Intel Pentium 4 6xx and 3.73EE: Favoring Features Over Performance
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on February 21, 2005 6:15 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Final Words
So what conclusions do we draw from all this?
The 600 series is more about feature set than performance. Decreasing the cache miss rate and increasing the cache latency isn't exactly the best path to follow in the consumer market. Most PC workloads don't push enough threads or large enough data to really take advantage of the larger cache. We can see the potential improvement in the 43% increase under Maya, and looking back at the Irwindale benchmarks, it's obvious that strapping 2MBs of higher latency cache onto NetBurst has its place. But that won't be the draw of the 600 series on the desktop.
The introduction of EIST and EM64T on the desktop (from the mobile and server space respectively), is a point in the 600 series' favor. Dropping very powerful processors into SFF boxes is more of a possibility with the better heat management features. Of course, the faster the chip, the larger the differences in power as all of the processor models drop to the same frequency and voltage. As for EM64T, we still don't have a 64bit OS from Microsoft. We are on a release candidate, so hopefully we will see a shipping product soon.
The value of these new processors isn't terribly greater than that of the 500 series. If 32bit performance is your only worry, than the 600 processors are not the place to look until the 3.8GHz model becomes available. For those who are interested in the new technology from Intel, it may do to wait and see if prices on the new parts fall after being on the market for some time. Intel wants both of these lines to coexist, but, without a 64bit Windows, there just isn't enough to sell the 600 series over the 500 series yet.
The new 600 series isn't as much of a step forward in performance as it is a step sideways for Intel. As the 600 series core will be the one on which dual core chips are based, it does make sense for Intel to introduce power saving features and a larger cache. Our advice is to look at your favorite application and pick the part that offers the performance you need at the best price. For those who need EIST and EM64T now, even though there is a price premium, performance under the 600 series is generally on par with (or better than) the 500 series.
And if you feel like paying for Intel's 65nm fab plants, feel free to buy the new Pentium 4 3.73GHz Extreme Edition, but if you want the same performance and still want an Intel CPU, the Pentium 4 660 will do just as well.
With dual core coming this year, performance where it is, and street prices showing up higher than we would like to see them, we have trouble recommending the Pentium 4 600 series to anyone who doesn't need it.
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Alfaneo - Friday, August 26, 2005 - link
here is 478 pin result
Run All Summary
---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.99
---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 14.27
---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 20.60
---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 12.34
---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 18.69
---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.74
---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 14.16
---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 18.35
blckgrffn - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
Let's hope that they don't post it because they know that running 1T is imperative to get good performance number, and thus use it by default.Hans Maulwurf - Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - link
Many other sites don´t publish their command rate either, this looks very strange for me. Most sites used to publish them before. I don´t understand...L3p3rM355i4h - Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - link
I'm assuming 1T, although the ammount of pwnage that would occur if it was 2T would be incredible.Zebo - Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - link
Derek/Anand- Why is it you don't say what A64's command rate was? 1T or 2T? This makes a huge impact on A64's performance (as shown by Anand right here and myself in forums) and is sloppy jounalism to leave out. Sure "other" sites do this crap but not anandtech.:|Dualboy24 - Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - link
I am just not finding the releases to be impressive lately... I am waiting to see the future dual core etc... perhaps that will wow us all. Its just not like the 90s anymore where it was always an exciting time with CPUs.Perhaps a battle between 56kbps modem models would prove entertaining :) L()L
neogodless - Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - link
#64 I'm saying I don't bother. I don't do that at work (P42.4C) either. At work, I listen to MP3s while having 2 e-mail clients open, various browser windows and tabs, a development environment, FTP, database manager, various IM programs, remote desktop, etc. And I do about the same at home, though usually on a smaller scale. And it works fine. However, if I go to a web page that gobbles up resources (poorly written javascript, i can give you an example page), I'm able to do everything else on the HT machine which shows about "53%" overall CPU usage. An the Athlon 64, if something gobbles up CPU, I see "99%" usage and a sluggish environment. But it's ALL subjective... I want to see Objective measurements.I also don't want to see Athlon vs. Intel opinions/flames because I'm not claiming one or the other is better... just asking for objective measurements.
RZaakir - Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - link
neo, are you saying that you have problems running a game and listening to MP3s simultaneously on your Athlon 64?RockHydra11 - Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - link
Disappointing to say the least....neogodless - Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - link
I'm not sure why I got attacked for requesting Multi-tasking benchmarks. I prefer my AMD for gaming, and I prefer the Intel at work where I run lots of programs at once but (unfortunately) never game. It's not a fair comparison anyway because my home machine is limited by only one monitor, while my work machine has two.Yes, many benchmarks are optimized for Hyperthreading, and if they are synthetic, then it doesn't matter. I'm asking for benchmarks with programs you use every day. If they're optimized for Hyperthreading, then you will see real world benefit from that, when using an HT enabled processor.
When I run games on my AMD64, it gobbles up all the CPU (even if it's an old game) for whatever reason, and I don't find it practical to leave a game running in the background while doing something else. I've done it, and it didn't greatly hinder doing some small task like check e-mail or send an instant message, but I wouldn't intentionally do it, especially if I decided I'd rather listen to Mp3s than finish my game...