Unreal Tournament 2003: Antalus, Min Detail @ 640
The Athlon XP shows that at equal clock speeds it can be considered superior to the Pentium 4 in gaming as well as multimedia benchmarks. At 3.2 GHZ the winner is crystal clear, as the Pentium 4 used it brute force to spit out 344 FPS, which is quite impressive.
Possible Issue
It is worth noting that my USB Cable modem from Motorola caused reboots when SMP was enabled from within the BIOS. It was quite interesting, as I spent days trying to pinpoint why my system would casually reboot. It was after I went through every single part and replaced it that I had stumbled across an FAQ on the Motorola site talking about their modem drivers causing crashes under SMP. I just thought it was the funniest thing, a modem causing so many issues. Oh well, just thought I'd pass that little tidbit of info on, should any of you be experiencing the same issues.
Overclocking
The Pentium 4 has earned a reputation as a solid overclocker. For those looking to invest little time or effort in their overclocking endeavors I wouldn't suggest a Pentium 4, as it is a processor that you will certainly want to experiment with and try quite a few different tricks on in order to squeeze every bit of speed from the CPU that you can.
When overclocking the Pentium 4 you need to ensure that a high quality mainboard, memory and HSF are used. For overclocking we used our test setup, the Asus P4C800 Deluxe paired with OCZ PC-4200 EL DDR memory. Our maximum overclock was at 3.6 GHZ on this particular CPU. When clocked above 3600 MHZ the system would boot, but exhibited random reboots as well as constant crashes. We thought we were going smooth at 3700 MHZ for a while, but an OS reinstall was necessary after our system files became corrupted. It seems that at 3.6 GHZ at 1.8 volts the Pentium 4 reaches its theoretical limit.
Conclusion
The Intel Pentium 4 is certainly the processor to get if you want the absolute best mix of performance, overclockability, value and stability for your desktop system. Budget-minded customers should seek solace with the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ or 3200+ processor's for now, as our testing shows very little difference in performance between the our Athlon XP @ 2400 MHZ and the Pentium 4 3.2 C, although the Pentium 4 outperformed the Athlon XP-based system in every benchmark when the two processors were run at their maximum stable overclocked speeds. The Pentium 4 also proved to be a lot more stable under extreme overclocking conditions, something our AMD Athlon XP system struggled with throughout testing. Keep in mind that at equal clocks speeds, the Athlon XP somewhat embarrassed the P4, a trend that has been happening since the Athlon XP and P4 began battling it out.
The Pentium 4 "C" processors that are being manufactured and distributed by Intel at the moment are known to be quite the decent overclocker, especially when paired with a good I875-based board such as the Asus P4C800-E or the Abit IC7 Max3. While our particular Pentium 4 sample reached a deadlock at 3.6 GHZ with air cooling and 1.8 volts, we were quite impressed; especially considering this was an early engineering sample that has definitely seen its fair share of use.
The Pentium 4 processors that you purchase online will not be multiplier unlocked as our sample was today, so you must keep in mind that a store-bought 3.2 C Pentium 4 may not overclock as well as our sample did, simply because the multiplier of the 3.2 C is too high to allow for FSB's over 230-240 MHZ when using conventional cooling methods. The processor is still fairly pricey, ringing in at about , but this is much cheaper than the Extreme Edition P4, should it materialize for the public.
With VIA releasing their new Pentium 4 chipsets and with mainboard manufacturers looking to improve upon their i865/i875-based mainboards, now is a better time than any to purchase an Intel Pentium 4 processor.
Pros
Typical Pentium 4 offers good overclocking potential
Quite durable
Does not have the heat/durability issues associated with the Athlon XP
Hyperthreading is a nice bonus, as it does aid in SMP-capable applications
Cons
Somewhat expensive
Does not beat out the Athlon XP convincingly
Locked multiplier
Bottom Line
The Intel Pentium 4 "C" revision processor offers excellent overclocking potential along with incredible out of the box performance. Compatiblity is not an issue and the Pentium 4 has never been known as a bad apple when it comes to heat and durability, an issue that has plagued AMD in the past. Look for the Pentium 4 "C" to continue its popularity trend until AMD lowers the price of the Athlon 64 FX.
If you got any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
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