Two Xeon CPUs Are Better Than One Intel P4 Extreme Platform

Dual Xeon Double Offer

In Task Manager, two real and two virtual processors are shown.

As a rule, every Socket 604 Xeon CPU is suitable for HyperThreading technology. The E7505 is capable of simultaneously operating with two processors, as well as with HyperThreaded applications. As a result, four processors (two physical and two virtual) are available for the operating system. Nevertheless, the chipset has only one CPU interface, which means that both processors have to share one bus. At a speed of 133 MHz (533 MHz QDR), a bandwidth of 4.2 GB per second results. In a worst-case scenario, each virtual CPU will receive only one data flow at only 1 GB per second. However, this could have negative effects only with some OpenGL applications.

On the left, the Xeon and on the right, the P4 Northwood from Intel

The Intel Xeon (code name "Prestonia") is based on the same core as the Pentium 4 "Northwood". The latter operates with an FSB of 200 MHz (800 MHz QDR), and compiles at 6.4 GB per second. In order to balance out the up to 34% lower bandwidth with the Xeon, Intel also offers models with 1 or 2 MB L3 cache, beginning with the 2.4 GHz versions.

Prices For Current Xeon Processors

An analysis of availability and prices shows that 2.66 GHz models provide the best price-performance ratio. Intel's next step is to increase the FSB to 200 MHz (800 MHz QDR). Once again, this will mean new chipsets.