You'll get between 10 and 15% better performance out of the CPU socket with 3.4 GHz. Your GPU's performance will also be a little less CPU-bound. You'll have to decide if that's worth $80 to you.

I'd make the switch, but, then again, I'm all about max performance.

Late Windows XP gaming is pretty horrible on P4. For example it won't play Oblivion or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at stable comfortable frame rate. AGP Radeon HD 3850 also sits in a weird spot where it's not powerful enough for late games, but lacks some compatibility for early ones, which defeats the purpose.

Wow, 10 to 15% better, not bad. I will ponder over the idea a bit more. I was also wondering if a prescott 3.4 HT would perform better than the northwood in this high end context. I really wanted a P4EE, but wow, those will burn my wallet straight through.

Ok, so this is more than a mid xp gaming rig then. Perhaps I should just stick with my 3.0ht prescott and call it a day, should I downgrade to my 2.8ht northwood then?

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-04-27, 13:33:

Oblivion or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

He-he
Crysis @fullHD

Northwood would run faster and cooler, clock for clock. But only just a little if you're considering a Prescott due to lower cost.

gnn wrote on 2025-04-27, 13:39:

Wow, 10 to 15% better, not bad. I will ponder over the idea a bit more. I was also wondering if a prescott 3.4 HT would perform better than the northwood in this high end context. I really wanted a P4EE, but wow, those will burn my wallet straight through.

For a price of one P4EE you probably could grab a dual Socket 604 workstation motherboard with couple Gallatin Xeons and still have money to spare.

P4, and even Pentium D 965 EE sucks for XP (3.73 Ghz dual core P4 with HT). Might be a bit better once overclocked, bus speed really high and RAM speed nice and high.

This is with an x48 DDR3 based board.

At this point, P4 is pretty good for 98SE but even a GeForce FX 5950 is CPU bound by a Core 2 x6800 at up to about 3.2-3.3 Ghz on 98SE.
Granted that type of setup is limited as the available boards are not that overclockable and can really only handle FSB of around 333 or maybe a bit more.

So based on your answer, here are m conclusions in a "mid range XP build": p4 Northwood only slightly better than P4 Prescott clock for clock. Going to 3.4 on any of the two would give me 10-15% higher performance since the cpu clocks 13.3% in raw speed, and the HD3850 is bottlenecked by any P4. Downgrading to a 2.8HT P4/N does not make sense since I will trade some performance for perhaps lower heat. However, it is a good backup cpu in case of instabiljty. Further to consider is the fact that I already have a high end XP build with my Q9650 + HD7970. So sticking with the current processor makes more sense and really covers the mid range well, albeit being a bit pointless, still its a cool machine to own.

The "heat" of the Prescott is not a problem at all with a decent cooler.

If you can find a 3.2 or 3.4 EE Gallatin for a good price, I would go with that eventually.

The faster clocked 478 CPUs can be had for a pretty cheap price if you just keep an eye out on eBay.

All the EE 478 and 775 CPUs I have (almost every model now) have been purchased for less than $75 each, with most being $40-50 and a few cheaper.

I can get this one for 50$ cad

Pentium 4 3.40GHz/1M/800 SL7E6

is it worth it?

Too expensive if you ask me for such a generic P4. I would keep a look out for a better price.

Wait, I read 3.0 GHz, it is 3.4
Still a lot of money, but if you want it, grab it.

gnn wrote on 2025-04-27, 15:59:

I can get this one for 50$ cad

Pentium 4 3.40GHz/1M/800 SL7E6

is it worth it?

Depends. On the one hand it's 3.4 GHz, so big numbers go brrrr, on the other - it's not G1 stepping, so runs pretty hot and overclocking sucks. Outside of snagging 3.4GHz for bragging rights I would pick more affordable Prescott 3.2GHz SL8K2 (G1) and overclock it any day of the week. High-end P4s have about the same overclocking limit anyway, which is lower than any good S478 motherboard capabilities.

gnn wrote on 2025-04-27, 14:40:

So based on your answer, here are m conclusions in a "mid range XP build": p4 Northwood only slightly better than P4 Prescott clock for clock. Going to 3.4 on any of the two would give me 10-15% higher performance since the cpu clocks 13.3% in raw speed, and the HD3850 is bottlenecked by any P4. Downgrading to a 2.8HT P4/N does not make sense since I will trade some performance for perhaps lower heat. However, it is a good backup cpu in case of instabiljty. Further to consider is the fact that I already have a high end XP build with my Q9650 + HD7970. So sticking with the current processor makes more sense and really covers the mid range well, albeit being a bit pointless, still its a cool machine to own.

Yeah, you got the gist of it. You can't really do much better than the HD3850 in an AGP slot performance-wise. The performance improvement from a faster Socket 478 CPU might be imperceptible (you won't notice any difference in the XP GUI, and maybe only a few FPS in games depending on the application).

