Linux and the Desktop Pentium M: Uncommon Performance
by Kristopher Kubicki on December 24, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Linux
Compiler Optimizations
Although TSCP is neither a model of practical application nor synthetic benchmark, it does provide us with some valuable data for different breakdowns of compiler flags and optimizations. As we have mentioned in past Linux analyses, compiler flags can show large differences between processors if they are used incorrectly. Remember, our Pentium M is significantly handicapped against K8 and Pentium 4 optimizations, since GCC seems to think that the Pentium M is merely a Pentium Pro, which it is not.Where we denote "-march" in the graph, we mean specifically "-march=k8" or "-march=pentium-m", where it applies.
We also retested some of our content creation benchmarks to show the effect of setting "-march=pentium-m" or "-march=pentium4" at compile time. For good measure, we threw in some compilations of the same programs using the Intel C++ compiler, icc. If any compiler is going to utilize fully the advantages of Dothan on Linux, we should think it would be the Pentium M.
As expected, there are severe differences using the different compile flags. Attempting to set the architecture flag at "Pentium 4" degrades performance severely, and at the same time, there is no difference in performance between the "pentium-m" and the "i686" flag. When we look at ICC, on the other hand, Pentium M gets a nice boost when optimizing for Pentium M.
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KristopherKubicki - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
phaxmohdem: these were just linux tests, but i do believe we have all of those render benchmarks coming up in the Windows analysis.Kristopher
overclockingoodness - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
#44: The results could be better on the Windows platform, as stated in the conclusion.sprockkets - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
If you want to see the clock speed dynamically adjusted just roll your mouse over the kpowersave daemon running in the tray (at least it works for me under SuSE 9.2). Even my little Via C3 800mhz system will scale from 399 to 800mhz depending on load. It may even work in 9.1 (the part I couldn't enable was the suspend options). Hell, SuSE even can make my Hitachi Desktar drive go quiet to performance mode right in the OS!formulav8 - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
As this article shows, alot of people way overhyped this chip. Yes its not bad, but not the P4 Killer that alot of people claimed.It is interesting but it doesn't look like Intel will make a Desktop chip based on this cpu yet in the near future. Dual cores would be very interesting though.
JAson
phaxmohdem - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
This chip seems to be a god-send for the corporate IT directors needing machines for their monkeys to do Word and Excel documents on. As for me though, I don't think I could purchase a chip that has as spuratic performance levels as this. I do so many different things on my box, especially in content creation, that I much prefer the consistant performance of my current Athlon64 proc. across all applications.Just a suggestion, I would love to see some Adobe benchmarks on these chips... After Effects render times, Premeire Render times, Photoshop performance, etc as these are all applications I use nearly daily. Thanks.
HardwareD00d - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
When someone does a full set of benchmarks of the Pentium M for all categories across the board vs A64 and P4, then I'll seriously consider if this chip is worth its salt. Until then, I am unconvinced that it is anything special. If it is so good, then why hasn't Intel made any attempt to push it as a desktop chip?segagenesis - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
It was looking pretty good until you mentioned the price :( Ouch.Ozenmacher - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
And go Vikings!Ozenmacher - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
Merry Christmas to you too!skunkbuster - Friday, December 24, 2004 - link
merry christmas!