Date:
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Author:
Steve Lynch
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Intel 3.06GHz CPU with Hyper-Threading

Intel bangs the 3GHz barrier before anyone else and throws in HT for free. We know 3GHz is going to be flying, but the world really wants to know all about HT and what it has to offer.

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Test Systems:

Intel 3.06: Clocked at 23*133=3.06GHz; ASUS P4PE Mainboard; ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (6166); 512MB Corsair XMS3500 DDR; BroadCom 10/100/1000; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional. Intel Chipset Driver version 4.00.1009.

Intel 2.80: Clocked at 21*133=2.80GHz; ASUS P4B533-V Mainboard; ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (6166); 2x (512MB) Corsair XMS3000 DDR; Onboard 10/100 PCI; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional. Intel Chipset Driver version 4.00.1009.

Intel 2.53: Clocked at 19*133=2.53GHz; MSI 648 MAX; ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (6166); 2x (512MB) Corsair XMS3000 DDR; BroadCom 10/100/1000; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; SiS IDE driver v1.01.13. SiS AGP driver v1.10.03. (166 & 200MHz memory bus tested)

With all the attention being on Hyper-Threading, it's still important to see how the CPU performs against its predecessors with and without Hyper-Threading enabled to give you an idea of where this processor stands in benchmarks you're familiar with. We will also cover new tests that will specifically address the benefit of Hyper-Threading technology. We have rounded up everyday applications that are often used together during the benchmark process to demonstrate real world conditions.

Originally, we intended on running the new Business Winstone 2003 suite of benchmarks, and we went to great lengths to make sure these tests were available to us for testing. The new software became available just five days ago. The CDs arrived here for testing on the 11th.

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Unfortunately, the new benchmarks would not run properly and repeatedly crashed on all test systems. The crashes could not be isolated to a single application causing the crash, so we reverted to our current Business Winstone 2001 and Content Creation 2002 benchmarks for this review.

Benchmarks:

This is where the rubber meets the road. We've amassed a collection of industry standard programs that we feel test the product's stability and overall performance. While 3D games play a part in testing the overall performance, running a few time demos and SiSoft Sandra does not constitute a review. Although we believe SiSoft Sandra to be a fantastic tool that allows you to get an idea of your system's performance, the program itself is most useful when used in conjunction with other testing procedures.

Content & Business 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.

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We see appropriate scaling among the non-HT processors. I have to admit, I was a little surprised to see such a bump in performance with Hyper-Threading enabled. After giving it some thought, however, a HT enabled CPU should thrive in conditions like these, where multiple tasks are running during the benchmark process.

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).

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Not so surprising were the results we see here. Adobe Photoshop is optimized to take advantage of a dual CPU environment, and the gains are impressive.

SysMark 2002 incorporates the following Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity applications:

Office Productivity: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft Access 2002, Netscape Communicator® 6.0, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred v.5, WinZip 8.0, and McAfee VirusScan 5.13.

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Again, good utilization by the office applications. This is particularly important since these common office applications are more likely to be run in conjunction with other programs.

SysMark 2002 Internet Content Generation: Adobe Photoshop® 6.01, Adobe Premiere® 6.0, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, and Macromedia Flash 5.

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Again, a repeat performance by an "Adobe dominated" benchmark.