Difference between 133fsb Xeon and 133fsb P3

[Jayllo]

I was wonder what real performance difference is there between a 733mhz Xeon with 256kb cache and a p3 733 with 256kb. Other than the interface is there a significant difference? Just like the p4, the core seems to be the same with the same amount of ram, except the p4 xeon seems to have smp support. Is there a real distinct difference other than packaging and pricing?

 

[butch84]

Although im not posative, I have always heard that the 256k xeons are simply in a different package, and the only performance gains with xeons come from the ones that have 512k or greater. anybody wanna back me up on this??

If this is the case, just go for a dualie socket 370 mobo. Slot 2 xeon boards are almost prohibitively expensive unless you have $ to burn.

 

[GFORCE100]

Well it goes somewhat like this.

1.) Pentium III Xeon 256K = Pentium III 256K performance (difference is Slot 2 Vs FCPGA, Slot 1.)
2.) Pentium III Xeon 1MB (700, 900MHz) > Pentium III 700/900MHz performance (due to the 1MB of L2 cache, upto quad processor certified, also Slot 2.)
3.) Pentium III Xeon 2MB (700,900MHz) > Pentium III Xeon 1MB > Pentium III 700/900MHz (2MB L2 cache does it job.)

Okay and now you mentioned the Pentium 4 Xeon too. They call it the Xeon prcessor now.

1.) Based on the Williamtte core it has 256K L2 cache, SMP compliant and no hyperthreading, socket 603.
2.) Based on the Northwood core it has 512K L2 cache, SMP compliant and supports hyperthreading, socket 603.
3.) Xeon (Northwood core with hyperthreading. 512K L2) > Xeon (Williamette core without hyperthreading, 256K L2) performance.

So it's pretty confusing unless you memorize this stuff or seek some kind of interest frequently in Intels processor lineup.

The simple answer is some Xeons are a lot faster than the cheaper ones.

I didn't mention the 512K L2 cache Pentium III Xeons because they are no longer produced. They did exist though at 500, 550MHz.