Which is better, a 2.2GHz Pentium 4 or a 1.90 GHz Core i3-3227U

[NormanAlmario]

A lot of people will say that Core i3 is a lot better than pentium 4 but I want to understand more about those 2 processors. In terms of clock speed, is it right to say that 2.2 GHZ Pentium 4 is better than 1.90 GHz core i3? Thanks for the reply.

 

[Supernova1138]

Clockspeed isn't the only measure of how a CPU performs. Pentium 4 is an extremely outdated CPU that had an architecture notorious for getting little work done each clock cycle. The Core i3 has a much newer architecture that gets more than double the amount of work done each clock cycle compared to the Pentium 4. The i3 is also a dual core CPU with hyperthreading, while the 2.2GHz Pentium 4 is a single core CPU.

Just because the Pentium 4 is clocked higher, does not make it a better CPU than even an ultra low voltage model i3. Despite the i3's lower clock speed, it is much faster than the Pentium 4 due to a more efficient architecture, having 2 cores rather than 1, and also having hyperthreading.

 

[jaguarskx]

A lot have changed in the IT world since the single core Pentium 4 first rolled off the production line.

There is something call IPC (instructions per cycle or clock). That is the number of instructions the CPU can execute every 1Hz. It has gone up significantly. Very simplistically let's say the Pentium 4 is rated at 4 IPCs, however, the Core i3 CPU is capable of doing 9 IPCs. If the Pentium 4 is clocked at 2.2GHz that means during each full cycle the Pentium 4 can process 8.8 billion instructions. The Core i3 can process 9 instructions every 1Hz compared to the P4's 4 instructions. That means you divide the 8.8 billion instructions by 9 to figure out how fast the Core i3 needs to execute the same number of instructions. That works out to 0.987GHz, or 987MHz. "Giga" in computer terms means "billion".

So... based on the above very simplistic explanation, if the IPC for each CPU is correct, then that means a Core i3 running at 1.0GHz is equivalent to a P4 running at 2.2GHz. Then there are other things to take into consideration like dual core versus single core.....

 

[jaguarskx]

Needless to say the Core i3 @ 1.9GHz is literally wipe the floor with a 2.2GHz single core P4. Hell it would do so even if it was a dual core P4.

 

[NormanAlmario]

Thanks for your response. So lets say if a game requires a minimum of 2.2ghz Pentium 4 it will run better on a 1.90 ghz Core i3, am I right about this? Of course there are other things to consider like video cards, RAM etc.

 

[spartansociety]

yes it should run easily. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php