First "Northwood" P4 Review Posted...with Real Benchmarks @ GamePC

[KenAF]

The first "Northwood" P4 review has been posted by GamePC! They tested the 2.0GHz version using the standard Intel heatsink and compared it against a retail Athlon XP 2000+.

At 2.0GHz, the "Northwood" P4 beat the Athlon XP 2000+ in some benchmarks, offered comparable performance in others, but lost badly to the XP 2000+ in some tests like Lame MP3 encoding and the Sandra CPU benchmark.

However, they also had no trouble clocking the "Northwood" P4 2.0GHz to 2.5GHz. According to GamePC, the Northwood 2.0GHz was rock stable at 2.5GHz using the retail Intel heatsink. At that speed, it beat the Athlon XP 2000+ in every benchmark. A few comparative results:

<<
3DMark 1024x768
===
New P4 @ 2.0GHz - 7903
New P4 @ 2.5GHz - 8538
Athlon XP 2000+ - 7939

Sandra CPU Benchmark
===
New P4 @ 2.0GHz - 3914
New P4 @ 2.5GHz - 4746 (21% gain)
Athlon XP 2000+ - 4691

Quake III : Fastest
===
New P4 @ 2.0GHz - 283.5
New P4 @ 2.5GHz - 335.8 (18% gain)
Athlon XP 2000+ - 266.7

LAME MP3 Encode
===
New P4 @ 2.0GHz - 71 secs
New P4 @ 2.5GHz - 57 secs (25% gain)
Athlon XP 2000+ - 58 secs >>



For reference, the new P4 cpu temperatures using stock Intel heatsink:

2000 MHz @ 1.5V = 89.5°F
2300 MHz @ 1.55V = 93°F
2400 MHz @ 1.60V = 95°F
2500 MHz @ 1.70V = 104°F

For those that don't recall, the list price on the 2.0GHz Northwood on January 27 will be $364, with the processor available online at a likely price of around $350. That's comparable to the current price of the Athlon XP 2000+, although I expect AMD to also lower its prices somewhat on January 27.

The results @ 2500MHz are fairly impressive. I hope to see OC results for the 2.2GHz version @ 2.8GHz and 3.0GHz tomorrow. For reference, the 3.0GHz results were attained by the Japanese site using a larger Swiftech heatsink with 1.90V.

 

[AGodspeed]

For those that don't recall, the list price on the 2.0GHz Northwood on January 27 will be $364, with the processor available online at a likely price of around $350. That's comparable to the current price of the Athlon XP 2000+, although I expect AMD to also lower its prices somewhat on January 27.

Athlon XP 2000+ prices will always be cheaper than Northwood 2.0GHz prices. Btw, the list price you mention for the NW 2.0A is in 1000-unit quantities, so the actual price at online shops like Newegg will probably be selling the 2.0A closer to $380-390 (and that doesn't even include shipping!).

In conclusion, the 2000+ is very nicely ahead of the NW 2.0GHz in most benchmarks, and the 2.2GHz NW will be just about the same as the 2000+ performance wise (adding 10% cause of 200MHz boost). Despite the NW's negligible performance versus the AXP, it is certainly an overclocking monster, and a lot of Intel users will love NW because of this. I'm betting Intel will be more successful with NW processors running between 1.6GHz-1.9GHz than the 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz versions, since a lot of people here like to overclock but don't like to pay an arm and a leg for it.

 

[KenAF]

AGodSpeed,



<< Btw, the list price you mention for the NW 2.0A is in 1000-unit quantities, so the actual price at online shops like Newegg will probably be selling the 2.0A closer to $380-390 (and that doesn't even include shipping!). >>



Certainly, what you say was true a year or two ago, but the market is no longer what it once was. Certain Intel customers (ex Dell) receive better prices on their processors, and resell their extra stock on the open market. Similarly, other Intel customers buy large stocks and resell them on the open market to increase their profits. Large distributors buy processors in much larger quanities at lower prices. In effect, processors are now traded as commodities around the world.

Such is the reason why you find AMD Athlons for sale at far less than their announced pricing. The same goes for Intel. The official price on the 2.0GHz Northwood is $420 at its release (falling to $364 on the 27th), but there are already some vendors taking orders at below that price. The offical price on the existing 2.0GHz Williamette (socket 478) is $401 in 10,000 unit quantities, yet this can be purchased for $375-$379 online. Similarly, the official price on the existing 1.8GHz Williamette (socket 478) is $273 in 10,000 unit quantities, yet oem processors are sold for $210-$215 online. You see even greater discounts on Celeron processors, % wise.

These prices haven't suddenly dropped with the impending release of the Northwood either. They've been relatively constant since mid December. The last Intel price cut was December 2, and the next is January 27.

 

[rogue1979]

Overclocked, the Northwood performance is impressive, but why didn't they include an overclocked comparison of the XP? I haven't tried one yet, but I would expect the XP 2000 will hit 1800-1900Mhz with air cooling. Not a very fair review.

 

[jamesbond007]

If you ask me, I sure don't see the performance gain I was expecting to see. Sure, it may run a bit cooler than the previous Pentium 4 generation, but it's still nothing special, IMHO.

The Athlons are still competing very very well against Intel's newest CPUs in the current market. I don't see the Nortwood being a very big success until Intel releases some chips running at 4+GHz like the rumors are saying.

Does anyone know what is up with the "rumored" 533Mhz FSB? Does that mean people wanting to upgrade will have to buy yet another new motherboard? Jumping from Socket 423 > 478 was big enough. (costly, too) Now they want us to get on a new motherboard with a new FSB and probably new RAM too? This sure doesn't look to be a promising year for Intel...

