The Pentium 4-2.4 GHz

The Pentium 4-2.4 GHz is a standard Pentium 4 based on the Northwood core. This means a 400 MHz FSB (front-side bus), a 0.13-micron die, and 512K of L2 cache. The release of the 2.4 GHZ Pentium 4 does not herald the arrival of the 533- MHZ FSB nor any Intel platforms supporting any of the new DDR333 or PC1006 memory technologies. This new CPU is simply another rung on the performance ladder, following along with AMD's strategy of using a faster core to achieve this.

The old IPC vs. clock speed argument has taken been around the block a few times, but quite simply both Intel and AMD are taking two different angles towards their new processors. Neither method is inherently right or wrong, just different. It should be noted that the Athlon XP can do more per clock with today's software, while the Pentium 4's IPC can change drastically depending on the presence of SSE2 enhancements. That said, there are few such SSE2 programs, but this does illustrate how each methodology has its own set of pros and cons. Performance benchmarks can help separate the steak from the sizzle and we've whipped up a veritable smorgasbord of application, game and subsystem tests to do just that.