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In the Forums... |
Posted: July 30, 2001 Written by: Tuan Huynh Analysis and Conclusion It has been a while since Intel has release a competitive processor clock for clock to AMD’s Athlon. With the release of Tualatin based Pentium 3’s, Intel is now able to take the Pentium 3 architecture to higher clock speeds. The Tualatin Pentium 3’s have many advantages compared to its Coppermine counterpart. Utilizing a 0.13-micron fabrication process, the Tualatin is able to run much cooler with lower voltage. With the 0.13-micron fabrication process, Intel can produce more processors per wafer thus making it cheaper to produce. Compared to the Athlon, the Tualatin has many attractive features that could lure Athlon users to joining the dark side. Since there have been many users who cracked the core of their Athlon’s, the heat spreader plate on the Tualatin’s prevent any damage to be done to the core. The heat spreader plate makes the processor more durable so it would be harder to damage by not installing a heatsink correctly. While the Tualatin is great performer, it is still being held back by chipset support. The Intel i815E is a great chipset, but the aging MCH from the 440BX isn’t able to show the Tualatin’s full potential. Hopefully Intel will address the problem and release a new chipset. If you are an Intel person and looking for an upgrade but not quite impressed with the current generation of Pentium 4’s, the Tualatin will be your best bet for a great performing Intel processor. One problem arises if you are upgrading from an existing P3 is a new motherboard is required or the Tualatin won’t run at all. For AMD users who are tired of cracking the core of their Athlon’s, the Tualatin based Pentium 3’s will be your best bet if you continuously crack processor cores. Looking at the performance of a single 256k Tualatin in CSA Research’s Office Bench under high stress we see the single Tualatin performing very well. Just think how well Dual Tualatin 512k’s will perform in a server environment. If you are looking to build a server but are nervous about using an AMD based server, the Tualatin based Pentium 3’s will suit your needs. On a side note, the Tualatin with 256k L2 Cache is not SMP enabled; only the 512k processors have SMP enabled on them. |
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