Athlon 64 or P4 3.2

[Jimmykicker]

I will be putting together a new system soon and am wondering what processor will be the best for all types of video work. Should I buy the P4 3.2Ghz with Hyper-threading now or wait for the Athlon 64 (Sep 23 release date)???...or should I buy now and wait a year or two for the new 64-bit processors to develop???......

[thayne]

I'd get the P4. All the video software out there is 32 bit so you would be running in some kind of "compatability" mode with the Athlon 64.

[vitualis]

I would never "wait" to buy something you think you could really benefit from "NOW". There will always be better techs in the "coming future".

Thus, I would get the HT P4... Have a look at Tom's Hardware Guide at overclocking the HT P4 to a 1 GHz FSB -- drooollll...

Regards.

[ChaosMath]

Hi i dont know why any one would want to go out and buy a P4 3.2 i think if you get a P4 2.4 with the FSB at 533 or is this to slow ???

[holistic]

Hi i dont know why any one would want to go out and buy a P4 3.2 i think if you get a P4 2.4 with the FSB at 533 or is this to slow ???

By no means is it to slow, unless the DVD's have to be back by 9 pm the next night. :P

Just ensure you get a mother board that has 800Mhz FSB* then you have room for expansion (upgrade)
*(really 200 * 4 ) but the marketing guys just love to B.S the public.

][

[Greenspock]

I agree with the above posts. Go for the P4 or even an Athlon 32. If you really want an Athlon 64 wait awhile. Let the technology "settle in". Unless there is some absolute need for it. The Athlon 64 does sound like a kick-a$$ system but at this point it would just be a novelty as there is little support for it, yet.

[Solarjetman]

If you buy an Athlon 64 when they come out, by the time there is software that will use 64 bits (at least some non-businesses can afford), it will be time to upgrade agian. Go with P4.

[Skynet107]

I'd get the P4. All the video software out there is 32 bit so you would be running in some kind of "compatability" mode with the Athlon 64.

No. The Athlon 64 does not run 32 bit software in any compatibility mode it is a hybrid 32/64 bit processor. It runs 32 bit code clock for clock faster than any processor so far. When applications are written and compiled to use the 64 bit extensions it wil humble the P4 to be sure. Time will tell how long this will take or if it will ever happen.

Right now for video work the P4 is the safest bet. Personally I am going to get an Athlon64 but that's just me.

[LanEvo7]

I think you should wait a couple months. A huge price drop should be comming soon seeing as both Intel's and AMD's 64bit desktop processors are going to make its debut.

[Skynet107]

both Intel's and AMD's 64bit desktop processors are going to make its debut.

Intel has a 64 bit desktop processor? Or did you write the statement to mean:

"both Intel's new 32 bit desktop processor and AMD's new 64bit desktop processors are going to make their debut."

[Solarjetman]

Intel has a 64 bit desktop processor?

Isn't its name Itanium or something like that?

[LanEvo7]

Intel has a 64 bit desktop processor? Or did you write the statement to mean:

"both Intel's new 32 bit desktop processor and AMD's new 64bit desktop processors are going to make their debut."

I'm sorry, you are right. Intel does not currently have a 64bit processor for the desktop. I got it confused with another line Intel is "supposedly" supoosed to come out with soon and the Intel Prescott.

AMD will debut its Athlon 64 while Intel will debut its Prescott. Both events should happen soon.

[LanEvo7]

Isn't its name Itanium or something like that?

Yea, but for now, its targeted toward the server market.

[alsyed]

after a few months, whats the answer now?

still the P4 3.2?? the prescott runs real hot yeah? and the 3200+ 64 athlon runs cool?

whats some real world resutls in using tmpgenc and vegas? for something like a 2 hour dvd/mpeg2 encode? using a few filters such as resizing?

[Cobra]

I have an Athlon XP3500 Newcastle. Stock, it runs at 32 deg C idle and 40 deg C under load (Prime95, TMPGEnc encode and RealStorm running together). Also, the Athlon64 runs 32-bit code natively as well as 64-bit code.

They also overclock extremely well, and should leave a P4 eating dust in virtually every task even at stock speeds. However, the P4 will fare better with video encoding - hyperthreading really helps this.

For the best all-round processor, go for the Athlon64. If video encoding is the sole task your machine is going to perform, use the P4.

Cobra

[alsyed]

initially i wouldn't be overclocking

i encode average 2 x 2hour dvd mpeg2 a week. I currently have xp2100+. so i'm looking at a athlon64 3200+

whats some of your times for mpeg2 vbr2pass with tmpgenc with the 64? i use virtual dub motly to do apply resizing filters and the like, and for complex stuff sony vegas 5.0.

(you can see my reason for wanting to upgrade in any case, when i put in close to a 3 hour 720 x 304 avi file in vegas, to convert it nicely from ntsc to pal
720 x 576 4:3, and exporting to mpeg2 elementrary file, at 2 pass vbr was going to take 140 hours!! (and thats on the GOod video quality setting.)

in general though, when i used virtual dub, for straight pal avi to pal mpeg2 with some reszing, 8 - 9 hours is required for a 2 hour file.

i have 512MB, though 1 of those is pc2100 and the other is pc2700 - i was going to upgrade those to 2 sticks of 512MB pc3200 though while i was considering p4 to get the dual ddr speeds which apparently is not utiilised in athlon 64 3200+ so i can upgrade piecewise then.


i want fairly quiet and cool machines - its getting hard to get the northwood p4 (my budget would be around p4 3.0 northwood)

[rhegedus]

I have to agree with the P4 for video work and its use of HT.

