How well does Athlon XP Scale?
How do overclocked Athlons compare to existing and overclocked Pentium 4 chips? Tom's Hardware did the comparison. Here's a summary, except for Quake III "Demo001" (less intensive than "NV15Demo"), 3DMark 2000 (outdated), Sandra CPU/Multimedia (synthetic), Sandra and PCMark bandwidth scores (synthetic), SysMark 2002 (bogus), and ViewPerf 7 (synthetic).
Quake III 1024x768 "NV15Demo"
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.40GHz and 2.53GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.67GHz and 2.80GHz 533MHz FSB
3DMark 2001 SE
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.40GHz and 2.53GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.53GHz and 2.67GHz 533MHz FSB
Comanche 4
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.53GHz and 2.67GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.67GHz and 2.80GHz 533MHz FSB
Lame MP3 3.92
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.67GHz and 2.80GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Greater than Pentium 4 3.05GHz 580MHz OC FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Greater than Pentium 4 3.11GHz 592MHz OC FSB
MP3 Maker Platinium
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz 400MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.53GHz and 2.67GHz 533MHz FSB
FlasK Xmpeg 4.5 und Divx 5.02 Pro
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.53GHz and 2.67GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Equal to Pentium 4 2.80GHz 533MHz FSB
MPEG-2: Pinnacle Studio 7
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.53GHz and 2.67GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.80GHz 533MHz FSB and 2.94GHz 560MHz OC FSB
PC Mark 2002
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.53GHz and 2.67GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.80GHz 533MHz FSB and 2.94GHz 560MHz OC FSB
Athlon 2.67GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Greater than Pentium 4 3.11GHz 592MHz OC FSB
WinACE 2.2
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.26GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Newtek Lightwave 7.5
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 1.6GHz and 2.0GHz 400MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz 400MHz FSB
Athlon 2.26GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz 400MHz FSB
Cinema 4D XL 7.303
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.94GHz and 3.05GHz OC FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Greater than 3.11GHz Pentium 4 OC FSB
Athlon 2.26GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Greater than 3.11GHz Pentium 4 OC FSB
3D Studio Max 4.26
Athlon 2.13GHz core / 266MHz FSB (2600+) - Between Pentium 4 2.26GHz and 2.40GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.40GHz core / 300MHz FSB (3000+) - Between Pentium 4 2.53GHz and 2.67GHz 533MHz FSB
Athlon 2.26GHz core / 333MHz FSB (3400+) - Between Pentium 4 2.80GHz 533MHz FSB and 2.94GHz 560MHz OC FSB
What astonishes me is that from the 12 tests shown here, a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, which will be available in volume starting tomorrow, already outperforms a 2.67GHz Athlon XP with 333MHz bus interface on half of the tests (denoted in bold), ties one, and comes within 5% of two others. Even with the 333MHz bus interface, AMD will have a tough time calling a 2.67GHz Athlon XP a 2800+, much less a 3400+, which is what Tom's Harware estimates it might be.
In the future, AMD has a long way to go before turning the tables on Intel. Their chips may overclock to 2.67GHz, but it might take some time before they are able to release those speeds in volume. Meanwhile, at 2.8GHz, Intel still has plenty of headroom.
Another interesting thing to ponder is: if 3400+ was their performance rating for Hammer before they realized how well Pentium 4 would scale, then Intel has little to worry about, since a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 is already capable of outperforming that model number on half the benchmarks (though admittedly Tom's Hardware is not totally representative of the software market; they are simply convenient to compare, given so many overclocked results in one place). It will be interesting to see what Hyperthreading adds to the 3.06GHz Pentium 4.
Moving forward, it appears that current headroom tests indicate that the new and improved Thoroughbred may eventually reach 2.4-2.6GHz, while the new C1 stepping of Northwood should get 3.06-3.2GHz reliably. Given the results here, Intel looks very competitive going forward. Hammer is still a wildcard for AMD, but then again, Hyperthreading looks to be a wildcard for Intel.
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