Tests

To determine the performance of the Athlon64 3400+ compared to other platforms, we benchmarked this system with 3 other ones. There were 2 Intel Pentium IV systems, one clocked at 3.2GHz, the other at 3.0GHz. The last system featured an Athlon XP 3200+.

These are the full system specifications:

AMD Athlon64 3400+ Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Motherboard Gigabyte K8NNXP Intel Reference i875 Intel Reference i875 Gigabyte KN400 Pro2
RAM 2x256 Corsair XMS3202 2x256 Corsair XMS3202 2x256 Corsair XMS3202 2x256 Corsair XMS3202
Video Card nVidia GeForce FX 5950 nVidia GeForce FX 5950 nVidia GeForce FX 5950 nVidia GeForce FX 5950
Drivers Detonator 53.03 Detonator 53.03 Detonator 53.03 Detonator 53.03

Each system was running Windows XP SP1 with DX9.0B. The memory timing settings were set on auto in each BIOS, so details on those are not available.

Test 1: FutureMark's 3DMark2003

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this benchmark, but mostly concerning video card performances. Therefore, the CPU tests shouln't be affected by this, since each of the test systems were running the same video card. The free version of FutureMark's 3DMark2003 can be downloaded here.

The CPU tests run in 3DMark03 take under consideration test 1 under 640x480 as well as test 3 under the same conditions with dynamic shadows and optimization for 1.4 pixel shaders disabled. Although the test is still dependent on the graphics performance of each system, the use of the same video card reduces that factor to practically zero when comparing processors.

We can see a clear domination of the 3400+ in CPU Test 1. Test 1 deals with single texture, low polygon background objects. In CPU Test 2, the distinction between the 3400+ and the P4 3.2 GHz is not as evident. Since 3DMark03 is a 32bit application, there is no advantage of the Athlon64 with its 64bit support. However, it shows that the Athlon64 is able to keep up with and surpass its similarly clocked Intel competitor.