CPU Reviews & Articles

Performance

The Athlon XP 3200+ represents the top-end of the AMD scale, so naturally we'll be pulling out all the stops in our comparison testing. This means pitting the newest AMD powerhouse against the very best from Intel, including the Pentium 4-3.0C GHz (800), Pentium 4-3.06 GHz (533) and Pentium 4-2.8 GHz (533) processors, along with the AMD Athlon XP 3000+ and 2700+ models. These represent a nice cross-section of the high-end CPU selection, across a wide range of bus speeds and core designs.

Our AMD platform is the powerful NVIDIA nForce2 (ASUS A7N8X Deluxe), but we have split the Pentium 4 test platforms into 800-MHz, dual-channel DDR400 compatible i875P and the dual-channel DDR266 E7205 chipsets. These three platforms are all dual-channel DDR architectures, and the test motherboards feature all the high-end goodies like AGP 8X and Serial ATA RAID. This gives us a good idea on exactly how the Athlon XP 3200+ fits into the current landscape, not only as a processor, but in terms of the nForce2 platform as well.

For system memory, we used two sticks of DDR400 for the test platforms, and ensured that the dual-channel functionality was properly enabled. All memory timings have been set to optimum (CAS2, etc.) allowed at the clock speed, thereby emulating a real-world test setup. The powerful ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (using Catalyst 3.2 drivers) supplies an excellent 3D video base for these platforms and gives ample headroom to see what these high-end CPUs are really capable of. On the hard drive side, we've not only upgraded to a Seagate Serial ATA drive (7200 RPM and a whopping 8-MB cache), but invited two of them to a speedy RAID 0 party.

The operating system is the now-standard Windows XP Pro SP1 revision, and our benchmark list once again features a wide range of system and gaming tests. These include Business Winstone 2002, Content Creation Winstone 2003, PCMark 2002, along with popular 3D game tests like Unreal Tournament 2003, 3DMark 2001SE, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 3, Serious Sam 2 and Comanche 4. Our default game benchmark setting is 1024x768x32, which is demanding enough for comparison, but still perfect for CPU-related comparisons.

Test Systems

General Settings:
Desktop Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 16-bit
V-Sync: Disabled

NVIDIA nForce2 - ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard
Processors: Athlon XP 3200+, 3000+ and 2700+
Memory: 2 x 256-MB Corsair DDR400 DIMM
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
Motherboard chip set: NVIDIA nForce2
ATI reference drivers: Catalyst 3.2
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Hard-Drive: Dual Seagate ST3160023AS Hard Drives in RAID 0 Mode
IDE Interface: Serial ATA-150
CD/DVD: LG 16X DVD-ROM
Power Supply: Sparkle 400 Watt
Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP1

Intel 875PE - Intel D875PBZ Motherboard
Processors: Pentium 4-3.0C, 3.06 and 2.8 GHz
Memory: 2 x 256-MB Kingmax DDR400 DIMM
Motherboard: Intel D875PBZ
Motherboard chip set: Intel 875P
ATI reference drivers: Catalyst 3.2
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Hard-Drive: Dual Seagate ST3160023AS Hard Drives in RAID 0 Mode
IDE Interface: Serial ATA-150
CD/DVD: LG 16X DVD-ROM
Power Supply: Sparkle 400 Watt
Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP1

Intel E7205 - AOpen AX4R Plus Motherboard
Processors: Pentium 4-3.06 and 2.8 GHz
Memory: 2 x 256-MB Kingmax DDR400 DIMM
Motherboard: AOpen AX4R Plus
Motherboard chip set: Intel E7205
ATI reference drivers: Catalyst 3.2
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Hard-Drive: Dual Seagate ST3160023AS Hard Drives in RAID 0 Mode
IDE Interface: Serial ATA-150
CD/DVD: LG 16X DVD-ROM
Power Supply: Sparkle 400 Watt
Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP1

Quake III Arena Test Specifics
Version: 1.30 (retail)
V-Sync: Disabled
Sound Disabled
Video Modes Tested
: High Quality: Defaults

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Specifics:
Version 1.0
High Quality: Defaults
Checkpoint MP demo

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Specifics:
Version 1.05
Elephant Atrium demo

Jedi Knight II Specifics:
Version 1.04
jk2ffa demo

3DMark 2001 Pro SE Specifics:
Version 1.0 Patched

Content Creation: Winstone 2003 Test Specifics:
Version: 1.0