DH Review: Intel D 820 Dual Core Processor

Zardon · Jul 13, 2005, 09:33 PM

As mentioned earlier in the article we were not originally going to compare the 820 to the FX57/X2/EE due to the latter chips being much more expensive than the Pentium D however what was an afterthought was well worth including in the end. It is clear when comparing the Intel chip to those three products there are some situations (such as encoding) where the higher clock speeds, system bandwidths and architectures will help you get value for money. So now we move onto Photoshop, what can we say? the 820 is a phenomenal performer, exceeding even the X2 4800+ in terms of overall performance. To date the Pentium D is the fastest chip we have tested in Photoshop performance.

read here

Asmoday · Jul 13, 2005, 09:44 PM

Nice review, the PS benchresults was really awesome. And the overall performance/price ratio seems very good. Did you try and overclock it any? And how hot did it run..?

daRk_heLmet · Jul 13, 2005, 10:32 PM

Nice review, but I had a question, howcome every HW, at least the recent ones, end up getting a GOLD reward ? I mean if you just keep giving out Gold awards, the std of the reward goes down, and then there is no use of it. Though I dunno....

Zardon · Jul 13, 2005, 10:33 PM

We actually tend to can the crap hardware as they make bloody awful reading - although I think you can remember the case review we posted a while ago we almost made a brown DH award for that one. as for the gold award, its hard not to give this a gold award as its the fastest thing we used in photoshop ever, and reasonably priced.

No_Style · Jul 13, 2005, 10:47 PM

Surprised to see this processor get the Gold Award. Especially since it will get trounced in gaming, which was excluded. I guess that's why it was excluded, since it's common knowledge?

I guess if Photoshop is exceedingly important to you, it would be "Gold Award" worthy. How was the heat issue?

Well written review, nonetheless.

MSX · Jul 13, 2005, 11:07 PM

Nice to see a decent processor from intel that does not cost an arm and a leg.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jul 13, 2005, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asmoday

Nice review, the PS benchresults was really awesome. And the overall performance/price ratio seems very good. Did you try and overclock it any? And how hot did it run..?

I'm hearing 3.2 Ghz on stock cooler
and I've herd 3.6 on a cheap artic cooler
But youe mileage may very

I've been contemplating on buying one of these

Sweet priced to under $250

swimtech · Jul 14, 2005, 12:35 AM

I've been looking at these for awhile and, aside from gaming, thought they were very good - your review clinches it - thanks for the straighforward review!

Can't wait for these reasonably priced chips to appear in the latest offerings for our university from the various vendors. At a minimum, nearly every staff and faculty member run IM, Novell, antivirus, e-mail, and several browser windows all simultaneously. Add an Office and/or Adobe application to the mix at the same time, or java stuff going on in the browser and you can imagine the numerous hiccups that occur daily and often throughout the day. It just makes sense for new purchases to include the dual-core processor as the default choice for the smoothness and speed in that environment, and enable readiness for 64 bit Windows when released a year (or two...

) from now which will need to run on the same machine.

riles9262 · Jul 14, 2005, 04:28 AM

Good review guys. It seem as if this processor is the total package so to speak. It is not the gaming king, but performs decently (according to other reviews); however, it performs great in general tasks as well as multitasking. Plus, it is quite a bit cheaper than its competition.

Zardon · Jul 14, 2005, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by riles9262

Plus, it is quite a bit cheaper than its competition.

That will be the thing for quite a few people, the price which really is extremely competitive.

We didnt get time to overclock it, but we might follow up later with a little piece on that.

bug77 · Jul 14, 2005, 09:48 AM

Hm, no game testing, no power consumption measurement, no overclocking results... Only the (known) strongpoints of the P4 architecture. Good review.

I wonder how does a biased one look like...

***Veridian3*** · Jul 14, 2005, 11:57 AM

Bug,

No overclocking attempted, its not an "enthusiast" CPU so i didnt feel it was needed. If i get the chance i'll go back and do that... or use that CPU in a future mobo review that includes overclocking.

Temps were 45-65 with the intel stock cooler and power consumption was just below 50w at idle which is the same as the 6xx series P4's.

As for game tests, we never include them in CPU reviews.... there was even less need for this processor as it is not marketed as a gaming cpu. Also i feel the conclusion stated as much information on the gaming performance as you would require in order to make an informed decision.

A) its not as good as a similarly priced A64 in games
and
B) it would perform on a similar level to a 2.8ghz single core P4. (so fine for casual/midrange gamers.)

What else would some doom3 benchmarks have told you???

Also, the review suite happens to favour this CPU, thats just a coincidence. Until now the Athlon family has been a higher performer in our test suite so i dont get what your problem is...

...the suite we use is designed to cover general tasks that you and I would be performing on a day to day basis and i feel this is less biased than synthetic benchmark based reviews and tells you a lot more about how the CPU will benefit you in real usage.

bug77 · Jul 14, 2005, 04:32 PM

No offense meant.
I just thought that if something is missing from the (any) review, it's nice to know why. And I agree, for its price, the Photoshop perfomance is outstanding. It's just that I'm one of those people who, while working in IT industry, doesn't know anyone who uses Photoshop... (There's no photo in my sig, see?

