PentiumIV vrs CoreDuo2

[hdsalinas]

Hi,

My current PC is a PentiumIV 2.4GHz Northwood. I am getting a 20" Imac (or maybe a 24") for christmas, so how does my current chip compare to the new Core2duo 2.16Ghz in the imac.

Somehow going from 2.4 to 2.16 does not look like an upgrade although I know is newer technology. So is the Pentium 4 family dead? is it that there is not going to be a Pentium V or are the current core duos it?

 

[dukebound85]

Hi,

My current PC is a PentiumIV 2.4GHz Northwood. I am getting a 20" Imac (or maybe a 24") for christmas, so how does my current chip compare to the new Core2duo 2.16Ghz in the imac.

Somehow going from 2.4 to 2.16 does not look like an upgrade although I know is newer technology. So is the Pentium 4 family dead? is it that there is not going to be a Pentium V or are the current core duos it?

well lets say it quite a bit faster
i dont know the benchmarks but remember this is dual core = dual cpu at 2.16ghx. However it isnt as simple as saying a dualcore cpu is 2* 2.16 in this case

yea the new thing is now multicore rather than single core and just upping the ghz

 

[balamw]

Hi,

My current PC is a PentiumIV 2.4GHz Northwood. I am getting a 20" Imac (or maybe a 24") for christmas, so how does my current chip compare to the new Core2duo 2.16Ghz in the imac.

Somehow going from 2.4 to 2.16 does not look like an upgrade although I know is newer technology. So is the Pentium 4 family dead? is it that there is not going to be a Pentium V or are the current core duos it?

My 1.8 GHz Core Duo iMac is significantly faster than my 2.8 GHz P4. Partly because of HyperThreading which essentially presents the 2.8 as two 1.4 Ghz virtual processors.

Yes, P4 is dead dead deadski. The P4 was a mistake, Intel soon realized that it only became efficient at very high clock speeds and that when you got there it used a lot of power, so they went back to the Pentium III core to develop their Pentium M processors for laptops from which the Core processors are derived.

EDIT: Check out Anandtech or THG to see how much faster the Core processors are compared to pretty much everything that has come before:
e.g. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795
B

 

[scott523]

I got a 3.2GHz P4 w/ HT desktop and it's still in good condition for a couple more years but in terms of new computers coming out, P4 is history now that Core 2 Duo is dual-core.

 

[carlos700]

The Core 2 microarchitecture is far more advanced than Netburst architecture. I would take a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo over any Pentium 4 anyday.

 

[Mac Rules]

I've got a Pentium 4 3.2GHz HT PC, and I thought it wasn't too sluggish, but when I played with the new Core 2 system that my mate had put together, I was just blown away with performance.

Cheers

 

[balamw]

I've got a Pentium 4 3.2GHz HT PC, and I thought it wasn't too sluggish, but when I played with the new Core 2 system that my mate had put together, I was just blown away with performance.

It's clear why. Do the math. 3.2 GHz w/HT = 2x ~1.6GHz. Core 2 Duo at 2.0 GHz would be at least 20% faster, but is in fact more than that.

B

 

[Rocksaurus]

Okay, let's just clear this up right now. HT has nothing to do with it. There are plenty of Intel Pentium 4's without HT that are over 2.4 GHz. Processors have something called a "pipeline" that data goes through. The Pentium 4 Northwood has a pipeline that puts the data through 21 stages before it is finally processed. The Pentium 4 Prescott has a pipeline that is 31 stages. A shorter pipeline gets things done faster. The Core 2 Duo has a 14 stage pipeline. It's more efficient. Factor in that it's dual core, uses shared L2 cache between the cores etc. etc. and you've got a processor that while clocked at *only* 2.16 GHz is significantly faster than your 2.4 Northwood.

 

[Shadow]

I have run tests on my PC and MacBook. The MacBook is significantly faster. (Specs are below). The P4 got just over 1Gflop (about 1.3/1.4) and the Core Duo got around 2. Can't remember he rest of the results, but the Core Duo was way faster.

 

[generik]

Hi,

My current PC is a PentiumIV 2.4GHz Northwood. I am getting a 20" Imac (or maybe a 24") for christmas, so how does my current chip compare to the new Core2duo 2.16Ghz in the imac.

Somehow going from 2.4 to 2.16 does not look like an upgrade although I know is newer technology. So is the Pentium 4 family dead? is it that there is not going to be a Pentium V or are the current core duos it?

Pentium IVs are completely dead. Even a Conroe at 1.86Ghz (slowest Conroe) beats out the fastest P4 EE chip there ever was, take what you will from that

 

[balamw]

Okay, let's just clear this up right now. HT has nothing to do with it.

I was trying to keep it simple. What you say is true, but HT does have something to do with it since it is enabled on 90% of the P4 systems I've ever run accross and thus doesn't help matters at all. The return to a shorter PIII like pipeline is one of the key features of the Pentium M and its decendants, most recently Core 2 Duo...

One thing I didn't mention is that if you follow the links I gave, the Core Duos smoke even the power hungry dual core Pentium D systems clocked at > 3 GHz.

B

 

[hdsalinas]

Well, Someone once told me to consider these core duo chips as twice as fast -For example the 2.0Ghz is equal to 4.0Ghz since "it had two cores". I would not go as far.

Thanks for all of your informative replays. I went over to intel's website and they have a neat feature where you can compare different chips.

So this means that intel has discontinued its processor naming scheme? Are we somewhere between P4s and P5s?

I guess this proves that the Ghz war really not that important.

 

[balamw]

So this means that intel has discontinued its processor naming scheme? Are we somewhere between P4s and P5s?

Yes. The Pentium name is dead, a victim of the poor choices of the PIV era. Recall that the Pentium was an alternative to the 80586 name.

They don't want to have to explain that their new chips have a bit more in common with Pentium IIIs than a PIV.

Like AMD they're also trying to move away from GHz as the main speed indicator, hence the T2600 E6600 etc. monikers.

B

 

[dmw007]

Any Core Duo or Core 2 Duo based system is going to be much faster than your Pentium 4 based computer hdsalinas.