Gaming Performance

Doom 3

Our Doom 3 CPU Battlegrounds article already made it quite clear that Intel did not have what it takes to be the highest performer in Doom 3. The 3.46EE doesn't manage to help Intel as much as they need.

Doom 3

Counterstrike: Source

The next big game after Doom 3 is, of course, Half Life 2. And while the game is still not out, Valve's Visual Stress Test that comes with Counterstrike: Source gives us a good glimpse into future performance under Half Life 2.

Half Life 2/Counterstrike: Source VST

Halo

Halo 1.05

Starwars Battlefront

Starwars Battlefront

Battlefield Vietnam

Battlefield Vietnam is similar to Starwars Battlefront not only in its game play but also in its performance; there's no real difference between any of the top performers here. Almost all of these CPUs end up being GPU limited at 1024x768.

Battlefield Vietnam

Unreal Tournament 2004

Unreal Tournament 2004

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

An oldie but a goodie, Enemy Territory is still played quite a bit and makes for a great CPU test as today's GPUs can easily handle the rendering load of the Quake 3 based game.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

The Sims 2

While a clear departure from our usual game tests, The Sims 2 is more popular than any of the other games we've featured here in certain crowds - it is effectively the Doom 3 of those who don't play prefer life-simulation to first person shooters. And interestingly enough, it makes for a very impressive CPU benchmark.

The Sims 2

Far Cry

Far Cry 1.2

Warcraft III

Warcraft III The Frozen Throne

Audio/Video Encoding 3D Rendering
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  • Beenthere - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    Intel has simply run out of Hail Mary solutions to their unending design, engineering, production, sales, management, and marketing problems. Even Wall Street knows this by now.
  • Wesley Fink - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    For those who asked, the 1000 lot Intel price for the 3.46EE is $999.
  • coldpower27 - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    Well you could get a direct comparison between the Athlon 64 3700+ vs the Pentium 4 560 as those 2 processors are priced pretty directly against each other on Newegg, though their MSRP differ in actuality.

    64Bit Windows isn't likely to be released until Prescott 2M with Intel EM64T is released in Q1 2005. We will have to see though if Microsoft will released in 2005 WinXP 64.
  • jimmy43 - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    #14 I was thinking the same thing. The 3500 would probably still win or tie in most of the categories and it costs nearly half the price of an intel 560. I feel like Anand is trying to be fair to both companies and reccomending a bit of both. Realistically, AMD has Intel beat in every market segment... by alot. It's also funny how everyone is COMPLETELY forgetting that AMD's proccessors are 64 bit so in a year or so, you will get a considerable free speed boost and youl be able to run the latest OS. Is that not a huge advantage? Come on, people need to stop overlooking that its really bugging me.
  • DukeN - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    Once again, Intel shows why it's the Sony of the CPU world with terrible products terribly overpriced.
  • Gnoad - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    I might have missed it, but how much will Intel price this at? Considering it's an EE, one can guess about $900. If thats true, they MIGHT sell 3 or 4 of them.
  • skunkbuster - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    underdog in terms of market share
  • GhandiInstinct - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    Since when did the world spin where a chip that is superior in 90% of chip tasks is the underdog?
  • stephenbrooks - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    So... I was thinking of investing some money in shares. You don't think AMD might happen to be a good bet right around now, would you?
  • SLIM - Sunday, October 31, 2004 - link

    Great review as always, but there's always room for improvement:)
    [/begin nitpicking]
    "So in the end, who takes the crown? AMD or Intel? The 3800+ took four category wins, while the Pentium 4 560 only took two, however with the exception of the gaming and professional apps category, AMD's victories were not overwhelming - especially once you take into account the fact that the 3800+ is priced much higher than the Pentium 4 560. Now that you can purchase at least a couple of 915 based motherboards for less than $130 the total cost of ownership for the Intel platform doesn't eat into the CPU price advantage. For the most part we'd say the 3800+ is faster than the Pentium 4 560 but not always worth the added cost. It's unusual but in many cases, the Pentium 4 560 is actually the bargain high-end chip of the two."

    Alrighty, two comments:
    1) It's bad science to make a detailed comparison, and then in the conclusion talk about switching the chipset and memory in order to make the price comparison hold up. (Maybe include the numbers from a 915 review to back up the assertion that the 560 will still perform just as well with 915/DDR).

    2) I'd be curious to see how the 3500+ would hold up in these same comparisons since it is about $150 cheaper than the 560.

    Bonus nitpick:
    4 of the graphs don't include the new 3.46ee (ACD on page 9 and 3 games benches); I don't know if that was intentional or not. [/end nitpicking]

    Thanks again for the best reviews.

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