3DMark2001 SE 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 SE
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.
| 3DMark2001 SE Benchmark Results |
|
Motherboard (FSB/Memory) |
3DMarks |
Ranking |
| 1. |
Pentium 4 1.7 GHz |
7433 |
|
| 2 |
Pentium 4 1.89 GHz (oc'ed) |
7995 |
 |
Since
3DMark2001 has SSE2 technology written into it, the P4 1.7 GHz when teamed up
with a GeForce3 Ti500 gets some very respectable scores. Overclocking also seems
to generate a good performance gain!
Quake III Arena is a First Person Shooter (FPS)
that revolutionized gaming as we know it. Using multiple light sources and
having graphics textures that can fill videocards, even after 3 years it's still
able to bring a cutting edge system to its knees.
| Quake III Arena Fastest demo001 |
|
Processor |
FPS |
Ranking |
| 1. |
Pentium 4 1.7 GHz |
254.3 |
|
| 2. |
Pentium 4 1.89 GHz (oc'ed) |
286.3 |
 |
| Quake III Arena Fastest nv15demo |
|
Processor |
FPS |
Ranking |
| 1. |
Pentium 4 1.7 GHz |
68.2 |
|
| 2. |
Pentium 4 1.89 GHz (oc'ed) |
74.9 |
|
Quake III
Arena has always loved the bandwidth a Pentium 4 has and here, with the P4 1.7
GHz teamed up with RDRAM and a GeForce3 Ti500 gets numbers about the same as the
P4 2 GHz teamed up with DDR RAM.
Conclusion:
As we can see, the performance of the Pentium 4 1.7 GHz
CPU is pretty good overall. While office based applications will run 'poorly' on
a Pentium 4 CPU, it's
relative since in that situation the computer would be all user limited and never really be slow.
Relative to other processors, the performance is not stellar.
In the
3D realm of things, if the software has SSE2 optimizations, the
P4 1.7 GHz performs well, however if it doesn't and has to rely on the FPU power
of the Pentium 4, then we have some problems.
The Pentium 4 1.7 GHz is a good value for someone who
has an older P4 system. The Socket 423 architecture isn't going anywhere at just under
$300 CDN it wouldn't break the bank for a quick upgrade of an older 1.3 GHz
or 1.4 GHz Pentium 4. Unlike those processors, the 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 doesn't feel underpowered
in any application (remember 'poor' is relative to current day processors).
Intel has taken a revolutionary step with the
introduction of the Pentium 4 and they've always stated that the P4 architecture needs
to scale high and we're finally starting to see the Pentium 4 deliver in
terms of performance with the socket 478 formfactor. Intel have taken the extra
step to ensuring that their CPU's never get damaged, and thermal throttling ensures that the processor
doesn't suffer from a "hot" death for starters. While there is no
reason to buy a socket 423 board and chip unless you are content with not
being able to upgrade to current speeds, it still gets the job
done.
3DMark2001 SE
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