Pentium M processor does a good job with MSP7

[Hulk]

I finally got around to running my MSP7 test on my wife's HP nc6000 computer. It has a Pentium M 1.5 with 512MB memory.

Real-time performance was very good as were the MPEG-2 and DV encoding test times.

By my calculations a Pentium M 1.7 would equal the performance of my P4 3.06. A Pentium M 2.0 would just about equal the performance of a P4 3.0. The 800fsb of the 875/865 are a big benefit in MSP7.

I should also add that my wife's computer contains the older Pentium M processor with 1MB L2 cache, I believe the newer 0.9u Pentium M chips have a 2MB cache.

The Pentium M is 10-15% more efficient per clock cycle than even an A64 processor running an nForce 3 chipset.

A Pentium M laptop with a 1.7 GHz or so cpu would make a very nice MSP7 portable editing solution.

- Mark

[Frank Marshall]

The Pentium M is one lovely little processor. It runs much cooler than the P4 and is the suggested cpu for a high performance quiet PC over at silent pc review:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article31-page1.html

The main problem is finding desktop motherboards that support this processor. Intel seems to be doing this deliberately. Maybe they're embarrassed that this inexpensive P3-based cpu running at two-thirds the clock speed can match their premium product?

Perhaps they think P-M would confuse the great unwashed who are convinced that the faster the clock speed of the cpu, the faster the computer. After-all, they and AMD have spent a lot of marketing bucks convincing the hoi poloi of this pherphy.

[Hulk]

Frank,

You're absolutely correct. Intel has got itself into quite a bind. For years now they've been telling us that the most important factor in cpu performance is clockspeed. In fact, they just increased the already long P4 core to 30+ stages with the release of Prescott. Unfortunately they're obviously having severe thermal problems since this core has only increase 600Mhz to 3.6Ghz in almost three years. I think they realize that the P4 line and its clockspeed race is coming to an end.

But how do they go back on what they've been saying to what AMD is saying, that basically processor performance is the all important factor when purchasing a processor?

The Pentium M is a great processor, a sort of hybrid of a P3 and P4. Very efficient both on a performance standpoint and thermally.

I have heard rumors that the processor AFTER the P4 will be dual core Pentium M based processors. If they could scale the Pentium M to 2.5Ghz it would be faster than the fastest P4 anyway.

Unfortunately AMD also seems to be stalled at 2.4GHz so there is no real pressure on Intel right now.

Should be an interesting winter...

- Mark

[Kris1]

Reading first reports stating the first 0.90nm version of the K8 also runs between 4 and 5 Degrees centigrade higher at equal clock as the 130 nm versions, it's safe to say AMD's facing the same kind of problems as Intel did when they turned out their first Prescotts.

But just like Intel has slowly started to get a grip on the thermal problem, and the newer Prescotts run cooler (and are totally rad overclockers), I have no doubt what so ever AMD -through the grace and knowhow of IBM- will crack this nut too.

That said, yup, the "M"'s a splendid little cpu.

[Flying dutchman]

I have a notebook (IBM R40) with a 1.3 GHz Pentium M. It has the older "Banias" core with 1 mb cache. Performance is cute indeed, as is power consumption: In maximum power saving mode the notebook runs for 6 hours on a 48 Wh battery...

Interestingly, the CPU is an Israeli design.