![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , January 07, 2002
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Intel P4 Northwood CPU Review
The Pentium4 has changed once again, and this time the enthusiasts out there might just give a damn about it. Let's see how it stacks up against AMD's fastest 2000+ CPU.
Business Application Benchmarks:
Business Winstone measures a PC's overall performance by running today's top-selling Windows-based 32-bit applications. Latest release: Business Winstone 2001 version 1.0 (11/07/2000). The Business Winstone tests are "market-centered" tests. Business applications are the popular applications employed by most users every day. Their final list of ten business productivity applications includes: Five Microsoft Office 2000 applications (Access, Excel, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and Word); Microsoft Project 98; Lotus Notes R5; NicoMak WinZip; Norton AntiVirus; and Netscape Communicator.
With this benchmark we see almost no advantage to the Northwood core over the Willamette core, unless of course we increase the clock speed to 2.5GHz. It's only then do we see it slightly outrun the AthlonXP 2000+.
Content Creation Winstone 2001 measures a PC's overall performance when running top Windows-based, 32-bit, content creation applications. Latest release: Content Creation Winstone 2001 version 1.0 (11/07/2000). Content Creation Winstone 2001 uses the following applications in its test: Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) 5.5; Adobe Premiere(R) 5.1; Macromedia(R) Director 8.0; Macromedia(R) DreamWeaver 3.0; Netscape Navigator(R) 4.73; and Sonic Foundry(R) Sound Forge(R) 4.5.
Again, we pretty much see the same results, except with a flip flop on the high end. The AthlonXP makes handy work of the new Intel CPU.
Content Creation Winstone 2002 is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running top, Windows-based, 32-bit, content creation applications on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Windows XP. Content Creation Winstone 2002 uses the following applications: Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, Adobe Premiere 6.0, Macromedia Director 8.5, Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev 4, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.01.00.3055, Netscape Navigator 6/6.01, Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 5.0c (build 184).
Due to the arrival time of this latest benchmarking software, the Willamette CPU did not get tested. We see the AthlonXP hold its own ground yet again, but the Northwood CPU at 2.5GHz still takes the prize.
SysMark 2001 incorporates the following Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity applications:
OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY - Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000, Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, Microsoft Outlook 2000, Microsoft Access 2000, Netscape Communicator® 6.0, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred v.5, WinZip 8.0, and McAfee VirusScan 5.13.
Surprisingly, the Northwood came up short on this benchmark against all of our other CPUs. I am still a bit confused by this, but the benchmarks were validated through multiple test runs. We see the AthlonXP remain incredibly strong, but the OCed Northwood certainly shows its dominance against the stock speed CPUs.
INTERNET CONTENT CREATION - Adobe Photoshop® 6.0, Adobe Premiere® 6.0, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, and Macromedia Flash 5.
Before many of you get into a quandary on this one, with the AthlonXP coming in so far behind, you must remember that the SSE on the AthlonXP is not being utilized by the version of Windows Media Encoder utilized in this benchmark. While there is a patch to remedy this, we do not think it is fair to utilize the patch. The numbers given will lead you astray if you use one of the older versions of the program, a version used by most people at this date. In the Winstone Content Creation 2002 benchmark above, the newer version is used, which needs to be kept in mind also. The 2.5GHz score is approximately 25% over the stock score, which jives almost perfectly with its level of OC.
WebMark 2001 is a new benchmark for evaluating Internet performance from a user’s perspective. Internet access is a requirement for most businesses and a driving force behind consumer PC purchases today, yet no comprehensive metric exists for understanding how the client computer and the speed of the connection will affect the overall Internet experience. WebMark will address the need for a broadly deployed, industry standard benchmark that can record and report Internet performance for businesses and consumers alike. The workload of WebMark includes a combination of popular and emerging Internet technologies such as: Adobe Acrobat Reader; Apple QuickTime; Cycore Cult3D; Java; JavaScript; Macromedia Flash; Microsoft Agent; ASP; Windows Media Player; VML; RealNetworks RealAudio and RealVideo; SSL; and XML.
The results here show the true power of the Northwood, or at least the front that Intel markets it on. They have advertised from the beginning that the Pentium4 would be the CPU for 'Net interaction, and if Webmark is an accurate portrayal of that, their marketing is not all hype.