AMD's 0.13-micron Thoroughbred - Cool but Slipping at 2200+

3D Rendering Performance using SSE2

While 3D Studio MAX is SSE2 optimized, the level of optimization is nowhere near what NewTek reported with Lightwave upon releasing version 7.0b. The performance improvements offered by the new SSE2 optimized version were all above 20% using NewTek's supplied benchmarking scenes.

We chose two benchmarks to use, the least SSE2 optimized one and another that is more optimized just to get an idea of the potential that lies for Pentium 4 users running heavily optimized applications

3D Rendering Performance using SSE2 Lightwave 7.5 (Raytrace Benchmark) (Image Render Time in Seconds) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4B 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0A GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) 118.2 122.6 123.4 133.7 147.8 164.2 166.7 170.3 177.1 181.6 191.4 207.2 209.2 | 0 | 42 | 84 | 126 | 167 | 209 | 251

Again we see SSE2 flex its muscle and the Pentium 4 skyrocket to the top. CPU scaling is similar among the two tests so we just stuck to one chart:

3D Rendering Performance using SSE2 Lightwave 7.5 (Radiosity Reflective Things Benchmark) (Image Render Time in Seconds) Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4B 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0A GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.80GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (1.40GHz) 58.7 60.7 60.7 65.9 73.2 79.9 87.2 97.2 110.2 114.9 119.2 129.0 140.7 | 0 | 28 | 56 | 84 | 113 | 141 | 169