Reaching towards 3GHz -- the 2.80 GHz Pentium 4

INTEL IS TRYING its best to keep the performance lead above AMD: the new 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 is their latest salvo in the endless Intel-AMD desktop CPU battle. The CPU, of course, uses the same 533 MHz (133x4) FSB and board infrastructure as its 2.66, 2.53 and 2.4 GHz brethren, plus a bit more power - 55.9 W versus 52.5 W for the 2.53 GHz part.

Here's how it fares versus the previous top Intel parts in our usual benchmarks, based on my high end reference configuration - Intel D850EMV2 board with 512 MB PC1066 RDRAM, Nvidia Quadro 4 900 XGL OpenGL graphics and WinXP Pro:

CPU	P4 2.8	P4 2.53	P4 2.4
3DMark2001SE	12523	11971	11808
PCMark2002 CPU	6829	6144	5816
PCMark2002 mem	6246	6060	5995
Sysmark2002 office	364	339	329
Sysmark 2002 internet	168	165	161
Sandra Suite
CPU Dhrystone	5617	4871	4623
SSE2 Whetstone	3468	3131	2965
Multimedia Int	10986	9997	9472
Multimedia FP	13546	12179	11553
Memory Int	3295	3311	3272
Memory FP	3286	3298	3271

As you can see, the performance gain is still noticeable, but it gradually tapers off due to greater waiting time for the FSB and memory, and that's even with the fastest memory platform available (at least until the Granite Bay). As The Inq readers know, Intel is expected to top out the Northwood line with a 3.20 GHz part sometime early next year, and that should be the last 533 MHz FSB speed grade - after that, hold on for Prescott...

Unless, maybe, Intel does have a version of Pentium 4 with a 667 MHz FSB just in case the Prescott schedule is upset and low-end "Athlon" Hammer comes out on time and works as advertised - but will that really happen? µ