X-bit labs

Choosing a Budget CPU: 24 Value Processors from Intel and AMD in Our Lab (page 15)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 05/15/2004 | 12:44 PM ]

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All the results fit together to form the following picture: the overclocked Pentium 4 1.8A processor wins nearly all the tests, although it never was a leader at its regular frequencies. This processor is perhaps the best overclocker in the current market – you can raise its frequency by 80%! No other CPU model can boast this overclockability.

The processors of the Celeron family are prone to overclocking, but their “value” nature tells at overclocking, too. The higher clock rate doesn’t help them out – the performance remains low.

The results of the Athlon XP CPUs are good enough, but you should be aware that they are not as overclockable as processors from Intel. That’s why the overclocked Pentium 4 1.8A finds itself ahead of the overclocked Athlon XP models on the Thoroughbred and Barton cores. At the same time, the price of the Pentium 4 1.8A is still higher than that of any Athlon XP, so economical overclockers should consider the