Intel Pentium 4 2.2A (Northwood)

Author : Wayne Date : 4th March 2002

...Product	Pentium4 2.2A
...Manufacturer	Intel
...Supplier	Intel
...Price	£557.00 approx @ Scan

 

 

 

Overclocking :

One of the big selling points for the new Northwood core has been its overclocking potential, this despite the fact Intel still have multiplier adjustment under lock and key. The drop to 1.50 volts not only leaves a healthy amount of headroom for tweaking the voltage, it also means a reasonable amount of headroom so far as heat production is concerned.

For some reason the Shuttle AK40R hasn't been the best of boards for us in the past when it came to overclocking, but the P4X266 generally isn't considered to be particularly forgiving in the persuit of ever higher FSBs. My initial attempts to push the 2.2 fell flat at 103MHz FSB when the USB decided it was bowing out. Switching to the trusty PS2 keyboard and mouse I made it to 108MHz (2376MHz) before becoming flakey. We need to keep in mind here that with a 22x multiplier even a fairly modest sounding hike in FSB can translate to a healthy jump in frequency.
I decided to boost the core voltage a little and at 1.60volts finally made it to 111MHz which translates to a not too shabby 2442MHz. If I allow for the fact that the processor I was using was an engineering sample, the cooling was stock and that the memory in use wasn't the hottest on the block, I've no doubt that this respectable 11% overclock could easily be bested with the right board/memory/cooling combination.

Conclusion :

PROs :
Great multimedia performance
Excellent overclocking potential
Top drawer stability
Socket 478 platform now normalised
0.13micron process
Low voltage requirements
Double the L2 cache
Low heat generation
Highly efficient SSE/2 implementation
Extensive range of motherboard chipsets now available
Robust processor design thanks to heat spreader

CONs :
Expensive (P4 2.0GHz offers better value for money)
100MHz FSB limits subsystem performance in some situations
May need a P4 approved power supply

Summary :

The switch to 0.13micron was just what the doctor ordered for the Pentium 4, as was the addition of and extra 256K of level 2 cache though this is harder to demonstrate quantatively. We now see the P4 begin to bare its teeth in terms of its raw performance and we mustn't be tempted to conclude that needing a 2.2GHz to achieve this makes it a less eficient architecture, its simply that Intel have taken a different route to that chosen by AMD deciding to combine a modest IPC count with a high operating frequency rather than the other way about. It's almost like an engine that runs at a higher RPM but is geared lower to the wheels, and the fact that Intel are able to run their engine at higher revs while at the same tame cutting heat and voltage requirements is to be admired, though by the same rule we've yet to see AMD's 0.13micron thoroughbred.

What the P4 undoubtedly excels at (excuse the pun) is office and content creation. For the ultimate speed in some of the biggest apps in the business the P4 seems to be the way to go, showing an impressive lick of speed in things like Dreamweaver and Photoshop, MS Office and the like, no doubt boosted nicely by the additional L2 cache.

For the gamer the performance is less convincing but that may change. We've seen how titles like Quake 3, which can actually take advantage of some of the P4's advanced features can benefit from this processor but for the not so optimised games, which right now is the vast majority of them. the AthlonXP 2000+ still shades it. The switch to the Northwood core is however generating a renewed interest in the P4 which may force coders to think harder about optimising future titles. Like the graphics market its the popularity of features that seals their eventual fate.

Stability has been and continues to be Intel's great gift. The 1.7GHz P4 that we reviewed last, while not quite the fastes CPU around powered our Intel system for some time and to my knowledge it never once flinched and that's quite a statement. I don't recall a single lock up or forced reboot in the past several months and for server and business users this in itself is worth a certain price premium.

Perhaps the biggest thing running against the Northwood is price, although to be fair the 2.0GHz is significantly cheaper than the 2.2GHz we tested today and seems to overclock to impressive levels making it a superb choice for those wanting incredible spped without paying through the nose for the top dog. High pricing is a tradition Intel has always adhered to when it comes to pricing their flagship CPUs. It could also be said that when you buy Intel you don't just buy a processor, you buy into a whole network of support and stability, a fact I'm not going to argue with. I'm not going to argue but I still think Intel need to lower prices for their flagship products just a little to remain competitive and tempt the undecided into their camp.

So what did I actually think? In a nutshell I was very impressed, more than I had perhaps expected to be. There's still no clear winner in the Intel vs AMD battle without venturing into the realms of overclocking at which point the Northwood takes a distinct advantage, but for the first time in a long time the P4 isn't purely for the Intel die-hard, it's a fully fledged high performance processor that does it all and does it rather well. If you don't spend every waking hour gaming and you actually do some work at the computer the Northwood is a supremely able core with potential yet to be unlocked, it's a processor for tomorrow as well as today. If you are a hardened gamer then the Northwood will still blow you away with its performance even though it trailed a touch in some of the benchmarks. Perhaps though in this scenario the Athlon XP is probably a better option considering its price.

The pieces of the jigsaw are finally coming together for Intel. Cheaper, faster memory, the Northwood core, advanced motherboard chipsets....... it's becoming a potent formula for the future and may well prove that Intel's decision to create the P4 wasn't the mistake some of the early pessimists claimed it was.

Thanks to Mat at Intel for hooking us up with this processor. As always feel free to leave your comments, complaints or questions over in our forums. Thanks for reading.

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