Testbed and Methods

We tested the new Intel Pentium 4 XE 3.46GHz with the new i925XE Express chipset in two steps. Before we compared the performance of this bundle with the solutions offered by the competitor, we decided to estimate the performance gain provided by the faster 1066MHz system bus. Therefore, we had to include a bit more benchmarks and use more platforms to run the tests of the kind thoroughly enough.

Our test platforms were built with the following hardware:

• CPUs:
  • AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 (Socket 939, 1024KB L2);
  • AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (Socket 939, 1024KB L2);
  • AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (Socket 939, 512KB L2);
  • Intel Pentium 4 560 (LGA775, 3.6 GHz);
  • Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz (LGA775);
  • Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4GHz (LGA775);
  • Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4GHz (Socket 478);
• Mainboards:
  • ASUS A8V Deluxe (Socket 939, VIA K8T800 Pro);
  • ASUS P5AD2 Premium (LGA775, i925X Express);
  • Intel Desktop Board D925XECV2.
• Memory:
  • 1024MB DDR400 SDRAM (Corsair CMX512-3200XLPRO, 2 x 512MB, 2-2-2-10);
  • 1024MB DDR2-533 SDRAM (OCZ PC2 4300, 2 x 512MB, 4-4-4-11).
• Graphics cards:
  • Sapphire RADEON X800 XT (AGP 8x);
  • HIS Excalibur X800 XT (X800 XT PCI-E).
• HDD:
  • Maxtor MaXLine III 250GB (SATA150).

We ran all tests in MS Windows XP SP2 operation system with the installed DirectX 9.0c pack. The testbeds were configured to ensure maximum performance. Note that we increased the Cycle Time (Tras) timing of Athlon 64 to 10, because according to our experience, the memory controller of Athlon 64 processors works more efficiently in this case than in case this timing parameter is set to the minimal possible value of 5.