Intel Corp. introduced the Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor 548 supporting Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology for the portability market segment.
Designed for larger-sized notebook PCs, also known as "desktop replacements," that typically feature large screens, full-size keyboards and multiple drives, this new processor allows users to take advantage of multithreaded and processor-intensive multimedia applications in a portable form factor.
The Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor 548 supporting HT Technology is built on the company's 90nm process technology and offers other features such as a 1MB Level 2 cache, 13 new Streaming SIMD 3 Extensions (SSE3), enhancements to the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture, and a processor speed of 3.33GHz. Additionally, this processor offers such power management features as support for Enhanced Intel Speedstep technology, deep sleep and deeper sleep that enables lower thermals than its desktop counterpart. This device works with Intel's 852GME and 852PM chipsets.
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Monday, April 6, 2009
The Latest Processors: AMD Athlon 64 FX-57, Intel Pentium D 820, Pentium 4 670
It took relatively long to prepare this material, as new processors kept being added to it in the process. We initially planned it as a review of the Pentium 4 670, but then we got hold of the Pentium D 820, and recently of a new single core flagship from AMD: Athlon 64 FX-57. However, despite the significant differences in positioning and performance, we still tried to bring tests of all the above mentioned processors together into a single article. Hopefully, it will have no effect on its content quality regarding each CPU. At first we are going to say a few words about each of the latest models.
Pentium 4 670
It's a logical successor to the Pentium 4 6xx series, one of its closest representatives is the previously reviewed Pentium 4 660. Thus, there is nothing special about it: the same core architecture (Prescott-2M) as in the Pentium 4 660, the same bus clock (800MHz in terms of bandwidth) and the L2 Cache size (2MB), but its clock has grown by another 200 MHz (i.e. up to 3.8 GHz). Judging from the latest (available in Internet) Intel's plans, the Pentium 4 670 must be the last processor in this line, as the 4GHz CPU based on Prescott-2M disappeared from the roadmap of this company last year. However, as Stephen King put it, "sometimes they come back"...
Pentium D 820
It's the lowest CPU in the series of multi-core desktop "non-extreme" processors from Intel. The key difference between the Pentium D and the Pentium XE, as we have already written, is that unlike the latter, Pentium D has two physical cores, but it doesn't support Hyper-Threading. Besides, the Pentium D 820 operates at the lowest clock among the entire series of Prescott-like CPUs: 2.8 GHz. There is nothing new in other respects: it's just a Pentium XE, but without Hyper-Threading. The main peculiarity of the Pentium D series is more than democratic prices (especially considering dual cores): according to the official data from the manufacturer, wholesale prices for Pentium D 820/830/840 currently amount to $241/316/530. For comparison: the wholesale price for the Pentium 4 670 is $851, Athlon 64 FX-57 — $1031. So, Pentium D 820 can quite set up for the title of a "people's dual core processor" (for quite well-off people, though).
Athlon 64 FX-57
The renowned successor to Athlon 64 FX-55 acquired a new 90nm San Diego core (its differences from Venice are minimal) with an improved memory controller and SSE3 support. Besides, the clock has grown by another 200 MHz to reach 2.8 GHz. It's the first Athlon 64 FX manufactured by the 90nm process technology supporting SSE3. It's an indirect sign that this process technology is streamlined to manufacture flagship processors offering the highest performance. From the users' point of view, the new Athlon 64 FX is no different from the previous model: it is installed into the same CPU socket as the previous Athlon 64 FX-55 and makes no additional requirements to a motherboard.
Pentium 4 670
It's a logical successor to the Pentium 4 6xx series, one of its closest representatives is the previously reviewed Pentium 4 660. Thus, there is nothing special about it: the same core architecture (Prescott-2M) as in the Pentium 4 660, the same bus clock (800MHz in terms of bandwidth) and the L2 Cache size (2MB), but its clock has grown by another 200 MHz (i.e. up to 3.8 GHz). Judging from the latest (available in Internet) Intel's plans, the Pentium 4 670 must be the last processor in this line, as the 4GHz CPU based on Prescott-2M disappeared from the roadmap of this company last year. However, as Stephen King put it, "sometimes they come back"...
