Intel's P4 finally wins an award (how many has Athlon won?)
Most Over-Rated Product:
Intel Pentium 4
For the second year in a row, I'm going to have to nominate Intel's Pentium 4. At 2.0 GHz, it barely scores better than an Athlon XP at 1.53 GHz in most tests. Add to that a cost that is almost twice the top of the line Athlon XP and a second socket format in under a year (has made many users change out their already new motherboards), I have to wonder about Intel's strategy for the Pentium 4. It seems as if the Pentium 4 was released simply to get the fastest clock speed out on the market, but not necessarily the best performance.
The release of the i845 chipset has even further exposed the limitations of the P4. When paired with SDRAM, the P4 struggles to compete with any other platform in the same price class. While the release of DDR chips looks like it will help the P4, I still wonder how long the P4 will last as it seems to be using smoke and mirrors to survive in the ever-competitive CPU market.
Backlash : Chris
You and your Intel bashing, please. Now that the P4 is hitting some decent clock speeds, has a set form factor, and now has three types of companion memory which it can run on (hey, the Athlon can't do that!), the P4 is really shaping up to be a very nice platform. Still a little pricey, but they make for incredible gaming boxes.
Backlash : Todd
Please, The Athlon's been on a set form factor for the past year and a half. None of this oops, got to change sockets again, business. Plus boasting RAMBUS support isn't exactly a feature Athlon users are crying over. |
