pentium-M vs pentium-4

[forall]

Hi,

I'm choosing between a Pentium-M 1.7 Ghz (2MB L2, 400FSB) vs Pentium-4 3.2Ghz (800FSB,?L2,Hyper-thread) for a laptop. I expect to run floating-point/memory-intensive (1-2day runs) of fortran-code (compiled on CVF).

Would any of these CPUs have a considerable edge (eg, factor of 2) for this kinds of runs, particulalry considering the kind of code optimizations available for these different architectures?

thanks in advance,

Dmitri

[Intel_C_Intel]

IMHO...
It depends. I know that isn't much help, but depending on the specific piece of code you will be running, the architecture can make more than a factor of 2 difference (as can the compiler and the optimization options).

For general guidance, look at
http://www.specbench.org/cpu2000/results/cfp2000.html
If the code you are going to run looks a lot like one of the components of this benchmark suite, dig through the results for that specific code.

Over a broad range of FP intensive code, these two machines CAN perform very similarly. But this conclusion depends on specifics like the memory subsystem, which is not likely to be the same. Differences in terms of battery life, size, weight, and power efficiency are perhaps more significant. I have a PIV that literally gets too hot to hold on your lap unless I throttle back the performance.

My recommendation? Pick the one which serves best as a laptop (probably the Pentium-M) and spend $500 on a separate desktop system to run your code.

Good Luck, Cliff

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I doubt you'll see a factor of 2 between these processors. While the P4 theoretically would be faster, in many cases the implementation on laptops using desktop chips is less than wonderful, including thermal limits on actual run-time performance. (This is not a combination Intel recommends, BTW.)

I agree with Cliff that the Pentium-M system should be quite capable and will make for a better overall notebook experience.

[forall]

Thanks very much for the advice, Cliff and Steve,

I am going with the pentium-m system as it is definitely more mobile, and based on several web benchmarks the performance does not seem drastically different.

D.

[kozo]

well im having the same problem, you see im looking for a very fast computer because im going to be doing programming, homework, chatting, and games (basically everything) on it, and i cant decide what processor to get, Pentium-M, Pentium-4, or AMD Athlon 3400 or AMD Athlon 3700...help anyone??

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Go for the Pentium-M - perhaps one of the newer processor models such as the 765. It is quite fast and provides for a great portable computing experience.

[kozo]

Well alright i think ill go for 1.8GHz pentium m, but now i need suggestions for a company, right now im looking at the Alienware Sentia Performance, but i'm trying to find some other different companies because Alienware is a bit expensive...any suggestions?

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Dell is pretty good with notebooks. I just bought an Inspirion 600m for my mother and she loves it. They have the 2GHz Pentium-M 755 available in the Inspirion 600m and 8600. The Compaq (HP) Presario X1000 also has the 755.

[millm]

Take a look at the Sager 3791 http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.html