Pentium D 820
It's the lowest CPU in the series of multi-core desktop "non-extreme" processors from Intel. The key difference between the Pentium D and the Pentium XE, as we have already written, is that unlike the latter, Pentium D has two physical cores, but it doesn't support Hyper-Threading. Besides, the Pentium D 820 operates at the lowest clock among the entire series of Prescott-like CPUs: 2.8 GHz. There is nothing new in other respects: it's just a Pentium XE, but without Hyper-Threading. The main peculiarity of the Pentium D series is more than democratic prices (especially considering dual cores): according to the official data from the manufacturer, wholesale prices for Pentium D 820/830/840 currently amount to $241/316/530. For comparison: the wholesale price for the Pentium 4 670 is $851, Athlon 64 FX-57 — $1031. So, Pentium D 820 can quite set up for the title of a "people's dual core processor" (for quite well-off people, though).
Athlon 64 FX-57
The renowned successor to Athlon 64 FX-55 acquired a new 90nm San Diego core (its differences from Venice are minimal) with an improved memory controller and SSE3 support. Besides, the clock has grown by another 200 MHz to reach 2.8 GHz. It's the first Athlon 64 FX manufactured by the 90nm process technology supporting SSE3. It's an indirect sign that this process technology is streamlined to manufacture flagship processors offering the highest performance. From the users' point of view, the new Athlon 64 FX is no different from the previous model: it is installed into the same CPU socket as the previous Athlon 64 FX-55 and makes no additional requirements to a motherboard.
AMD Changed Naming Scheme For 45nm
According to industry sources, AMD has decided to modify the naming scheme for their 45nm desktop processors. While AMD is keeping the Phenom X3 phenom x3 and Phenom X4 branding, the model numbers have changed from four digits to five digits in length.
According to sources, AMD intends to start shipping DDR2 variants of Deneb this year as you can see from the table below.
Rumored 45nm Phenom Processor RoadmapName Freq. HT 3.0 Freq. Memory Total Cache TDP Release Date
Phenom X4 20x00 3.0GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 8MB 125W Q2 2009
Phenom X4 20550 3.0GHz 4.0GHz* DDR2 8MB 125W Q4 2008
Phenom X4 20x00 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 8MB TBD Q1 2009
Phenom X4 20350 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR2 8MB 125W Q4 2008
Phenom X4 20x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 8MB 95W Q1 2009
Phenom X4 16x00 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 2MB 95W Q1 2009
Phenom X4 16x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 3MB 95W Q1 2009
Phenom X3 14x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 7.5MB 95W Q2 2009
Phenom X3 12x00 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 1.5MB 95W Q2 2009
Phenom X3 12x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 1.5MB 95W Q2 2009
*There are obviously errors in this rumored roadmap as HyperTransport 3.0 has a maximum clockspeed of 2.6GHz, and even the newly released HyperTransport 3.1 only runs at a maximum of 3.2GHz. It is possible that 4.0GT/s is meant instead, equating to a 2.0GHz HT 3.0 clockspeed across the board.
AMD didn’t comment on this news story.
According to sources, AMD intends to start shipping DDR2 variants of Deneb this year as you can see from the table below.
Rumored 45nm Phenom Processor RoadmapName Freq. HT 3.0 Freq. Memory Total Cache TDP Release Date
Phenom X4 20x00 3.0GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 8MB 125W Q2 2009
Phenom X4 20550 3.0GHz 4.0GHz* DDR2 8MB 125W Q4 2008
Phenom X4 20x00 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 8MB TBD Q1 2009
Phenom X4 20350 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR2 8MB 125W Q4 2008
Phenom X4 20x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 8MB 95W Q1 2009
Phenom X4 16x00 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 2MB 95W Q1 2009
Phenom X4 16x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 3MB 95W Q1 2009
Phenom X3 14x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 7.5MB 95W Q2 2009
Phenom X3 12x00 2.8GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 1.5MB 95W Q2 2009
Phenom X3 12x00 2.6GHz 4.0GHz* DDR3-1333 1.5MB 95W Q2 2009
*There are obviously errors in this rumored roadmap as HyperTransport 3.0 has a maximum clockspeed of 2.6GHz, and even the newly released HyperTransport 3.1 only runs at a maximum of 3.2GHz. It is possible that 4.0GT/s is meant instead, equating to a 2.0GHz HT 3.0 clockspeed across the board.
