Performance

The second part of our today’s test session is devoted to comparing the performance of the new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz processor with that of the competitor solutions from AMD and with that of the predecessors: Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4GHz (in LGA775 form-factor) and Pentium 4 560 based on Prescott core working at 3.6GHz clock frequency. I would like to stress right away that you shouldn’t expect the new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz to work wonders. As we have already seen above, the performance gain resulting from the use of faster 1066MHz system bus can make no more than 1%. Besides, its clock frequency is only 1.7% higher than that of the predecessor. So, since the results of Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz appeared quite close to what the Pentium 4 XE 3.4GHz showed, there is nothing to be surprised with. Anyway, let’s get down to actual numbers now.

Performance in SYSMark 2004

The average performance in “general” applications of different kinds was tested with the help of SYSMark 2004 testing set.

Here the new Pentium 4 XE 3.46GHz runs faster than its predecessor. However, it still appears not enough to indicate the advantage of the new CPU over the regular Pentium 4 on Prescott core. Higher clock frequency of Pentium 4 560 allows this CPU to run faster in most cases. Also keep in mind that the new Pentium 4 XE 3.46GHz loses in SYSMark 2004 to its No.1 competitor: AMD Athlon 64 FX-55.

Everything I have just said above is nicely proven by the average performance diagram for SYSMark 2004: