Exactly what kind of software benefits from P4?

[blahsome]

I have a P-III 1GHz at home, and have been using a P4 1.7GHz at work for a week. This is the first time I used a P4, but I didn't notice any big difference in performance. AFAIK, each is equiped similarly, with P4 probably having a slight advantage because it has new components.

What kind of software will see a dramatic boost in performance with P4? I'm asking this to assess if I need to upgrade my PC in the near future.

Thanks.

 

[dullard]

I'll cut to the point.

Benefits of P4: Higher frequency. More instructions.

Problem of P4: Processors try to predict the outcome of every fork in the road. Then they go down the path they choose. If the processor later finds out it took the wrong path, it must start over. The P4 has a larger pipeline. A larger pipeline means that everytime it makes a bad decision it pays a bigger speed penalty when it has to restart.

Programs that benefit from the P4: A) use the additional instructions. This is currently quite rare. B) have few forks in the road.

Edit: If you had the fastest computer in the world you will not see much difference in: word processing, email, internet downloads/uploads, or any other program where the CPU isn't the speed bottleneck. Example 1: Microsoft Word will not help you type a report any faster with a faster procesor. Word is limited by the input it gets from the keyboard, it cannot go faster than you type. Example 2: a program that uses the hard drive intensively most likely will run at the speed of the hard drive, and a different processor will do nothing for you.

 

[nortexoid]

let me comprehensively and exhaustively list all the software that benefits from a P4 architecture:

BAPco's SYSmark.

 

[Adul]

umm is there even a list?

I do not believe there is on software out there that completey takes advantage of the p4 SSE 2 instructions.

 

[randomlinh]

isn't the latext divx4 codec (the totally open one) optimized for p4? Altho, i'm sure they'll be doing amd optimizations too... but just throwing it out..

 

[Rand]

In a word- memory bandwidth. Anything that demands an extremely high sustained memory bandwidth will absolutely love the Pentium 4.

 

[thraxes]

DivX coding flies on a P4... otherwise it's just another processor with a different design than AMD

 

[Pabster]

thraxes wrote:

"DivX coding flies on a P4"

But it flies even faster on AthlonXP

There just isn't a whole lot of SSE2 optimized code out there. A bit here and there, but mainstream? No.

 

[thraxes]

Flies faster on an XP... i don't doubt it one second, only I haven't dealt with a newer AMD CPU yet. fastest box I have worked on yet was a P4-2000 with 512MB Rambus and GF3, pricewise though I would have to say: thank god it isn't mine, my bank account would kill me if I did something stupid like that

EDIT: typo

 

[Diable]

Pabster is right, most software thats SSE2 optimized is not "mainstream" but most people using a 1.5GHz or faster machine is probably not gonna use it for "mainstream" prepossess any way. Software I know of thats SSE2 optimized are:

v4.11 of the Divx4 codec
v389 of LAME(MP3 encoder)
GoMotion and LSX Suite 2(MPEG encoding programs)
TMPGenc version 2.0(MPEG encoding program)
FlaskMPEG versions 5 & 6(AVI encoding program)
Dragon Naturally Speaking
POV-Ray(if you use Steve Schmitt's recompiled P4 version)
v1.3 of Ejay(MP3 encoding proram)

Intel also has a list of SSE2 optimized software(here and here)but their both pretty old and not updated often.

 

[cookieman]

Hi!

Looking at the list posted by Diable I could say that for 95% of ppl it's better to have an P3 1Ghz than having a P4.
For the rest 5% ? Well maybe.

Or all could go the AMD way

Cheers,

 

[BatmanNate]

<< Flies faster on an XP... >>



...and even faster yet on a pair of them.

 

[Diable]

<< Hi!

Looking at the list posted by Diable I could say that for 95% of ppl it's better to have an P3 1Ghz than having a P4.
For the rest 5% ? Well maybe.

Or all could go the AMD way

Cheers, >>



The 5% would be better served by get a P4 because all the progams listed are SSE2 enhanced and will run faster the a comparable speed Athlon(when using those apps).

 

[Pabster]

Diable wrote:

"The 5% would be better served by get a P4 because all the progams listed are SSE2 enhanced and will run faster the a comparable speed Athlon(when using those apps)."

Not always. For example, my XP 1800+ using SSE optimizations encodes MPEG-2 in TMPGEnc 2.01 significantly faster than my 1.8GHz P4 using SSE2 optimizations. It's really hit and miss.

 

[thermite88]

The biggest advantage of P4 is its scalability to higher CPU frequency. This advantage benefits all softwares, including legacy codes writtern for the x86 instruction set. At this point, AMD's older architect is able to keep pace, but the picture may change in the next round since the AMD core is not nearly as scalable.