AMD didn’t comment on this news story.
ntel core i7 cPU tested
Chinese-language PC Online is one step ahead of the game. The website already had the chance to test and benchmark the performance of one of Intel's upcoming quad-core Core i7 CPUs, namely the Extreme 940 model.
Now, remember, these new chips aren't expected to come out until sometime in November, so the fact that they have already been tested is quite an important aspect. This is all the more true especially since, in order to fully set up a benchmarking platform for these CPUs, you require not only the processor itself, but also an X58-based motherboard, which comes with the only chipset that can support Intel's upcoming socket LGA1366.
The test was ran in comparison with Intel's Core 2 QX9770 (featuring 12MB of L2 cache) at both reference and overclocked core speeds.The core 2 test platform included an ASUS X48 motherboard, two 1GB Apacer DDR3-1333 memory modules, a 500GB SATA 7200RPM Seagate hard drives and a GeForce GTX 260 graphics card. The Core i7 test platform featured the same components, plus the Intel X58 motherboard and the Core i7 Extreme 940 CPU, running at a reference clock speed of 2.93GHz and featuring 8MB of L3 cache.In regard to the software, the testing systems ran on a Windows Vista operating system, using the latest drivers. Benchmarking software included Super PI 1.4, Everest Ultimate 4.6, WinRAR 3.71, CINEBENCH R10, Fritz Chess Benchmark, 3DMark2006 and 3DMark Vantage version 101. Also, both CPUs were tested using some of the latest DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games.
As it turns out, the Extreme Core i7 CPU outperformed both the overclocked and the standard Core 2 QX9770 processor in most benchmarks. Practically, the only tests where the Core i7 CPU could not live up to its name were the Super PI 1.4 benchmark and some of the gaming applications, including DirectX9 Call of Duty 4, Half Life 2: Ep2, and DirectX10 Company of Heroes. Aside from that, in 3DMark Vantage, the Core i7 940, clocked at 2.93GHz, achieved a CPU score of 18252, while the overclocked Core 2 could only go as high as 13128 points.
It is clear that the new Core i7 CPU will deliver an impressive performance boost compared with Intel's current CPU offering. However, it would have been nice to know how the non-Extreme Core i7 920 model would perform against some of Intel's more decently priced Core 2 models - especially since the Core i7 920 will probably become the most successful on the market, thanks to its comparatively lower estimated price tag.
Now, remember, these new chips aren't expected to come out until sometime in November, so the fact that they have already been tested is quite an important aspect. This is all the more true especially since, in order to fully set up a benchmarking platform for these CPUs, you require not only the processor itself, but also an X58-based motherboard, which comes with the only chipset that can support Intel's upcoming socket LGA1366.
The test was ran in comparison with Intel's Core 2 QX9770 (featuring 12MB of L2 cache) at both reference and overclocked core speeds.The core 2 test platform included an ASUS X48 motherboard, two 1GB Apacer DDR3-1333 memory modules, a 500GB SATA 7200RPM Seagate hard drives and a GeForce GTX 260 graphics card. The Core i7 test platform featured the same components, plus the Intel X58 motherboard and the Core i7 Extreme 940 CPU, running at a reference clock speed of 2.93GHz and featuring 8MB of L3 cache.In regard to the software, the testing systems ran on a Windows Vista operating system, using the latest drivers. Benchmarking software included Super PI 1.4, Everest Ultimate 4.6, WinRAR 3.71, CINEBENCH R10, Fritz Chess Benchmark, 3DMark2006 and 3DMark Vantage version 101. Also, both CPUs were tested using some of the latest DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games.
As it turns out, the Extreme Core i7 CPU outperformed both the overclocked and the standard Core 2 QX9770 processor in most benchmarks. Practically, the only tests where the Core i7 CPU could not live up to its name were the Super PI 1.4 benchmark and some of the gaming applications, including DirectX9 Call of Duty 4, Half Life 2: Ep2, and DirectX10 Company of Heroes. Aside from that, in 3DMark Vantage, the Core i7 940, clocked at 2.93GHz, achieved a CPU score of 18252, while the overclocked Core 2 could only go as high as 13128 points.
It is clear that the new Core i7 CPU will deliver an impressive performance boost compared with Intel's current CPU offering. However, it would have been nice to know how the non-Extreme Core i7 920 model would perform against some of Intel's more decently priced Core 2 models - especially since the Core i7 920 will probably become the most successful on the market, thanks to its comparatively lower estimated price tag.
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