Reviewed By: Carl Nelson [04.02.02]
Manufactured By: Intel
Price: $560 (in volume quantities)

AMD just released their new top of the line CPU, the AthlonXP 2100+ (reviewed here).  You know what that means! Intel answers with their latest, greatest CPU - The Pentium 4 2.4 GHz - based on the 0.13 micron Northwood core.

I can't help to think that AMD would have loved to release CPU's in 200 MHz steps like Intel is right now.  However, the AthlonXP is just at the end of its fab cycle using the 0.18 micron process, while Intel is just getting started with their current core.  So until AMD makes the switch to a 0.13 micron process (which they promise to do with their very next AthlonXP release), they are stuck with 100 MHz "rated" (actually 60 MHz) increases.  Meanwhile, Intel is humming along with a new part that is a full 200 MHz faster than their previous high-end CPU.

Feature-wise, the new 2.4 GHz processor is identical to the 2.2 GHz.  The only difference is the speed, and size of the core (the 2.4 measures in at 131.4mm square, which is about 10% smaller than the 2.2).  The size decrease will cut costs nicely for Intel, but I wouldn't expect those savings to be passed onto you for the time being.  In comparison, the Tbred is reported to be about 80mm square.  So besides that, we have nothing new to to talk about just yet.  But what we can do is look at where the Northwood-core is going to take the P4  after this chip...

What Does The Future Hold

We don't have confirmed info on this, but the next obvious step for Intel to take with the Northwood is a higher FSB rate.  Currently, the P4 runs on a 100 MHz bus, which is "quad pumped" to equal 400 MHz effectively.  We first saw AMD do this with their Athlon, with a 100 MHz bus running at 200 MHz DDR.  Currently the AthlonXP runs with an FSB of 133 MHz @ 266 MHz DDR.

We can be pretty sure that the next logical step would be a 133 MHz FSB, quad-pumped at 533 MHz.  I shouldn't have to tell you that this will equate to a pretty nice performance increase, even at the same clock rate.  I personally would have loved for  them to do this with the introduction of the Northwood core, but I guess Intel didn't see that as being necessary just yet.  Looking at the performance of the Northwood, I'd have to agree.

With AMD releasing its 0.13 core AthlonXP very soon, Intel is going to have to make a move very fast.  It's quite obvious, though, that Intel really has a powerful trick up their sleeve, and they are itching to use it... Since that isn't the case just yet, we have the 2.4 GHz P4 running at 400 MHz FSB. 

Our sources indicate that Intel may release their 533-capable RDRAM chipset (currently titled, 850E) in early May.  I am guessing it all depends on how the Tbred will perform.  We don't have any word on a 533 MHz DDR chipset at all yet, but again, even the RAMBUS info we have is not official.

For now, let's find out if a mere clock increase is enough to keep Intel on top...

Testing Platform

Motherboard: Shuttle AV45GT/R (reviewed here)
Memory: 512MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
Hard Drive: 13GB Maxtor 7200 RPM ATA/66
Video Card: GeForce 3 Ti500
CDROM: Pioneer 16X DVDROM
Ethernet: D-Link 530TX

Drivers Used

VIA 4-in-1 4.37V
VIA AGP 4.10
NVIDIA 21.83

Page 2: Onto the tests!

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]