exar333
Diamond Member
- Feb 7, 2004
- 8,518
- 8
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Let me refresh your memory.
Pentium 4 3.2ghz vs. Athlon 64 3200+.
A64 was faster in games, but otherwise Pentium 4 3.2ghz HT competed well against it. With overclocking and onslaught of X2 processors, AMD really pulled ahead later. However, those X2 processors cost $400-500. The difference between a single core A64 and Pentium 4 "C" was actually fairly small at stock speeds. The gap in performance today is nothing like it was between A64 and Pentium 4.
Ironically, the situations where BD will likely be strong are exactly the ones where Pentium 4 outperformed A64 - Rendering, video encoding, etc. Yet, A64 proved to be superior for a lot of us since it was better for games - just like SB is today.
Also, Intel had 2 competing architectures at the time -- Pentium M and Pentium 4. Pentium M was superior to A64 in the mobile sector actually. Intel already knew that Netburst was end of the line since they miscalculated their ability to increase frequency. So the fact that A64 was better had a lot to do not only with AMD's excellent CPU, but Intel's failure to release a desktop Banias Pentium M processor.
Pentium 4 didn't really have great overclocking headroom compared to Athlon 64 (on a % basis) and it didn't have leading IPC either. With SB it is an entirely different situation. You have an Intel CPU with serious overclocking headroom (nearly 35-40%) + leading IPC at the same time. So even if BD can compete at stock speeds, that's still only half way there. For enthusiasts like us, in its overclocked form it would also have to be able to compete with an overclocked SB.
Great post.
I remember building my first A64 system and choosing that over the P4 775 system available. The A64 3200+ was ~$200 and the comperable P4 was the P4 3.0 or 3.2 at a similar price point. My A64 OCd to about 2.5ghz, while the P4 would OC to ~3.6ghz or so with equivalent cooling options.
The A64 was faster at what used my computer for back then (games) with about 1000mhz less speed. Encoding-wise, the processors both at stock or both at OC speeds would have been pretty similar. The A64 had about 25% OC headroom, while the P4 had 15-20%. I didn't want the heat from the P4 though...that was pretty bad.
When the dual-cores came out, the X2 was MILES ahead of the Pentium D's, but did cost a lot...I couldn't afford an X2 at the time, and didn't get a dualie until C2D came out a while later.