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MA XIMUMPC JANUARY 2006
BEST HIGH-END DUAL-CORE CPU
Both Intel and AMD agree that dual- and multicore CPUs are the future.
But whose is the best right now? Here’s the performance breakdown of both
companies’ top-of-the-line offeringsExperts derisively describe Intel’s Pentium
Extreme Edition 840 ($1,030, http://www.intel.
com) as a pair of Pentium 4 Prescott cores
super-glued onto the same die. When
you also factor in that the Prescott core
doesn’t hit its performance peak until the
4GHz-plus range, the Pentium Extreme
Edition 840 at 3.2GHz isn’t going to set
any new records despite its dual-cores
with Hyper-Threading.
AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 4800+ ($790, http://www.
amd.com), on the other
hand, is a “real” dual-
core CPU. It uses a
shared memory control-
ler and crossbar, whichallows direct communication
between the cores. Given the
Athlon 64’s 2.4GHz and 1MB of
L2 cache per core, we fi gured
this would be an ugly match.
And it was. In every single
gaming benchmark we ran, the 2.4GHz X
4800+ was the winner. Whether Doom or
DMark, the fast performance of the X2’s
on-die memory controller pushed it ahead
of the Pentium Extreme Edition 840.
The 840 does fi nd
some redemption in appli-
cation performance, where
it’s got a small advantage
in Adobe 0remiere 0roand D6D SHrink. However, the X2 won
0HotosHop #S, Nero 2eCoding, and a
handful of multitasking tests. It’s not much
of a contest. The 840 has one hidden tal-
ent, though—with adequate phase-change
or water-cooling to keep the heat down,
the 840 is one hell of an overclocker. That
doesn’t help the average user, however,
thus rendering the Athlon 64 X2 the hands-
down high-end dual-core winner.AMD ATHLON
64 X2 4800+BEST MIDRANGE DUAL-CORE CPU
When Intel’s $500 dual-core Pentium 4 and AMD’s dual-core Athlon face off, which one will be victorious?
THE TESTS
For our dual-core showdown, we
selected two comparably priced dual-
core processors from Intel and AMD. We
chose Intel’s Pentium D 840 ($540, http://www.
intel.com), which clocks in at 3.2GHz
with 1MB of L2 cache per core. The chip
uses Intel’s 90nm process and is noth-
ing more than two Pentium 4 Prescott
cores in a single package. For AMD, we
picked the Athlon 64 X2 4400+ ($500,
http://www.amd.com). This dual core weighs in
at 2.2GHz and features 1MB of L2 cache
per core, as well. Like the Pentium D, it
uses a 90nm process. We used the same
nForce4 SLI X16 motherboard from our
chipset showdown for each chip, and the
same videocard, drivers, RAM, BIOS and
hard drives, as well.
In addition to the benchmarks
we used for our CPU showdown, wealso tossed BAPCo’s
S9Smark24 into the
mix. This benchmark
uses more than a dozen
industry-standard appli-
cations to measure a
CPU’s speed. Because
S9Smark24 uses multi-
tasking and multithreaded
apps, both multicores per-
formed admirably, espe-
cially when you consider
their price.THE RESULTS
There’s not much to say
here, except that the X
is clearly the winner. In all
but one test, the X2 outran
the Pentium D by a con-
siderable margin. The X2’s
performance in games
was especially notable,
downright
spanking the
Pentium D.THE
BOTTOM LINE
The Pentium D 840’s loss
is quite stunning when you
recall that the Pentium
Extreme Edition 840 isexactly the same as the
less expensive Pentium
D 840, but with Hyper-
Threading enabled. That
Intel’s fastest Pentium
D isn’t competitive with
AMD’s third-string dual-
core isn’t a good sign
for the current itera-
tions of the dual-core
Pentiums. The Pentium
D just doesn’t have
enough L2 cache or clock speed to be
competitive; it might take a move to a new
dual-core architecture for Intel to get back
in the game.X-MEN
Awesome gaming performance
with very good application
performance.AMD ATHLON
64 X2 4400+X-GENERATION
All Socket 939 boards and
processors will be obsolete
next year when AMD intro-
duces DDR2 support.The Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (left) runs circles around Intel’s
Pentium D 840.The Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (left) makes a mockery of the
Pentium Extreme Edition 840.Best scores are bolded.BENCHMARKS
ATHLON 64 X2 4400+ PENTIUM D 840
SYSMARK2004 OVERALL 218 191
3DMARK05 CPU 6,041 5,
3DMARK2001 SE 28,341 22,
QUAKE III 445 327
AQUAMARK III 90,091 81,
PCMARK 2005 CPU 4,522 4,