The Pentium 4 is a strange beast. Lightning-fast in some respects, the machine blazes through many benchmark tests and applications that would be unusable on a lesser processor. On other benchmarks it often barely matches the Pentium III, and is blown away by its main competitor, the AMD Athlon.
The inconsistencies in performance have resulted in a polarisation of opinions regarding the new chip. Some believe the processor is a great leap forward in technological innovation. Others feel it is an overpriced, under-performing waste of silicon that should have never seen the light of day.
This confusing divide has made it difficult to get an accurate reading on the chip, making purchasing decisions very difficult.
The machine I reviewed was a veritable powerhouse. Two 128MB Rambus DIMMS fed the information-hungry 1.4Ghz processor through the 400MHz front-side bus. The 400MHz FSB translates into a 3.2GB per second bus.
The machine was complemented with the Nvidia GeForce GTS 2 Ultra 64MB video card - the fastest commercial card in the world, according to Nvidia`s hype, and twice as fast as the GeForce. The 30GB IBM SCSI hard drive was also not to be sneezed at, and even the DVD-ROM was SCSI.
Keeping it cool
The review box had more fans than Manchester United, and ran coolly but still fairly quietly (unlike a typical Manchester game). For those who have not seen the P4`s heat sink, it is a monster, overlapping the chip and rising from the board like a skyscraper. Silicon cooling gel is also used to keep things reasonably chilly, and comes with the chip in convenient syringes. Two Rambus chips, the heat sink, and the sizeable fan are also included in the P4`s packaging.
The cooling system around the chip is so heavy that the board is designed for four support screws to surround the unit, just to support the weight. For value-added resellers and home users that intend to build their own P4s, I highly recommend Intel`s instructional video before undertaking the task.
The machine under review came with Windows 2000 pre-loaded, along with a few useful benchmarks and typically processor- and video-intensive games. The first noticeable performance boost is the Windows 2000 boot time, which is almost bearable on this powerful machine. Windows gets going in around 25 seconds.
Benchmarks
The Quake III Demo 1 benchmark - which has become a mainstay of 3D performance benchmarks - performed adequately, just topping at 300fps (frames per second). Considering the video card, I was a little disappointed at this performance, but it is still an impressive figure. Pushing all of the options to the max, including lightmap lighting, 1024x768 display, and 32-bit texture and colour, drops the performance to 141fps.
3D benchmark software 3DMark also produced some disappointing results, with the machine peaking at a decent score of 7100 with a lot of tweaking, but more typically sitting around the upper 5000s. This is significantly lower than I expected - I was hoping to crack the 8000 mark quite easily, and perhaps head towards the 10k point.
Another 3D downfall is the Unreal UTBench benchmark - Athlon still rules in this domain with a score of 53.3 on its 1.2GHz with 133MHz DDR compared to Intel`s 49.7, according to testing performed by other publications (Intel failed to include Unreal with the P4 I put to the test).
The benchmarks may have been lower than expected, but the Pentium 4 still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Firstly, one must remember that these are the first generations of the new Netburst micro-architecture - an architecture that gives Intel room to grow, and has the potential to once more put it firmly ahead of AMD in the tech race.
Secondly, the benchmarks and applications that I tested on the machine were created before the P4 - they do not take advantage of Intel`s streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2) - an extended set of instructions that promise to give the chip a serious burst in performance when the next generation of apps are developed.
And lastly, despite the benchmark numbers, real-world use is pretty darn fast. Applications that I was satisfied with included the power-hungry 3D game Alice, 3D Studio Max 3, Rhino 1.1 NURBS modeller, and Windows itself.
High latency
There have been many hypotheses put forward as to why the machine is not hitting the high benchmarks, but I believe the problem could revolve around the Rambus DRAM that Intel insists on using for this machine.
Although we do not have the engineers or laboratories to really kick the tires of Rambus, a high-profile industry player from one of Intel`s competitors (not AMD) says their research shows that, while Rambus has an exceptionally high throughput rate, it also suffers from a very high latency. Looking at other publications` and our benchmarks, this makes a lot of sense when explaining the low scores.
The chip relies on the RAM to feed it with information. Once it gets going, the P4 will not suffer from a lack of data to process - the 400MHz front-side bus combined with the speed of Rambus gives it a constant stream. This translates to great performance in streaming applications, such as voice, video, encoding and decoding. However, due to the high latency, if the memory is accessed for less linear tasks, such as 3D graphics or game logic, performance drops significantly.
Marketing vs reality
If this hypothesis is true, the engineers at Intel will surely know it as well. It is unlikely that Rambus would be considered if it weren`t for Intel`s financial interests in the technology.
Despite intentions to end the life of the DIMM, Intel continues to support this technology until Rambus prices come down to a reasonable level. The 256MB in my test machine would cost a cool R8 000 on the street.
In conclusion, the Pentium 4 is a fast, good performance processor. Intel`s marketing would have us believe it is a quantum leap in computing. This it is not. In fact, the marketing hype around the chip could be what led to the disappointment when the chip proved not to be a desktop supercomputer.
The P4 would be an excellent choice for those needing a high-end workstation or a serious gaming machine, but I will personally wait until the system prices drop, and the Rambus/DIMM issue is clarified.
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