X-bit labs

Intel Pentium 4 1.3GHz Overclocking Experience.

Category: Other

by Anna Filatova

[ 01/31/2001 | 09:58 AM ]

Intel Pentium 4 1.3GHz CPU, which was been noticed in some Japanese retail stores, recently, has finally arrived in Moscow. We were lucky to get one at our disposal. When we opened the box we found the CPU, of course, the traditional 128MB RDRAM by SEC, a cooler and a syringe with some thermal paste.
We should point out that although Intel positions Pentium 4 1.3GHz as a transitional model from Pentium III to faster Pentium 4 ones, its cost is only $60 less than that of Pentium 4 1.4GHz. So a combination of a Pentium 4 1.3GHz CPU + mainboard + 128MB memory appears almost twice as expensive as Pentium III 1GHz based platform. To tell the truth, we doubt that this pricing policy may tell on Pentium 4 popularity. In fact, Intel also understands that its 1.3GHz processor is hardly needed. Being just a little bit faster than Intel Pentium III 1GHz, Intel Pentium 4 1.3GHz will stop shipping in Q2 already.
Taking into account that younger processor models usually feature higher overclocking potential, we decided to study that of our Pentium 4 1.3GHz. Actually, since Pentium 4 features a locked clock frequency multiplier, it appears a bit hard to overclock because of the high-speed 400MHz processor bus, which is very unwilling to work at any frequencies higher than the nominal one. Nevertheless, we managed to achieve quite acceptable results. Our Pentium 4 1.3GHz worked stably at 1625MHz (125MHz FSB) on ASUS P4T mainboard.

This means that 1.3GHz Pentium 4 is not a defective high-speed CPU, which turned out unable to run at the required frequency, but a fully-fledged product born by Intel marketing researchers.