Conclusion: Pentium 4 With 3 GHz - The Prospectus For Future CPUs
Our Tom's Hardware Speed Project shows that it is possible to overclock a Pentium 4/2200 to an extremely high rate of over 3000 MHz, and do so stably. However, special measures are required to ensure that the CPU core remains sufficiently cool. Otherwise, the integrated protection switch (throttling) will activate and turn off the CPU right away. To this end, we set up two different systems with the Pentium 4/2200, the first one with water cooling, and the second with fan cooling.
In the second system, we installed the special hand-picked processor, which we received from a reputable PC manufacturer. This special CPU was striking in its overclocking flexibility. Furthermore, the manufacturer told us that such an extraordinarily high potential is not easy to achieve with every CPU of this class. To sum this up: with an air-cooled system, you can only tweak special, hand-picked Pentium 4 Northwoods, whereas a water cooling system allows you to overclock nearly any P4 Northwood 2.2 GHz CPU to 3000 MHz and higher.
For the test, we worked with a core voltage of 1.85 Volt - factory-delivered Intel processors are only set to 1.5 Volt. The benchmark results seem to set new records: in Quake 3 Arena, the Pentium 4/3000 achieved a frame rate of 308 fps. In comparison, the fastest of the Pentium 4/2200 series reaches 280 fps, at best. In contrast, even an Athlon XP 2000+ that is overclocked to 1850 MHz doesn't have a ghost of a chance.
It's interesting to note that in the summer of 1993, the first Pentium ran at 60 MHz. Today, the Tom's Hardware Speed Project increased that speed by nearly a factor of 50, to reach 3000 MHz. The extensive tests show, without a doubt, that the Pentium 4 based on 0.13 micron technology still hasn't reached its limit with 3000 MHz, and people are probably going to be pushing it even further, especially the more ambitious users. .
Up to now, we still have not received a Pentium 4 processor with a deactivated multiplier lock from Intel, so the extreme increase in clock speed could only be attained by increasing the FSB clock and using a very effective watercooling system. Despite the fact that the Front Side Bus was overclocked from 100 MHz to 137 MHz, all the other components were run almost according to specification, since the Intel 845D chipset allows asynchronous operation: 137 MHz FSB / 4 = 34.2 MHz PCI vs. official 33.3 MHz; 137 MHz FSB / 2 = 68.5 MHz AGP vs. official 66.6 MHz.
