Linux Desktop CPU Roundup: Cutting Edge Penguin Performance

Summing it all up

We were extremely pleased to see the 64-bit applications generally perform better than their 32-bit counterparts. Unfortunately, there were still several cases where 64-bit binaries performed slower; John the Ripper being one of those examples. Some software, like MEncoder 1.0pre5 proved difficult to install on SuSE 9.1 x86_64 as well. We didn't even touch on the hundreds of software ports that do not have working 64-bit binaries yet, including Wine. Sometimes the advantage of speed does not outweigh the advantage of software compatibility.

Another interesting revelation in our analysis came when we swapped our DDR2 memory with DDR1. We observed instances giving either memory configuration the advantage, with no clear winner. Although we tested several benchmarks and saw several trends, DDR2 versus DDR1 on Linux from a performance standpoint looks inconclusive. Even though DDR2 continues to fall in price, the additional premium makes it difficult to justify the cost. Our DDR2 memory configuration retails for $400 while our DDR1 configuration retails for $250. With many 915P and all 925X, you are not even given the choice of which memory type to chose, so weigh your motherboard performance on the value that you put on your memory. The DFI LanParty board that we used for this analysis supports both.

A straight comparison of processor against processor is not as simple as it looks. Price invariably becomes the strongest argument in buying one CPU over another. The cheapest CPU in our shootout (the Athlon 64 3500+) costs $350 while the Pentium 4 560 - if you can find it - retails for $500. The Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition and Athlon FX-53 both retail for over $800. If you are considering a processor merely on bang for your buck, the Athlon 64 3500+ does not disappoint. The only real reason why anyone should even consider buying an Extreme Edition or FX processor would be for overclocking (if that's your thing). As we saw in most of our benchmarks, the 3800+ and the FX-53 performed very similarly, usually within 3% of each other.

Realistically, the Pentium 4 560 and the Athlon 64 3500+ are the best contenders in this match up. In six months when we run this shootout again we will likely be saying the same things about the Athlon 64 3800+. For now, however, the Athlon 64 3500+ does an excellent job of balancing price with performance. Arguably the most compelling reason to suggest the Athlon 64 over a Pentium 4 would be for the extremely favorable 64-bit content creation binaries. Wary of x86_64 "gotchas", this editor just dual boots SuSE x86 and SuSE x86_64 for the best of both worlds.