[SOLVED] Pentium D 945 vs Pentium 4 630 what's the difference?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

RealSmoke

Prominent
Jul 31, 2019
123
4
595
Ok so i have a couple of questions about the p4 and the pD what's the difference? is it worth to upgrade?

Here are my current specs: Gt 710 msi low profile 1gb gpu, Pentium 4 630 cpu, 3gb ddr2 ram, 250 watts psu.

Question #1: Will the pD have simuliar temps to the p4? the pD has 11 more watt usage but has a lower nm so will it have lower or higher temps?

Question #2: Will the pD945 perform better than the p4 630 in games, web browsing and video playback? Some people say it is around 50-75% better in games and some say it's performs the same as a pentium 4, so is it better or not?

Few things: Don't say "Just buy a new pc" Also i cannot upgrade to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad because the mobo does NOT support these cpus.

Something i'm also wondering about. Will the pentium d 945 be able to run windows 10 64 bit? because i can't install it on the pentium 4 630.
 
Last edited:
Solution
The Pentium D is an actual Dual Core. Check if your mobo supports Pentium Dual Core(yes that is different from Pentium D). The Pentium D is essentially 2 Pentium 4s running together, so that makes it much faster. Pentium Dual Core on the other hand is a Core 2 Duo with less cache, FSB and Core clocks lowered, so it is much faster than the other Pentiums discussed here.

Install 32-bit Windows. Even if 64 does install, it will be very laggy on a an old CPU like this. Also if 10 is laggy even in 32-bit, consider Windows 8.1 32-bit. It will be faster and will be supported until 2023. Giving you ample time to gather something like 200-300 euros or dollars or whatever and buy some modern budget PC. Windows 7 would be perfect for a machine...

RLarcosPES2

Distinguished
Oct 10, 2014
164
18
18,615
That Pentium D is a pair of 65nm Cedar Mill Pentium 4s on a single package, so will indeed support 64-bit Windows 10 because those have the required CMPXCHG16b + PREFETCHh/PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF instructions.

The Pentium 4 630 is a 90nm Prescott that has XD/NX-bit so can work with Windows 10 32-bit. While it is a 64-bit processor that can run 64-bit XP and Windows 7, it lacks the instructions mentioned above so cannot run 64-bit Windows 8 or 10.

Having BIOS support for one kind of Pentium 4 is not a guarantee it will run all of them. There are many socket 775 boards for example that will run 65nm chips but not 45nm ones, or 65nm quads and 45nm duals but not 45nm quads. S775 was around for a long time through many generations of chipsets.


According to this the highest the OP can go is a Pentium D 950. Only Pentium 4's and D's are supported. Even if technically the Pentium D can run 64-bit Windows 10, the performance will be worse than the 32-bit. Windows 10 64-bit is puninshing to old CPUs. Even Core 2 Duo can't run that OS optimally, let alone Pentium D.
 
I agree 32-bit would perform better, as the i945g chipset cannot remap PCIe/APIC above 4GB anyway so OP would be stuck with less than 4GB of usable memory even in 64-bit.

I say this only in case OP wants to run any 64-bit programs slowly, which is surely better than not being able to run them at all. You can also enable the 16-bit subsystem in 32-bit to run old 16-bit programs, something 64-bit Windows cannot do at all.
 

RLarcosPES2

Distinguished
Oct 10, 2014
164
18
18,615
If at all possible, OP should look into upgrading to something based on Core2. Still 10+ years old but much better than anything based on Netburst.
The motherboard doesn't support a Core 2 sadly.

I agree 32-bit would perform better, as the i945g chipset cannot remap PCIe/APIC above 4GB anyway so OP would be stuck with less than 4GB of usable memory even in 64-bit.

I say this only in case OP wants to run any 64-bit programs slowly, which is surely better than not being able to run them at all. You can also enable the 16-bit subsystem in 32-bit to run old 16-bit programs, something 64-bit Windows cannot do at all.
32-bit requires less RAM to run. That also means that the CPU has to excecute less stuff in the background. The limited memory allocation can work in the OP's favor because there less stuff to run freeing CPU resources. I doubt the OP has any reliance on 16-bit software and I also doubt the OP wants to run any 64-bit ONLY programs on his PC. Every major browser out there has a Windows 32-bit version properly updated and maintaned. Games and programs that have only 64-bit launchers won't work on his PC anyway, because of the slow CPU and he only has 3GB of RAM. I see absolutely no reason to run a 64-bit Windows OS on his machine.
 