My $0.02

 

[dowxp]

what kind of gains were u freaking expecting? its only a 2.x jeez. and dont go off all baitching about how expensive it is. intel doesnt give a damn about computer freaks like us. if they can price it and make money, more power to them. i think this is just normal. if u think otherwise, then you can start a company that doesnt like to make money.

im going to go eat now.

 

[dowxp]

<< Does that mean people wanting to upgrade will have to buy yet another new motherboard? >>

yes. most likely. people jump from kt266's to nforces or whatever. dont see them complaining when new things come out.

<< Jumping from Socket 423 > 478 was big enough. (costly, too) Now they want us to get on a new motherboard with a new FSB and probably new RAM too? >>

new ram isnt any different than pc1600 early on to pc2100 and soon to pc2700... there was pc600 and now pc800. looks notmal to me.

<< This sure doesn't look to be a promising year for Intel... >>

ur sure quick to tell. its only jan. 6

 

[christoph83]

Not to mention that Asus has said the P4T-E will support the new 533FSB Northwoods and even in a review on the Asus P4b266 they said it should hold the new northwoods. All it is is a FSB boost and most good motherboards 478 motherboards can do 533FSB by adjusting the FSB. Most likely you'll need a BIOS update at most.

Overclocked, the Northwood performance is impressive, but why didn't they include an overclocked comparison of the XP? I haven't tried one yet, but I would expect the XP 2000 will hit 1800-1900Mhz with air cooling. Not a very fair review.

This would probably be a lot more difficult at 1900mhz with just a retail HSF. According to this review the northwood can overclock 500 mhz and still stay around 40C with retail cooling. Not bad.

 

[jamesbond007]

christoph83, that's great news for a few of my friends. Do you know if they'll need new RDRAM though?

 

[KenAF]

<< Overclocked, the Northwood performance is impressive, but why didn't they include an overclocked comparison of the XP? I haven't tried one yet, but I would expect the XP 2000 will hit 1800-1900Mhz with air cooling. Not a very fair review. >>



GamePC was able to get their Athlon XP 2000+ up to 1750+MHz, but they had to use extra cooling like the massive ALPHA 8045 heatsink and a high CFM fan. The review is talking about the cpu and heatsink (quiet fan) that you get right out of the Intel box. Certainly, one would expect to do better on the Intel using a larger heatsink with high CFM fan (as the Japanese site did in hitting 2.9GHz and 3.0GHz on the 2.2GHz Northwood).

As it is, the "Northwood" P4 temperatures overclocked to 2.5GHz with the stock Intel heatsink are comparable or slightly less than the Athlon XP 2000+ temperatures one would see with AMD's default heatsink at stock 1666MHz speed.

What I find impressive is that the "Northwood" P4's performance seems to scale linearly with clock speed. A 25% clock increase gets it a 21% improvement in Sandra and 25% gain in MP3 encoding. A 45% clock increase gets it a 41-42% improvement in Sandra (and a 45% gain in MP3 encoding?), as shown by the Japanese benchmarks at 2.9GHz.

 

[christoph83]

Yes they would unless their RDRAM they already have can hit 133FSB which some can, but they will most likely have to buy the newer RDRAM. Who knows though, Like right now I've heard on some motherboards you can change the RDRAM mulitplier from 100x4 to 100x3. So then when you up the FSB of the CPU from 100 to 133 you will have a 533FSB for the CPU and 400 FSB on the memory. I've only vaguely remember hearing this so someone else will need to confirm this.

 

[x86]

<< For those that don't recall, the list price on the 2.0GHz Northwood on January 27 will be $364, with the processor available online at a likely price of around $350. That's comparable to the current price of the Athlon XP 2000+, although I expect AMD to also lower its prices somewhat on January 27.

Athlon XP 2000+ prices will always be cheaper than Northwood 2.0GHz prices. Btw, the list price you mention for the NW 2.0A is in 1000-unit quantities, so the actual price at online shops like Newegg will probably be selling the 2.0A closer to $380-390 (and that doesn't even include shipping!).

In conclusion, the 2000+ is very nicely ahead of the NW 2.0GHz in most benchmarks, and the 2.2GHz NW will be just about the same as the 2000+ performance wise (adding 10% cause of 200MHz boost). Despite the NW's negligible performance versus the AXP, it is certainly an overclocking monster, and a lot of Intel users will love NW because of this. I'm betting Intel will be more successful with NW processors running between 1.6GHz-1.9GHz than the 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz versions, since a lot of people here like to overclock but don't like to pay an arm and a leg for it. >>



The Northwoods scale from 2.0Ghz and up.

 

[KenAF]

James,

A high percentage of RDRAM will overclock just fine to 1066 on the Asus motherboard.

I would remind everyone that these new "Northwood" P4's don't have SMT enabled. SMT won't ship enabled on Intel's "Northwood" P4 until they move to 533FSB in April. Intel delayed SMT to this date as they are still working through licensing issues with Microsoft.

According to Intel, SMT delivers an average performance boost of 30% to 40% for many cpu intensive tasks (server tasks, 3D rendering, running simultaneous applications, etc). With SMT, one processor appears as two in Windows XP Professional and Linux. Back in August, Intel demonstrated that the performance of a single "Northwood" P4 was improved by more than 30% in Lightwave when SMT was enabled. It does this through better utilization of the P4's execution units, which currently go underutilized in most applications. Moreover, it also reduces the penalties associated with the processor's 20-stage pipeline and context switching.