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Subject: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

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Original Message Date: 25-Nov-00 @ 12:06 AM - Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

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Just read the PC Pro tests on the new Intel Pentium 4 and it makes interesting reading. On their floating point performance test, the most important for Audio performance, the P4 1.5GHz only scored 884MIPS compared to the 1GHz Athlons stunning 1386MIPS! On normal applications there was little difference between the chips and the P4 was quicker for 3D (games) by 20%. These are amazing results given that the P4 was clocked 50% faster than the Athlon. Even more intersting is that you can actually buy a 1.2GHz Athlon now, whereas I doubt you'd get your hands on a P4 until early next year.

Intel will claim the worlds fastest chip, but it's real world performance that matters, not clock speed and for that the Athlon looks the best choice. Maybe software specifically compiled for the P4 will run quicker, but do we really want to have to get new versions of our software every time a new chip is launched? No wonder Intels sales figures are so poor!

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Message 11/32 29-Nov-00 @ 10:13 PM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

99devils

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That's exactly my point... Intel is
driving the chip market faster than the
market has a need for new hardware.

$$$ killed Rambus... It's too expensive
for the performance benefit.

And as far as Intel constantly expanding
the instruction sets... Umm, little
lesson in processor architecture:

CISC - Complex Instruction Set Computer.
Processors like Intel's are CISC
processors. There are lots of
instructions. This results in an
inefficient and complicated CPU core.

RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer.
These CPUs are designed with very few
instructions, but the CPU core is much
more highly optimized to execute those
few instructions very quickly.
Pipelining implementations are usually
better, and they usually outperform CISC
CPUs of equivalent clock speed. Sun's
SPARC, SGI's MIPS, and Apple/IBM's Power
PC/G3/G4 CPUs are RISC. See the pattern?

Generally, at least when I took
architecture in college, RISC designs
were considered to be far superior to
CISC designs in terms of simpler design,
better performance, easier
manufacturing, etc... It always puzzled
me that Intel kept adding new
instructions to their CPU since the
prevailing thought in the industry is to
go the opposite way. In fact, I can't
think of a single CPU in use today in
computing that isn't a RISC-type device
unless it's intended to be "Intel
Compatible"

-Craig

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Message 12/32 30-Nov-00 @ 04:48 AM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

Jimmy

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Volley..

I wouldnt count on the Duron there..its equivelnt would be a Celeron...I tried using a Celeron in a music pc type o' enviroment, and it sank fast. The damn thing cant even handle running winamp and an internet service at the same time. I think Intel may have marketed the Celeron towards Grandmothers sending email. Or maybe it was "Internet PCs" they were goin for..Ive found that running a DAW like i am, including 4-5 VSTi's at once, AT LEAST needs a pIII or K7..that is, if you dont want stuttering audio or crashing systems..oh yeah! my T-bird system gets here either tomorrow or Friday..I'll bet some of ya want to know how it fares for the use of Cubase or any other Softsynth related stuff...

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Message 13/32 30-Nov-00 @ 04:59 AM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

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it's got VERY small cache the duron.

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Message 14/32 30-Nov-00 @ 05:03 AM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

Syn

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read tomshardware.com or arstechnica.com for the lowdown on the duron, it simply spanks a celeron

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Message 15/32 30-Nov-00 @ 10:49 PM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

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Your lesson in processor architecture is too simplistic. The cores of the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, III and 4 and the AMD K6 and Athlon are all RISC. To maintain compatability with the x86 instruction set they employ a decoder which translates x86 instructions into micro-ops and feeds them into the pipelines.

The next generation of Intel chips (Itanium) and the AMD Sledgehammer will work differently again. It is true though that the x86 compatability does limit the performance, but not that much. The clever bit is the speculative execution where the chip takes a guess at what operation will be needed and does it before it's required, all very clever stuff.

I don't think the Duron is a good buy for audio given the very low prices of Athlons. I would suspect that the Athlon's floating point performance, which determines how many plugins you can run is a lot better than the Duron's.

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Message 16/32 30-Nov-00 @ 11:26 PM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

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actually Pentiums are not so much more expensive

p3 600 �114

p3 800 �153

athalon 800 �128

25 quid ??.... and ONLY intel chips can run in dual or more processor mode currently with win2k which when sorted out IS the way to go without doubt - now, if you can run up to 8 processors & 4gb ram.. why bother to upgrade?.. just buy more chips & ram and get more cheap p3 800's (they will be cheap next year and the next after that etc..

so mebbe it's time to 'get off' the upgrade processor/board etc cycle and start to look at adding MORE processing power as we need it to a fixed reliable system ??

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Message 17/32 30-Nov-00 @ 11:45 PM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

Jimmy

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Syn, maybe the Duron does spank it, but then again, doesnt AMD jus spank Intel? ; )

anywho, The Duron is SUPPOSED to market against the Celeron..it cant help if its 100x better.

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Message 18/32 01-Dec-00 @ 06:58 AM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

Syn

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lol @jimmy
I agree!
lol @ ck *joking :-)*
the durons fpu is exactly the same as the athlons only the on die cache is smaller and runs at chip speed like the celerons, man when i get some money i am going to build a new computer (out of a duron) and make all your intel boxes bend over and take it up the *ss! (with my 256 megs of ram it will hurt plenty good) hahahahhah i am crazy today

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Message 19/32 01-Dec-00 @ 03:07 PM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

Jasper

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Jimmy, which celeron would that be exactly? I have no problems like you mentioned with mine. (500mhz).

I aint disagreeing with your point, but considering k tests audio apps with a 200mhx pro.. you seriously think a celeron is worse?

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Message 20/32 01-Dec-00 @ 06:07 PM - RE: Pentium 4 1.5GHz slower than an Athlon 1GHz!

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hehe - exactly... but whilst the durons are cheap, i STILL think you consider a p3 tho, they are 500 quid now for a basic 800 machine and at least you have the option to go multi-cpu in future with another p3 & a board change.

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