You can use the optimized Q3A DLLs for the P4s too.

http://newageoc.com/opt/
Or if you have Visual Studio 2002-2003 and/or the Intel 7.1 compiler, you can just download the Q3A 1.32 source code and compile them yourself with the optimized settings. The P4 gains about 10-12%.

I would like to know why you test a prototype CPU against production one. The prototype here is the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. Intel web site does not speek about such a CPU, there is no datasheet for it and of cource, it won't go to retail market. Just OEMs will be able to get this in very limited quantities. Thinking this way, why not to include early Prescott samples and Athlon 64 FX for socket 939 and with DDR2 support manufactured by 90nm technology?

Were you using a history setting of 1? Was at least 375 MB of RAM allocated to Photoshop (this is a Photoshop setting). If not, try it and you might see the L3 cache provide a benefit.

Well here is the first step in the struggle for the top chat performing chips from the top chip makers in the world. intel will always lose this struggle as they have always done in the past. AMD cannot give up the idea of the second place. they have more than what it takes to war agaist any compitition from intel.

Um, how fast does a P4 have to be to match an Athlon 64 FX?

Have a good think about that. It demostrates to us how efficient the Athlon 64/FX series of CPUs are.

The closest performer would be the Pentium-M. Clock for clock, it gives the P4 a spank and a bit. When a 1.6Ghz matches a P4 2.4Ghz...It does say something...And guess wha the Pentium-M really is? That's right...a Pentium III with a few P4 features.

Notice how Intel places very little emphasis on the performance of the Pentium-M and directly compared to the P4?

I like to see the Pentium-M (Dothan with 2MB L2) at 2Ghz compare to the P4 EE (Emergency Edition).

And how inefficient the P4 turns out to be as it increases speed in the future...What was the magical number? Over 100W of heat produced by upcoming P4s?

if you run a normal application without SSE2 and HT, you'll see P4 (any version) will get its butt serverely spanked.

Not only that, Opterons (SMP versions of the Athlon 65 FX) scale up far better than Xeons. You'll notice that large educational institutions like Universities have decided to adopt Opterons for their clusters.

"my opinion P4EE is the best processor at this moment" - doru

You should really get your head out of the sand. The best processor from Intel is the Pentium-M. (some dub it as "Intel's Athlon".)

If they only scaled the speed higher, you'll see that the P4 architecture is highly inefficient. P4s are the most environmentally wasteful CPU of all time.

In fact, the absolute best architecture Intel ever developed is the P6. Its still going strong in its latest incarnation as the Pentium-M.

From the Pentium Pro to Pentium-M...Still going strong.

um.... is it just me or do these test remarks keep looking like the person writing it LOVES amd and DISPISES intel? truthfully, it doesnt look like either is the winner, AMD looks like a gaming processor, and these days, as long as u have a strong processor, and a GREAT video card, gaming will be fine. As for 3d applications, im noticing INTEL is on top, even with the plain 3.2.

just wanted to know if i was the only moron noticing this.... im never going AMD, i dont care price, i want quality. a dozen of the little more than dozen friends i have switched to intel.

haha fuck you all