I have a P4 2.26 overclocked to 2.50 that doesn't have HT but recently bought a lap-top P4 3.2 with HT.

Now granted that 3.2 is faster than 2.5, but the HT does seem to make thinks run more smoothly - even if I have stuff running in idle mode on my desk-top, there's a few seconds lag on switching to other apps which there isn't on my lap-top.

Software which is written with HT in mind (Windows Movie Maker 2) aslo really seems to zip along.

Of course this could all be me being chuffed with my lap-top, but I really wasn't expecting the performance it has - credit to the P4 with HT.

[dbiggs]

I have an AMD 64bit 3000+ processer with a GIG of 3200 400 speed DDR and decoding the average DVD movie using DVD decrypter takes about 15 muinits in average and about the same time to shrink and encode it using DVD shrink. I have no way to know if that is fast or not because I have only used this machine since I built it to do DVD anything so I have no referance to know if that is fast or not. As for softweae compatability everythig runs without a problem. Their is a windowes patch that your PC picks up when it detects the 64 bit chip that puts a patch in windows XP PRO that lets you use all of your processor but you have to have a Por operating system. So I don't know is that quick or average ? If I do a deep anilasis it can tske up to 35 nim to do that with average DVD

[alsyed]

it depends on the size of the dvd shrink thing, but i did one that was quite large (fitting 7+ gig) and the total time with deep ananlysis was a littel over 2 hours with my 2100+

so if you are getting those speeds with the 3000, the 3200 would be even more of an improvement., i think i'd be happy


what mobo are you using?


decrypting is as fast as your dvd drive can allow really and as such, that is a pretty standard time because the data rates are fairly low. most cpu's can crunch those fast.

[dbiggs]

mobo is ASUS K8V SE Delux note to mention that these mobo's are VERY FUSSY ABOUT RAM modules. They must be matching chips and only the ones in the manual will do, a real pain in the ass if you have DDR from your old pc that it will not pick up like my experience.

[alsyed]

was thinking about the gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939,Abit AV8-3rd Eye, and the one with the features that i'd like
Soltek K8TPro-939.

i don't plan on upgrading my video card yet, and its only an agp 4x, so i need the agp slot stil.

i don't have sata yet, and i'd like to be able to use my existing hard drives and buy another seagate 120Gb to match my current one so i can raid 0 it. To be able to have 2 standard ide channels, and an extra channel specifically for raid would be great - as having 2 hdd drives, and 2 optical drives.....
plus needing ieee394, 8 x usb, at least 6 channel audio is basically my bare minimum

[bazooka]

If you buy an Athlon 64 when they come out, by the time there is software that will use 64 bits (at least some non-businesses can afford), it will be time to upgrade agian.

Uh..No

You are incorrect

[alsyed]

asus A8V deluxe mobo is the one i'll be most likely to go for.

Now, i have to think about the PSU to get!

Whats the recommendation in watts for this mobo, with athlon 64 3200+, dvd+-rw 8x, dvd rom, 2 ~3 hdd's, 1GB ram, geforce4 420, tv tuner/capture, 5 case fans? plus the option of overclocking a little bit in the future?

[Sturge33]

I have the K8NS Ultra 939 mobo w/ Athlon 64 3000 & 1gb ram. I love it. It runs much cooler than the Athlon XP 3000 I used to have. The system is very stable and I get really low times ripping and burning dvd's. The video encoding could be faster, but I guess that could be said for nearly all cpu's. That and high end gaming seem to be the most cpu intensive tasks. I have used a few other Gigabyte boards in computers for customers and all of them exceeded my expectations. They also look nice if you have a case with a side window. I'm curious to see how the Athlon 64 chips match up against the P4 when/if Microsoft releases a 64-bit XP.

[alsyed]

video encoding/editing it would be lovely to have power of the p4 3.2 ht and above without the heat and expensive cooling solutions. But for my current system, upgrading to the athlon 64 3200+ will be astounding anyway. Anyway, most of my longish 2hour plus full size mpeg2 encoding is done at night anyway, to make use of full system resources, and the fact that i am asleep and time goes faster then! :P theres a lot to be said of cool and quet!

[Soopafresh]

Those P4s - anything above 3.0 Ghz, tend to run hot. The Athlon 64 runs amazingly cool for such a powerful chip. I just checked an Athlon 64 3200 box that has been doing frame rendering 24/7 for the past three weeks, and the CPU temperature is 30C.

Have a look at this post on a test performed on several different machines - https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=250586

Also, this mobo kicks @ss on the Athlon 64 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-180-061&DEPA=1

[Heff]

I think the answer is a Celeron-D. Take a look at this mpeg encoding comparison esp where they overclocked a 330 ($88 ) to 3.8 ghz.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-d_13.html

and here .. no o/c though

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2093&p=7

and pent 4 compared to A64 in encoding

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2275&p=9

[SatStorm]

Buy the cheapest combo

after all, when you are in this hobby, the next upgrade is at the next corner...