3DMark2001	Source: MadOnion

3DMark2001 is the latest installment in the 3DMark series by MadOnion. By combining DirectX8 support with completely new graphics, it continues to provide good overall system benchmarks. 3DMark2001 has been created in cooperation with the major 3D accelerator and processor manufacturers to provide a reliable set of diagnostic tools. The suite demonstrates 3D gaming performance by using real-world gaming technology to test a system's true performance abilities. Tests include: DirectX8 Vertex Shaders, Pixel Shaders and Point Sprites, DOT3 and Environment Mapped Bump Mapping, support for Full Scene Anti-aliasing and Texture Compression and two game tests using Ipion real-time physics. Higher 3DMark scores denote better performance.

3DMark 2001 Benchmark Results
	Intel Pentium4	3DMarks	Ranking
1.	1.5 GHz	6972
2.	1.64 GHz	7391

With SSE2 written into 3DMark2001, the P4's score is still a little weak. It's probably because any P4 under 1.7 GHz is "underpowered". As we can see also, overclocking brings a very nice improvement on the scores. Still keep in mind, a score of 3000-4000 is suppose to mean games will be silky smooth.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein	Source: ID Software

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a relatively new game benchmark. However, RTCW takes up where Quake III left off and continues to form the basis of the first person shooter system stressing that QIII has become a hallmark for. Based upon the Quake III engine, RTCS is obviously going to be quite taxing on even a top end system. Higher numbers denote faster frames per second (FPS), and hence, better performance.

RTCW (640x480 atdemo6) Benchmark Results
	Intel Pentium4	(FPS)	Ranking
1.	1.5 GHz	40
2.	1.64 GHz	43.2

RTCW (640x480 atdemo8) Benchmark Results
	Intel Pentium4	(FPS)	Ranking
1.	1.5 GHz	118.6
2.	1.64 GHz	129.5

RTCW (1024x768 atdemo6) Benchmark Results
	Intel Pentium4	(FPS)	Ranking
1.	1.5 GHz	39.7
2.	1.64 GHz	42

RTCW (1024x768 atdemo8) Benchmark Results
	Intel Pentium4	(FPS)	Ranking
1.	1.5 GHz	110.6
2.	1.64 GHz	121.6

RTCW is a brand new first person shooter, based on the Quake III engine, and it taxes even the most powerful systems. As you can see, the P4 is just getting pushed around quite badly! Because of the lack of SSE2 code, RTCW depends highly on FPU power, and unfortunately the P4 can't deliver. Even when overclocked to 1.64 GHz, things don't really change.

Conclusions:

So what has Intel done here? Why did they introduce a CPU that has questionable performance? The P6 micro architecture was near the end of its life, a die shrink to .13 micron would only extend a aging core and its been almost 4 years since Intel tried something radical. The P4 does have a lot going for it, with a longer pipeline, it allows the P4 to scale higher then before, also, when applications with SSE2 start to show up en masse, the P4 will suddenly get a performance boost for free.

However, Intel's immediate problem is that current P4's in the price range average consumers can afford are underpowered. Competing AMD Athlon systems are often cheaper and faster. What Intel is relying on is the "MHz war" and catch phrases... After all, with "NetBurst architecture", SSE2 and a P4 at 1.5 GHz, it's got to be faster then the obsolete (because XP's are out now) Athlon 1.2 GHz system right? Luckily for them we didn't bench the P4 against a 1.2 GHz Athlon. The results are something Intel wouldn't like you to see.

Overall, the P4 1.5 GHz did fairly well for Pentium4 standards, most users (or corporations) wouldn't notice the lackluster performance in office applications.

In 3D games it is a totally different story. Teamed up with a GF3 Ti500, any game will run well, however the frame rates are quite a bit lower then what we're use to seeing from AMd test systems here in the lab.

Since there's still a lot of brand loyalty towards Intel, especially in the corporate world, the 1.5 GHz P4 Socket m478 actually has it's attractiveness because of it's relative low price. After all, you can "upgrade" your current computer systems with P4's running at 1.5 GHz and have a stable upgrade path in the future. At about $240 CDN, the CPU is hardly expensive compared to a 2.2GHz Northwood!