Ok so i have a couple of questions about the p4 and the pD what's the difference? is it worth to upgrade?

Here are my current specs: Gt 710 msi low profile 1gb gpu, Pentium 4 630 cpu, 3gb ddr2 ram, 250 watts psu.

Question #1: Will the pD have simuliar temps to the p4? the pD has 11 more watt usage but has a lower nm so will it have lower or higher temps?

Question #2: Will the pD945 perform better than the p4 630 in games, web browsing and video playback? Some people say it is around 50-75% better in games and some say it's performs the same as a pentium 4, so is it better or not?

Few things: Don't say "Just buy a new pc" Also i cannot upgrade to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad because the mobo does NOT support these cpus.

Something i'm also wondering about. Will the pentium d 945 be able to run windows 10 64 bit? because i can't install it on the pentium 4 630.
All this discussion and nobody asked what your budget is for buying new parts and whether you have access to used parts listings or auction sites like ebay.

So what is your budget for buying parts? You might be able to get a used LGA1155 motherboard, memory and a Pentium g2xxx or i3 2xxx for $50-80. You could also try an Athlon/Phenom II/FX quadcore with motherboard and memory for $50-80 but these may be slower than the Pentium and i3.
 
Ok so i have a couple of questions about the p4 and the pD what's the difference? is it worth to upgrade?

Here are my current specs: Gt 710 msi low profile 1gb gpu, Pentium 4 630 cpu, 3gb ddr2 ram, 250 watts psu.

Question #1: Will the pD have simuliar temps to the p4? the pD has 11 more watt usage but has a lower nm so will it have lower or higher temps?

Question #2: Will the pD945 perform better than the p4 630 in games, web browsing and video playback? Some people say it is around 50-75% better in games and some say it's performs the same as a pentium 4, so is it better or not?

Few things: Don't say "Just buy a new pc" Also i cannot upgrade to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad because the mobo does NOT support these cpus.

Something i'm also wondering about. Will the pentium d 945 be able to run windows 10 64 bit? because i can't install it on the pentium 4 630.

Those pc chips are about 15 years old. Neither is suitable for gaming unless you play 15 year old games. Sorry just stating the way it is.

If you dont have $200 to buy a refurb then you are out of luck.
 

RLarcosPES2

Distinguished
Oct 10, 2014
164
18
18,615
Those pc chips are about 15 years old. Neither is suitable for gaming unless you play 15 year old games. Sorry just stating the way it is.

If you dont have $200 to buy a refurb then you are out of luck.
I doubt the OP thinks that going with the Pentium D will suddenly make his PC like a Ryzen 3950x. It still an upgrade though because Dual Core>Single Core.
 

RealSmoke

Prominent
Jul 31, 2019
123
4
595
Maybe his PC died or something.
Lol the pc did'n die, its just that high school started for me and i forgot about this post. I will probably order a pD945 soon because its only like 5 euro and because cheapest pc's with a core 2 duo in the area cost around 50-80 euro with no gpu and like 4 gb of ram, core 2 quad pc's cost around 100-130 euro and core i3 pc's cost 150-250 euro and i dont really have a budget so yeah i can't buy a different pc.
 

Remeca

Reputable
My Pentium D computer struggles running any windows newer than XP, which isn't good for browsing the web any more, with Chrome having ended support. It does run some Linux distros just fine, which make it much better for browsing the internet. Both Mint XFCE edition and Peppermint were absolutely usable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RealSmoke

lynx1021

Distinguished
I have an old dell server PowerEdge SC430 that I was given a 5 years ago, I modified it, Put a Pentium D 945, Maxed memory to 4GB,Put in a GPU and installed windows XP for about $50. Upgraded to windows 7 2 years ago and it works fine for Web browsing, emailing, playing movies, YouTube 1080P. Even used it for burning DVD's from AVI files. I let my neighbor borrow it when his PC died and still going strong. Had to use a 3d party driver program because there were no Dell windows xp or 7 drivers for it.