Intel "Northwood" vs. Athlon XP 2000+

Augustus writes: "LinuxHardware.org has just published their results in the Pentium 4 verses Athlon XP war. In this review, the new Pentium 4 'Northwood' 2.2GHz is pitted against the Athlon XP 2000+. To level the playing field, both platforms use DDR memory which make for some interesting results."

Comments

Tom's Hardware Did This 2 Weeks Ago

[LuxuryYacht]

Take a look at

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q1/020107/ind ex .html

They posted the results of their showdown 2weeks ago.

Re:DDR vs. RDRAM

[larien]

Yup, PIV's are memory bandwidth hungry (which is why I cringe when I see P4s with SDRAM). Fact is, this 'economy' decision is what drives consumer PCs; the average sensible consumer should accept the lower clock speeds of the Athlon (even if he sees behind the marketing numbers) if he saves a few hundred bucks.

If RDRAM can get its prices down to closer to DDR, it might actually compete properly. Until then, AMDs lower prices and the lower price of DDR ram is going to wipe Intel's ass on value for money.

Re:Need better testing

[Chris Burke]

The XP is the same mask as the MP. The only difference is the AMD MP Seal of Approval(tm).

Just pointing that out.

Results

[Derkec]

For those of you wondering what the results are, here's the summary of what Tom's did, I still can't get to LinuxHardware

A comparison of the two top products from AMD and Intel reveals the astonishing: although the processors are as different from one another as apples and oranges, the difference is much less obvious in the benchmark results, when taken from an absolute standpoint.

In any case, one thing is visible: in the majority of performance tests, the new Pentium 4/2200 is ahead. After all, the top AMD processor has to make do with 1666 MHz, while its archenemy steps in with 2200 MHz. A closer look at the comprehensive benchmarks reveals that in Office performance as well as Linux Kernel compiling, the Athlon XP still takes the lead, despite its 32% clock speed disadvantage!

Re:Upper Headroom?

[steveha]

How do the next few months look in terms of the ability of either Intel or AMD to improve upon these products?

The Pentium 4 is now being made with a .13 micron process, vs. the .18 micron process still being used to make the Athlon. When AMD starts selling Athlon chips made with the .13 micron process, they will once again be beating the Pentium 4 in benchmarks.

That is, assuming AMD gets the .13 micron process version out in a reasonable amount of time. If AMD takes too long getting their act together, Intel may be able to push the Pentium 4 to some ridiculous level (5 GHz or something) and win.

However, the Athlon will continue to rule in price/performance. Those of us who pay for their own computers will likely keep buying Athlons.

The latest I have seen on the AMD website is that the .13 micron chips should be out in "1H 2002", which presumably means June this year. That shouldn't be too late by any means; I doubt that Intel can do much with the Pentium 4 by that time.

P.S. Who among us really needs more performance than current Athlons? Even when Doom III comes out, current CPUs will have adequate performance (it's the 3D graphics card you will need to drop money on, not your CPU). I'm looking forward to buying a .13 micron Duron chip, to use in low-heat/low-noise computers.

steveha