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| 5/24 |
| 2001/7/6-7 [Computer/HW/CPU] UID:21723 Activity:moderate |
7/6 pentium 4's are dirt cheap now. should i get one? how are they better
than p3's?
\_ Butt memory expensive.
\_ no. they are broken wrt multiplications. - paolo
\_ URL please?
\_ href:mailto=demmel@cs.berkeley.edu
\_ Why use a wimpy old URL when you can talk to Demmel
himself?
\_ so is it better to get a P3 1 GHz or pay $100 more for a P4 1.3 GHz?
\_ No, buy an Athlon 1.3Ghz for < P3 1Ghz. Using a P4 has two major
problems: #1 The P4 has a piddlingly small cache. This will
require a major design revision, and probably won't happen until
the next process shrink. #2 One word: RAMBUS.
Oh, yeah, while I'm at it, the current P3 design will NEVER go
faster than 1Ghz. Intel already has the next revision ready,
and it will run faster than 1Ghz, but the current speculation is
that they won't release it for a while because it will tank the
already mediocre P4 sales.
\_ P4 isn't MP compatible either AFAIK. Go with AMD. Athlon
is much faster than P4 and there a reasonably priced MP
\_ Yeah those are P4 Xeons. ($$$)
boards for them as well.
\_ Yeah those are P4 Xeons. ($$$) Don't you have to buy
special Athlon multiprocessor CPUs also?
\_ Right now you have to buy a Athlon MP part, but
its not that expensive (~ $100 for 1.4 GHz). Its
supposed to get cheaper in August since there are
new Athlon MP parts and mbs coming out. I'm waiting
till then before deciding on what system to buy.
\_ If you want to buy a P4 the 1.4 GHz part is the sweet spot
at $195 retail. This compares to $165 for a retail 866 MHz P3.
\_ http://gamespot.com/gshw/stories/flat/0,12880,2781969,00.html
Notice how the Athlon 1.4 GHz stands up.
\_ Notice that the P4 is a fledgling product with a lot of room
for growth. Buy a P3 1.0 GHz now or wait until the P4 grows
up. Don't bother with AMD. --dim
\_ This applies to all AMD CPUs.
\_ The AMD Elan series are pretty good for their prices.
\_ The P4 is an abomination. Avoid it until it gets fixed.
\_ By the way, I have a GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 3
800MHz. Is it a Pentium II, III or 4?
\_ 3.
\_ Hmm, I have a 6-5-1 which is a P-II. So Intel didn't up the
family number when it went from P-II to P-III? |
| 5/24 |
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| gamespot.com/gshw/stories/flat/0,12880,2781969,00.html Both companies have successively introduced faster variations of their processors with the hope of claiming the performance title once definitively held by Intel. The Pentium 4 has decisively pushed the megahertz edge over to Intel, but in processors, speed and power aren't necessarily the same. However, speed increases are just one of the changes Intel has in store for the Pentium 4. Fortunately for those put off by expensive Pentium 4 motherboards and memory, Intel will introduce a new chipset, the i845, later this year that will support standard PC133 memory. Prospective buyers should also keep in mind that Intel is planning to move the Pentium 4 to a new socket interface later this year. That is to say, the 423-pin motherboard connector that the current Pentium 4 plugs into will be incompatible with future Pentium 4 processors. Consequently, if the ability to upgrade your processor is of importance, hold off on a Pentium 4 purchase, at least until the Socket 478 is introduced. The Pentium 4's architecture is a significant departure from the Pentium III and Athlon, which in turn makes it difficult to directly compare its speeds with other designs. All Pentium 4 processors have a 20-stage pipeline--twice the depth of the Pentium III. Breaking the processing pipeline into so many stages has made it easier for Intel to increase clock speeds, but there are some consequences. A longer pipeline raises the stakes when it comes to the gambling that modern processors do, that is, predicting the results of one operation in order to get a jumpstart on the next. Prediction helps keep the processor running at full speed and is based on a history of results for similar operations. When mispredictions occur, the Pentium 4's entire 20-stage pipeline has to be flushed to get back on track. The Pentium 4's trace-cache and double-speed arithmetic units help combat this penalty. Also, to ensure that the processor is never starved for data, the front-side bus has been accelerated to the equivalent of 400MHz, compared to 133MHz in most Pentium III systems. We'll look at the performance that the Pentium 4 is capable of shortly, but first we'll look at the price. Editor's Note: You can find comparative pricing on Pentium 4 processors in our 41 CPU Price Guide, which is updated daily from ComputerShopper's database of online merchants. |