Intel Introduces 533MHz FSB CPUs - Pentium 4 2.53GHz

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 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) 118.2 122.6 123.4 133.7 147.8 166.7 170.3 177.1 181.6 191.4 207.2 209.2 | 0 | 42 | 84 | 126 | 167 | 209 | 251

Again we see a very impressive showing of the Pentium 4 in real-world scenarios where SSE2 is used heavily. Intel is definitely working hard to make SSE2 as prevalent as possible but without more significant gains in other applications the Pentium 4 will have to use its ability to reach very high clock speeds in order to consistently end up ahead of the game.

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 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 97.2 114.9 119.2 129.0 140.7 | 0 | 28 | 56 | 84 | 113 | 141 | 169

If you thought the last benchmark painted the Pentium 4 in a favorable light then this one will truly impress you. Unfortunately for the Pentium 4, situations where such heavy SSE2 optimizations are present are very rare. For heavy Lightwave users, you're in luck.