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It needs no introduction, we
give you the elder statesman of the benchmark arena, Quake
3.
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Quake 3 Time Demo Four |
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Pushing the
polygons |
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In this time
demo benchmark run, we've utilized the latest 1.32 point
release of the Quake 3 engine. We then extracted the
recorded "Four" demo and installed it in our demos folder.
The graphics quality settings were set to "Fastest" in the
game menu and we ran each test 3 times, taking an average
score between each run we recorded. The 3.2GHz Pentium
wins this race hands down again and by a wide margin over
the Athlon XP 3200+. Again, with performance spreads
like these, is it fair to call the Athlon XP 3200+ a 3.2GHz
equivalent? We'll let you ponder that while we fire up
our last series of tests, on the professional side of the
house, SPECviewperf 7.1.
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SPECviewPerf |
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All Pro MCAD And
3D Modeling Performance |
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We ran the
latest SPECviewperf version 7.1 installation, along with the
latest Catalyst 3.4 drivers for the Radeon 9700 Pro we used
in our test beds. Viewperf also tends to be an
excellent processor test, since there are lots of vectors to
calculate and models to spin.
The following
tests are utilized in SPECviewperf version 7.1:
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3ds max
(3dsmax-02)
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Data Explorer
(dx-08)
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DesignReview
(drv-09)
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Lightscape
(light-06)
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Pro/Engineer
(proe-02)
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Unigraphics
(ugs-03)
Higher scores indicate increased performance
Viewperf
utilizes OpenGL for its rendering calls and with the
exception of the ugs-03 test (Unigraphics V17), there is a
fair spread amongst the contenders here in the field.
The engine model in the ugs-03 is rendered in wire frame and
then shaded. As a result, the workload is largely on
the graphics processor. The rest of the test suite, as
you can see, places much more emphasis on the host CPU.
Once again, the 3.2GHz Pentium 4 proves that it is the
fastest Desktop Processor in existence, beating out the best
AMD has to offer, in almost every test component of
SPECviewperf. We've shown you performance from a lot
of different angles and any way you look at it, a 3.2GHz P4
is the fastest processor for your PC, that money can buy, at
this juncture.
Less than 3
months after the release of the 3GHz Pentium 4 w/ 800MHz
System Bus, Intel bins out another 200MHz like a walk in the
park. There's no question, things will get interesting
when AMD lets loose with the Athlon64. Then again,
there's Prescott on the horizon in the second half and you
can rest assured that processor will pack some serious pain
as well. While Intel is driving toward 4GHz and
beefing up on chip resources, AMD is taking another route
and a wider path yet unpaved in the Desktop Consumer market.
Industry analysts are placing their bets but let's face it,
this thing is a crap shoot. Both Intel and AMD have
major league technological resources at their disposal.
It's a great match-up and we all have a ring side seat.
The new 3.2GHz
P4 is roughly 7% faster than its 3GHz predecessor and 15 -
25% faster, in most applications, than an Athlon XP 3200+.
The new P4 will be priced at $637 in quantities of 1K upon
its launch today. While this is pretty steep for
certain, you can't argue with the performance Intel's new
flagship brings to the table. Here's hoping street
prices will subside shortly after its debut in the channel.
For now, Intel can still claim full dominance in terms of
raw overall performance but as usual, it doesn't come cheap.
Here's to competition and ever shrinking die size. 90
nanometers, here we come.
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