SimHQ.com - Technology Zone - Review: Intel 3.40E GHz and 3.40GHz

Well, just as I mentioned a few days ago, the CPU battles between AMD and Intel are not slowing down one bit. Intel is announcing a new CPU today which will likely be the final Northwood CPU we are to see. It’s a sad day really because Northwood was a very popular CPU; I might even speculate that it was Intel’s most popular and successful CPU core ever.

It’s amazing to think that Northwood was first introduced at 2GHz. That single 130nm core has taken them all the way to 3.40GHz. The feat obtained by Northwood is even more amazing when you take into account that the entire lineup of cores built on Pentium III only lasted from 450MHz-1GHz!

Additionally, we are getting our grubby hands on our first 3.40E GHz Prescott. The “E” designation should be your key to locating a Prescott CPU in the stores. Let’s move on and meet our two new Intel friends.

Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz “Northwood” Core

Like our previous core from Intel, this one comes with 512K cache and is manufactured using 130nm process technology. Remember not to be confused about the “Extreme Edition” (EE), which is also based on the “Northwood” core. It also has 512K cache but does not carry the whopping 2MB L3 cache like the EE.

This P4 like our last few since our 3GHz review is also based on a 800MHz Front-Side Bus (FSB). As stated above, this is probably the last “Northwood” Core CPU we will see from Intel. Northwood has been a great core!

Intel Pentium 4 3.40E GHz “Prescott” Core

The 3.40E was actually “released” by Intel when we reviewed our 3.40GHz EE and 3.20E CPUs back on February 3rd. It was clearly a paper launch as no 3.40E’s have been for sale yet on the net. Some OEMs might have gotten some samples but no retail boxes available yet.

This 3.40E is just like our 3.20E except of course it runs at 3.40GHz. It maintains the 1MB L2 cache, SSE3, 800MHz FSB, and is manufactured on a 90nm process (.09-micron). We have yet to see the benefits of reduced heat which should result from a die drop. Intel is (I’m sure) expending great resources to get the heat down. If your interested in some details about “Prescott”, visit our initial review here.

We decided to test our two new Intel processors against their target CPU over at AMD. The Athlon 64 3400+ will fit the bill quite nicely.

System Setup: Intel Setup

Intel Pentium 4 3.40GHz “Northwood” *
Intel 875PBZ Motherboard
Kingston 2 X 512MB (1.0GB) of PC3200 DDR RAM (400MHz DDR)
ATI Radeon XT 9800 256MB
2 X Seagate 120GB SATA Hard Drives 7200K RPM (Raid 0)
Creative Onboard sound
Sony DVD ROM
3COM integrated NIC

Computer also tested with:

Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick
Viewsonic 21" G810-2
Windows XP RTM Professional SP1

* Designates reviewed product

System Setup: Intel Setup

Intel Pentium 4 3.40E GHz “Prescott” *
Intel 875PBZ Motherboard
Kingston 2 X 512MB (1.0GB) of PC3200 DDR RAM (400MHz DDR)
ATI Radeon XT 9800 256MB
2 X Seagate 120GB SATA Hard Drives 7200K RPM (Raid 0)
Creative Onboard sound
Sony DVD ROM
3COM integrated NIC

Computer also tested with:

Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick
Viewsonic 21" G810-2
Windows XP RTM Professional SP1

* Designates reviewed product

System Setup: AMD Setup

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor at 2.20GHz
Abit KV8-MAX3 KT800 Motherboard
Corsair 2 X 512MB (1.0GB) of PC3200 DDR RAM (400MHz DDR)
ATI Radeon XT 9800 256MB
2 X Seagate 120GB SATA Hard Drives 7200K RPM (Raid 0)
Onboard sound
Sony DVD ROM
3COM integrated NIC

Computer also tested with:

Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick
Viewsonic 21" G810-2
Windows XP RTM Professional SP1

FRAPS 1.9d used for most benchmarks and all Direct3D benchmarks. Frame rates are an estimate of performance since none of these games have an exact frame rate utility.

Benchmark Notes

I decided at the last minute that I did want to install and test LOMAC. We are still waiting on our second patch but I felt we have waited long enough and the e-mails I received have been asking me for benchmarks for a long time now. Since it was a last minute decision, I don’t have scores for the 3.40GHz “Northwood”, just the 3.40E “Prescott” and Athlon 64 3400+. I tested the default settings for “Low”, “Medium”, “High” and also with every option turned on the highest possible setting. As you know, “HIGH” does turn every option to MAX. I turned them all on to MAX including the mirrors, which are normally not on when in default settings.

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