Is a P4 3GHZ CPU still any good?

ADE

ADE

banned
OK, I know a lot of you will say it's junk, but then why do games like F.E.A.R. recommend it? It's FSB is still 800Mhz just like a C2D.
 
ADE said:
OK, I know a lot of you will say it's junk, but then why do games like F.E.A.R. recommend it? It's FSB is still 800Mhz just like a C2D.
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First, the P4 has an 800Mhz FSB, but the Core 2 Duo has an FSB of 1066Mhz.

The P4's are pretty bad in terms of gaming, where even a mid-level Sempron can outperform it.
 
haha. PWNED
P4 was a good multithreaded processor for its time. however, with the introduction of Athlon 64 X2 its time was over, not to mention Core 2 duo. i mean really, the worst core 2 duo performs about as good as the best pentium D... to to mention, much cooler, and much more overclockable. thats sad. netburst = lose. (netburst = pentium 4, and pentium d)
of course, there was Pentium EE which had hyperthreading and dual core, but thats another story... not to mention it ran hotter than ever and was completely unreasonable when it came to power usage...

basically, its half-way decent if you've got it in a system thats already running... but you might save more money on your electric bill by upgrading the something more energy efficient. which is basically any other processor. core 2 duo's are suggested in my opinion.
 
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I see. So the P4 is at a total loss. Well, they say that GHz isn't everything, if that's so, what are the other things that make that so? Beside buss speed anyway.
 
ADE said:
I see. So the P4 is at a total loss. Well, they say that GHz isn't everything, if that's so, what are the other things that make that so? Beside buss speed anyway.
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Clock speed is basically how fast the CPU can move data along pipelines. The P4's (netburst) had much longer pipelines then the Core 2 Duo's and Athlon 64's do, so they needed insanely high clock speeds for them to travel that distance and still perform fairly well. The Core 2 Duo can transfer data accross the pipelines quicker at lower speeds, since they are much shorter.

There are lots of other factors that determine performance, thats just one of the main ones.
 
Bottom line.

The Pentium 4 was good for it's time, but it just can't keep up with todays new chips. So if you're building a new rig, go with an Athlon 64 or a Core 2 Duo.
 
Make due with it if you have to, but plan on upgrading eventually.

Is your P4 socket 775? If so, you could get a C2D-friendly board and run your P4 in that board. Put your graphics card (Or buy a PCIe card if you are still running AGP) in the board as well as get your new ram and you could run your computer on the older processor till funds allow.
 
[-0MEGA-];444192 said:
Thats roughly about the same, but even then, a P4 @ 3Ghz isn't that good :P
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Well, like he said, the speed don't matter too much now a days. But stuff like 3000+ mean that even thought a CPU from AMD is 2GHz, its over all is as good as a 3GHz
in other words
P4 3000MHz = AMD 3000+ (even thought its 2000MHz) Hence the 3000 in both categories.
 
ADE said:
P4 3000MHz = AMD 3000+ (even thought its 2000MHz) Hence the 3000 in both categories.
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I said that about the P4 and Athlon XP, not the Athlon 64. Besides that CPU, the comparison with the rating isn't as accurate.
 
Yea, Clutches AMD XP beat my P4 when it was OCed at 3.5ghz, it was REALLY close, but still beat it. And i think his speed was 2.2ghz?
 
Depends on the games you are running too. Some are far less demanding than others, even if they are all brand new. But that's kind of obvious.

I game with my Mobile Sempron 3300+ (stock 2.0GHz). It's a 64-bit CPU, just not alot of "power" as it's meant to stay cool and consume little power...which it does pretty damn well :P
 
Well the socket A athlon XP 3200 (mine) has had thousands of studies and tests (literally-not kidding!) that show that they are just as good as a P4 3Ghz (which since F.E.A.R. recommends it) which is why I can have the computer part of the setting on MAX with no problem.
 
If you can find one, maybe look into getting an XP-M 2600+, overclocking demons! Could probably get you to 2.8GHz without any serious cooling involved. But they are pretty rare now, especially the good steppings.
 
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