Intel Presler 955: Benchmarking the First 65nm CPU - Overclocking Intel's Presler
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Overclocking Intel's Presler
One of the most anticipated aspects of Intel's 65nm based CPU was the high overclockability. However, getting a good chip is mostly the luck of the draw, and one example shouldn't steer you to thinking that they are either the greatest overclockers or the greatest disappointments of all time.
But let’s see how far she goes anyway.
First we clocked it as high as possible on the default 1.3V vcore simply by raising the multi, so as to not have it limited by anything else. Well, she made a firm 4.26GHz at 266MHz FSB, with 16x. 4x32M stable.
Giving it a little more grunt to play with, we managed to push her to 4.53Ghz. The next multi up, however, at this clock/vcore (1.55V) she already presented some signs of throttling during the 4x32M bench. So, we lowered her to a firm 4.5GHz with a FSB of 300 and a 15x multi.
To put it simply, this is incredible overclocking. Mid-4GHz clocks on conventional cooling! Most Smithfield based chips wouldn't get past 4GHz at all. It is most certain that all the hype about Intel's move to 65nm was well earned.
Now let's see how she compares to the FX60.
| Intel Pentium D 955XE @ 4.5GHz | AMD FX60 |
Super PI 1M | 28.766 seconds | 35.188 seconds. |
2x Super PI 1M | 33.485 seconds | 35.813 seconds. |
4x Super PI 1M | 40.657 seconds | 74.177 seconds. |
A clear boost in all tests is seen, and the 955EE beats the FX60 in every test. Although, this is obviously not very fair given that the FX60 is still at stock speeds. We didn't overclock it though, as the aim of the review is the 955EE (and the FX60 was borrowed).
Let's see how she plays in her favorite playground, Sandra.
| Intel Pentium D 955XE @ 4.5GHz | AMD FX60 |
Arithmatic (Dhrystone) | 26353 | 21420 |
Arithmatic (Whetstone) | 18192 | 11252 |
Multimedia (Int) | 64830 | 47499 |
Multimedia (Float) | 85538 | 51977 |
Once overclocked to this level, it cleaned the charts pretty well and also played even at stock compared with it's predecessor, the 840EE.
Although the chip is designed primarily for encoding and multimedia work, it wouldn’t be wise to not show off its gaming potential. There are definitely more game-friendly CPUs, but this Presler has shown to be a beast so far. A favorite test of mine, 3D Mark 01 is probably the most useful test given it tests CPU, FSB, GFX and how well they all work together in gaming situations.
- The Pentium D was clocked to it’s absolute max at 4.65GHz with a 1240MHz front side bus, the memory at 1066MHz 5-3-2-4, and the video card at XT PE default clocks.
- The Pentium M was clocked to 2.86GHz with a 880MHz FSB, memory at 440MHz 2-2-2-5, and the video card at XT PE default clocks.
- The Athlon FX60 and the FX57 were clocked to 3.0 GHz with memory at 400MHz 2-2-2-5, and the video card at XT PE default clocks.
| 3D Mark 01 Gaming Score |
Intel Pentium D 955XE | 40621 |
Intel Pentium M | 38314 |
AMD Athlon FX60 | 38599 |
AMD Athlon FX57 | 34924 |
Most impressively, the Pentium D held its ground against all of the competitors by a firm margin. This is no doubt due to ATI’s new Catalyst drivers allowing the use of multiple threads, which goes to show that the Pentium D isn’t all work.
Next: Presler Heat Dissipation >>
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