwise.

 

[mubin]

Except each of those cores are half as good as Core2's or anything newer than that while using ~50% more power.

Just like Core 2 duo's core are half as good as 2nd gen i3.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Nope!
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/581/Intel-Pentium-4-Processor/desktop

A majority of them are all 32 bit.

Actually the OP has an LGA 775 system. So he more likely than not has a 64 bit processor. The First gen LGA 775 chips were the Pentium 4 5xx chips with 32 bit only. The later 6xx series chips were identcal with the exception of 64 bit addressing. The second generation of LGA 775 Pentium 4 chips also saw revisions in the 5xx series to add 64 bit instructions. These were the 5x1 chps like the 531. All of the Pentium D chips supported 64 bit both 8xx and 9xx series.

I built entirely too many LGA 775 computers.



CPU-Z will tell you the exact model chip you have.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html