Just Around The Corner
The Pentium 4 processors released today at 1.9 and 2 GHz core clock are the last ones that are using the 0.18 micron 'Willamette' core. The next Pentium 4 processor, which is supposed to arrive in another couple of months as a 2.2 or 2.3 GHz version, will be equipped with the 0.13 micron core 'Northwood'. This new core will come with several enhancements of which only the increased 512 kB L2-cache size is known right now. It's the main reason why Intel 'invented' Socket478. Initially, Northwood was supposed to be launched at 2 GHz today, but good yields of Willamette at 2 GHz plus problems with Intel's 0.13 micron process delayed this launch.
Benchmarking
This time I decided against a major benchmarking battle, because the only thing we need to see is if Pentium 4 2 GHz is able to beat AMD's current top-notch processor Athlon 1400.
Benchmark Setup
| Intel Pentium 4 | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Pentium 4 1500 MHz (400 MHz QDR FSB)Intel Pentium 4 1700 MHz (400 MHz QDR FSB)Intel Pentium 4 1800 MHz (400 MHz QDR FSB)Intel Pentium 4 2000 MHz (400 MHz QDR FSB) |
| Motherboard | ASUS P4T BIOS: 1005 BETA 5 |
| Memory | 256 MB RD-RAM (SAMSUNG) |
| AMD ATHLON | |
| CPU | AMD Athlon 1200 MHz (266 MHZ DDR)AMD Athlon 1333 MHz (266 MHZ DDR)AMD Athlon 1400 MHz (266 MHZ DDR) |
| Motherboard | MSI MS-6341 Ver.: 1BIOS Version 1.1 |
| Memory | 2x 128 MB DDR-SDRAM, CL2, PC2100, Micron |
| Common Hardware | |
| Graphics Card | GeForce 2 UltraMemory: 64 MB DDR-SDRAMMemory Clock: 458,2 MHzChip Clock: 250,0 MHz |
| Hard Disk | 30 GB (IBM 307030)UDMA100 7200 rpm 2 MB Cache |
| Driver and Software | |
| IDE (Intel) | Intel Chipset Installation Utility Production Release V3.00.029IAA Version 3.1.2017.0 |
| AGP (Intel) | Intel Ultra ATA Storage Driver Production Release v6.10.011 |
| IDE (AMD) | VIA 4 in 1 Version 4.32 FINAL |
| AGP (AMD) | Miniport Treiber 4.80 (Win98SE)Miniport Driver 5.22 (Win2K) |
| Graphics Driver | Detonator 4 Serie V12.40 |
| DirectX Version | 8.0a |
| OS | Windows 2000 Pro SP2 (Build 2195)Windows 98 SE, Version 4.10.2222 A |
| Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Quake III Arena | Retail Version 1.16command line = +set cd_nocd 1 +set s_initsound 0Graphics detail set to 'Normal'Benchmark using 'Q3DEMO1' |
| SPECViewPerf | Version 6.1.21280x1024x16x85 |
| 3DMark2001 | Version 1.1 default |
| SiSoft Sandra 2001 | SE Pro |
| CINEMA 4D | CineBench R6 |
| Aquamark | v2.1 DirectX 8, T&L, Pixel & Vertex ShaderPixel Shader = NO |
| mpeg4 encoding | Flask V0.6DivX V3.22bCompression: 100Data Rate: 1500 kbit720x576 Pixel, 25 fpsDeinterlace (slow)HQ Bicubic FIlteringno Audio |