Your system as currently configured won't break any benchmark records, but it wouldn't with a faster processor either. It's completely a judgement call on your part if you want to try to get as close to max performance at a decent price. As mentioned earlier, at a certain cost point, it makes more sense to replace the motherboard and CPU together if you really wanted better performance (which it sounds like you already have such a system).

I will keep a lookout for a deal on a P4EE chip.

Thanks to everyone who contributed on this thread. It's always such a pleasure to talk to all of you.

I will keep you poster once my system is completed.

gnn wrote on 2025-04-27, 13:39:

I really wanted a P4EE, but wow, those will burn my wallet straight through.

And your motherboard's CPU VRM too! 🤣 🤣

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-04-27, 14:02:

For a price of one P4EE you probably could grab a dual Socket 604 workstation motherboard with couple Gallatin Xeons and still have money to spare.

Valid point is valid. 🤣
FWIW, I have a board like that with some decent Northwood-core -based Xeons, but have not put it to use yet. Mostly fearing I would be disappointed by its performance (or lack thereof.) A dejavu of Pentium D... maybe.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-04-27, 13:33:

AGP Radeon HD 3850 also sits in a weird spot where it's not powerful enough for late games, but lacks some compatibility for early ones, which defeats the purpose.

It depends a lot on which game we are talking about, specifically.
Late "XP" era games could also mean Portal & Portal 2, which are based on Valve's Source engine... and games based on it tend to perform rather decently on the HD3850/3870.
As for STALKER and Crysis - I never could get to like those games purely based on how poorly optimized they were at the time. And now many years later even though I have much more powerful hardware that can easily run these and with good performance, I still don't like them. The story of STALKER is... meh. And Crysis - what story? The entire game feels like an 80's Rambo movie cliche to me. But I suppose that's besides the point here.
In any case, if Crysis and STALKER are important games to anyone, certainly don't try them on a P4 (or Athlon XP)... unless you want to experience "era-appropriate" slidshows. 🤣

Here is my Asus P4P 800 with an overclocked 3.2 P4 and my 6800 Ultra. With mid settings and 1024x768 resolution I was able to pay Doom 3 with decent framerates throughout, though there were spots where I would see a noticeable slow down. I wouldn't want to play anything newer that that on this system.
Re: socket 478, P4 PC - Win 98, Win XP, or both?

This thread made me want to do some testing on a build I've been meaning to do. I wanted to rebuild my Cedar Mill-based system that I had in 2007, but didn't own long enough to ever upgrade like I intended. I replaced the components entirely the next year due to poor performance. It actually turned out to be a problem with the hard drive I had at the time, but that's a different story.

Anyway, I still have my original Intel 945 motherboard and I happen to now have a P4 3.4 GHz (Cedar Mill). The system also has 4GB of DDR2. I have several video cards to choose from, but I think two in particular will demonstrate how constrained the P4 (even at 3.4 GHz) will make the GPU; my Radeon x1900 GT (256 MB VRAM) from 2007 and a Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB VRAM). This isn't a perfect stand-in for your system, but it would ballpark the performance you could expect. I'm also a masochist, so I tested with the Crysis built-in Island benchmark.

Crysis (1024 x 768, Low, no AA):
- Radeon x1900 GT - 56 FPS Average
- Radeon HD 4850 - 57 FPS Average

I also tested the HD 4850 at 1024 x 768, High settings (no AA) for good measure. I got...26 FPS average.

So, Crysis would be sort of playable. 800 x 600 at Medium settings might work.

Anyway, the P4 definitely holds this system back. I've got a Conroe e6700 that's compatible with my board that I'll eventually test for comparison. In the meantime, I want to test some overclocking on the Cedar Mill chip.

momaka wrote on 2025-04-29, 17:42:

And your motherboard's CPU VRM too! LOL LOL […]
Show full quote

gnn wrote on 2025-04-27, 13:39:

I really wanted a P4EE, but wow, those will burn my wallet straight through.

And your motherboard's CPU VRM too! 🤣 🤣

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-04-27, 14:02:

For a price of one P4EE you probably could grab a dual Socket 604 workstation motherboard with couple Gallatin Xeons and still have money to spare.

Valid point is valid. 🤣
FWIW, I have a board like that with some decent Northwood-core -based Xeons, but have not put it to use yet. Mostly fearing I would be disappointed by its performance (or lack thereof.) A dejavu of Pentium D... maybe.

I actually posted some results here a few months ago. I could not make a HD3850 to work on the motherboard so it was a 7900GC overclocked instead.

Re: Netburst: Aiming for the Stars

The contest ranking on page one of the thread can give some clues about relative performances between the various P4.