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Intel Moves To 533MHz FSB
homerj79 writes: "Intel has launched an upgrade 850 chipset and faster Pentium 4's today. The new chipset, dubbed the 850E, supports a 533MHz (133MHz x 4) front side bus, as do the processors. Supporting processors come in speeds of 2.53, 2.4 and 2.26GHz. The 2.4GHz part is denoted as supporting the new FSB by a 'B' tagged to the end of it. And it appears as if the new chipset gives the P4 a performance boost in most apps over the previous 400MHz FSB chips and the Athlon XP." Meanwhile, back at the other processor ranch, firemoth writes: "Today OCAU has something special - They've gotten their hands on 3 AthlonXP
CPU's based on AMD's new "Thoroughbred" core. This is the .13 micron
process, of course, with lower voltage. This article compares them to the
older Palomino core in both speed and temperature.. and they throw one into a
Vapochill supercooling case and see just how fast it can go."
Although quite a few Samsung PC800 modules will run at PC1066 speeds without any problems, but if any installed modules are not capable of running at the higher speed, the memory bus will get capped at the current max of 400Mhz (or 3.2GB/s).
I guess for now, the new processors don't really, really need the higher memory bandwidth, but as the processor speeds start to hit 3+ Ghz, the extra amount of bandwidth will become more important.
I remember the old ZX81 I built from a kit clocked its Z80 at 3.58MHz, so it could generate the synced television picture directly from the processor.
With 2.4GHz, I'm sure there will be wireless experiments by attempting to use the CPU as a DSP.
So Intel put the P4 on a quad-pumped bus to get the clock speed to look better. When AMD put the Athlon on a double-pumped 133 MHz bus and said it had a 266 MHz bus speed, nobody believed it. Now even Socket A motherboards admit that they run at 133 MHz now. What gives with Intel doing this? Am I missing something that's supposed to impress me?
(if I am, please tell me, because otherwise I will be buying an AMD processor for my new computer)
who cares what the FSB is at this stage. untill we have SDRAM that supports this "bandwidth" it will not help out total system performence.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I have an AMD 1.4 GHz and its too damn hot. I had to create a wind tunnel in my case to keep it cool.
IS the noise really worth it?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
*yawn*
I'm running a 900 mhz Duron right now, and have been for a year and a half.
I do some pretty heavy photoshopping, media work, and compiling. I've never felt that I was being slowed down significantly by my processor.
I upgraded to 1GB RAM, and that improved things, but I just don't feel the need to go out and get the latest processor any more, the need is simply not in the applications.
Maybe if I were playing games or ripping DivX, but really it seems that for the vast majority of the home market, the technology has vastly outpaced the need, even the latest-greatest MS OS can't justify the need for this kind of iron.
Though I guess this means that the next computer I buy will be that much cheaper, since "low end" systems (with slight boosts to hard drive and memory) are now all that I need.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
clock speed != performance
write that 1000 times
if AMD has to fudge numbers to sell an equivalent product, that's the fault of the largely ignorant market, not AMD.
read any of their literature, they're very honest and upfront about what they're doing.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
This might have been funny if the writeup above (not to mention the article and common sense in general) didn't say that its 133x4. So I have to ask, are you a moron?
when the clock speed of the latest chipsets is faster than the clock speed of your processor, motherboard, and memory. Combined.
I didn't see any mention of SMP support in either article for the new chipset. Does the P4 even support SMP? What are the current MB offerings for SMP?
One or the other has to come out first, may as well be this. Sure it's chicken and egg, but necessary. Saying this won't help total system performance is like saying Watt's improvements on Newcomen's steam engine were no biggy until iron rails came into play. Improvements come in steps, lots of tiny steps, always has, always will.
Infuriate left and right
Intel should be building ATA-133 and Firewire/IEEE1394 support into their chipsets as well. And the i845E should have support for DDR300.
So buy an SIS chipset instead.
This should increase the speed at which Windows XP crashes dramatically. I can probably fit 1.5 times as many crashes in during the same period of time as on my old motherboards.
Measuring the performance of a CPU using megahertz is like comparing the speed of 2 vehicles based on horsepower alone. For instance, would you say that a 5500 pound muscle car with 300 horsepower is just immediately faster than a 300 pound motorcycle with only 100 horsepower? When you look at the 1/4 mile numbers, you'll find a nasty surprise. The motorcycle will beat the crap out of the car any day. When comparing CPUs, you need to look at the end results, which in this case are benchmarks. Whether they be synthetic, or my preferred method: FPS. I find it interesting that an Athlon XP 2100+ running at 1.73 gHz can run Wolfenstein .1 frames faster than the p4 at 2.53 gHz. That alone should tell you that you're looking at the wrong number. If you're going to blame anyone, blame intel for creating the p4 the way they did, which resulted in them being able to clock it faster, but without actually making it faster. They're the ones with the nasty PR, if you ask me. AMD is just trying to compensate for the general uninformed masses.
Nicodemus
That's funny--I thought 4x133=532. A good clue the math is wrong is that multiplying with an even number should not generate an odd number.
AMD already seem to be falling behind in the clock speed race quite badly.
7 3879) for more insight.
Have you been living in a cave? AMD's chips (for the dollar) have been beating Intel for the last few years. Clock speed has nothing to do with it. See this post (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=30456&cid=32
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Buying RAM is a bit confusing now. Athlons have 200MHz FSB and 266MHz FSB. What kind of DDR should I use with each? There is DDR1600, DDR2100, DDR333, and some other stuff. Now there is this intel chip with 533MHz FSB. Is there an easy rule to remember what number after the 'DDR' coresponds with the number before the 'FSB'?
It gets so confusing, building your own systems is becoming less appealing.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
When, do you think, will we see processors with the main memory built in? I mean you may as well stuff it when you get it, it'll make it cheaper because we'll all get the same thing. Or is that just too far fetched an idea? ie. The new 2.5GHz with 4GB RAM right on the CPU. Hunh? Maybe it'll get rid of all this crap surrounding buying or trying to match RAM to...whatever!!!!
Measuring the performance of a CPU using megahertz is like comparing the speed of 2 vehicles based on horsepower alone.
:)
I think RPM is a better analogy.
C//
P4 vs. Athlon XP race is irrelevant. AMD need not take the speed crown again, they just need to keep their existing market share until Hammers hit stores. BTW, Athlon XP is still very fast, moreover it is avaliable now unlike benchmarked P4s. If you can't help lusting for even more speed, a dual athlon xp box is quite affordable unlike a dual P4 Xeon box.
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