![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , September 23, 2003
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Editor:
- Sean Quinn
- Google +1
Athlon 64 Vs. Pentium 4
AMD's Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX Vs. Intel's Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. We showcase the latest CPUs from AMD and Intel and take a look at what they will deliver.
Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition
On the flip side of the coin, we have Intel. They have been neither promoting nor marketing much of anything beyond their highly successful Centrino line of products. Today they are launching their Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU, or P4 EE. This is a product that they have seemingly pulled out of thin air in order to keep AMD from having the spotlight to themselves. Many are unsure of whether this is a "last minute" idea that Intel decided to put into action or if it was a carefully laid out plan. From our dealings with Intel, I would have to guess that the P4 Extreme Edition has been in the pipeline for quite a long time and Intel has simply been waiting for the right moment to spring it.
And just for the record, we feel that "Extreme" and "FX" have been firmly beaten to death.
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz
Much akin to what AMD is doing with their AthlonFX, Intel has basically transitioned their Xeon server part to the desktop. The P4 EE looks just like the Northwood core CPUs many enthusiasts have become familiar with over the last year.
Physically, the new 3.2GHz-800FSB P4 EE is almost identical to its non-EE cousin. The first two pictures above are the P4 EE and the third is the P4-EE alongside a non-EE CPU. They appear pretty much identical except for the components on the bottom of the CPU.
What makes a P4 EE so "extreme"? Like its server-part cousin the Xeon, the P4 EE comes to the table packing quite a bit of extra on-die cache. Instead of increasing the current L1 and L2 memory caches, Intel has elected to implement an L3 cache.
An L3 cache totaling 2MB is on-die in addition to the L1 and L2 caches found on our non-EE Pentium 4.
As of this writing, we have gotten very little information on the CPU beyond the obvious reported information here. We are looking forward to official pricing and other possible parts that will be available with this EE addition. Of course, what many of us would like to see is an unlocked multiplier on the EE, and that is yet to be seen.