To start off our benchmarks for the day, we first want to note that all processor speeds were tested on the same Alderwood platform. We were unable to do a direct comparison between a Socket 478 and LGA 775 setup due to difference between DRAM, Graphics, and other components that would not allow it to happen. We tested the system while the DRAM was set to 533MHz with the default timings supplied by the SPD. Now, onto the results!

     First off, we have the well loved SiSoft SANDRA benchmarks. From our Arithmetic results, we can see that the 3.40GHz Extreme Edition CPU is capable of better ALU and FPU performance clock for clock, due to the fact that it is based off of the “Northwood” core and older Netburst Architecture scheme. If we take a look at the slope of the results we obtained, we can see that the “Prescott” core P4’s performance is growing at a slightly faster rate than that of the “Northwood based Extreme Edition, although that is hard to pin point here.

     As far as the multimedia results go, they follow right in line with results obtained during our Arithmetic benchmarks. The “Northwood” core Extreme Edition CPU's are able to easily best the “Prescott” based processors on a clock for clock basis due to the shortened pipeline. We’ll see later on that the same advantages of the “Prescott” core that we found when it first debuted will once again hold true, but let’s see what the Memory benchmark has to say first.

     Memory bandwidth wise, we can see the advantage that the “Prescott” core has over the Extreme Edition’s “Northwood” core rather easily. At 3.60GHz, the 560 Pentium 4 is able to edge ever closer to the 5Gbp/s mark. As we noticed with the Arithmetic results, if we were to take a look at the slopes of these lines relative to each other, we’d see that the performance growth rate of the “Prescott” core is more substantial than that of “Northwood”, another reason why “Prescott” will begin to look better on more than paper as it approaches the 4.0GHz mark.