)

Zardon · Jul 14, 2005, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bug77

It's just that I'm one of those people who, while working in IT industry, doesn't know anyone who uses Photoshop... (There's no photo in my sig, see?

)

Photoshop is one of the worlds most used applications, from kids to professional designers and post production experts. If you want to stress test a processor this is one of the applications IMO you use to do so. I believe this so strongly I even made a Driverheaven benchmarking script. This script has been more popular than I thought and has received over 35,000 downloads since it went up.

Incidentally your comments about the biased review meaning the suite we use ......they have been used in ALL our recent AMD reviews as well, we didnt suddenly think "mmm, we have to make this intel chip look good, lets make a new testing suite for it specifically!".

Necrosis · Jul 15, 2005, 12:23 AM

Quote:

For example in tasks such as games which are single threaded the Pentium D 820 will act like a 2.8Ghz, 800fsb Pentium 4 without HT.

Games that will make use of HT, wouldn't they also make use of the dual cores?

riles9262 · Jul 15, 2005, 12:55 AM

I would have thought so too, but it seems that virtual cpus are interpretted much differently according to software compared to actual dual core cpus...

and btw, a followup article on oc'ing that chip would be pretty sweet, if you have the time of course

nitrousoxide52 · Jul 15, 2005, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Photoshop is one of the worlds most used applications, from kids to professional designers and post production experts. If you want to stress test a processor this is one of the applications IMO you use to do so. I believe this so strongly I even made a Driverheaven benchmarking script. This script has been more popular than I thought and has received over 35,000 downloads since it went up.

Incidentally your comments about the biased review meaning the suite we use ......they have been used in ALL our recent AMD reviews as well, we didnt suddenly think "mmm, we have to make this intel chip look good, lets make a new testing suite for it specifically!".

You should render a large model in 3dsmax, that is very cpu intensive, and would stress most cpu's to the max.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jul 15, 2005, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrosis

Games that will make use of HT, wouldn't they also make use of the dual cores?

yes... but with more speed

Judas · Jul 15, 2005, 02:18 AM

? i may be a little tired... but i thought aside from the photoshop test... the x2 4800+ was preforming reasonably faster. no?

or am i missing something?

And i'm really thinking the x2 isn't preforming well in photoshop due to not being completely utilized... just looking at the cpu usuage... it's not really pushing itself at all... Apparently some fixes need to be made?

***Veridian3*** · Jul 15, 2005, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

? i may be a little tired... but i thought aside from the photoshop test... the x2 4800+ was preforming reasonably faster. no?

or am i missing something?

Yes, your missing the several mentions that the 820 and X2 shouldnt be directly compared because one is $250 and the other is $1000.

Judas · Jul 15, 2005, 09:33 AM

yeah i'm tired then.... i'll go read that again though...

...

Wow, i wish i could get a intel cpu that cheap

i can (did, still waiting mind you) pick up a 4400+ x2 for cheaper then a single core intel cpu.

much cheaper...

Zardon · Jul 15, 2005, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitrousoxide52

You should render a large model in 3dsmax, that is very cpu intensive, and would stress most cpu's to the max.

thats an option, ill talk with stuart about that, im not sure he uses those kind of rendering apps. Poser 5 would be another good application for a suite.

Zardon · Jul 15, 2005, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrosis

Games that will make use of HT, wouldn't they also make use of the dual cores?

I know MOHPA used HT to split the load between audio and video, interesting point. We need to get a list of HT enabled games and run some tests with that.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jul 15, 2005, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

yeah i'm tired then.... i'll go read that again though...

...

Wow, i wish i could get a intel cpu that cheap

i can (did, still waiting mind you) pick up a 4400+ x2 for cheaper then a single core intel cpu.

much cheaper...

Thats part of liveing in canada

, and those prices are in USD

toddsmack2k · Jul 15, 2005, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitrousoxide52

You should render a large model in 3dsmax, that is very cpu intensive, and would stress most cpu's to the max.

No kidding, 3dsmax is a CPU killer.

nitrousoxide52 · Jul 16, 2005, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toddsmack2k

No kidding, 3dsmax is a CPU killer.

Yeah, the best test of a cpu would be a high poly 3dsmax scene with 100+ light sources of different colors

, that would blow my comp up.

Necrosis · Jul 16, 2005, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

I know MOHPA used HT to split the load between audio and video, interesting point. We need to get a list of HT enabled games and run some tests with that.

Hmm, wonder if these games also have special code to make use of HT, and they may not recognize the other core.

yoda133113 · Jul 19, 2005, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrosis

Hmm, wonder if these games also have special code to make use of HT, and they may not recognize the other core.

probably not, because in windows it doesn't appear as hyperthreading, it shows up as 2 processors, so I would think (note this is a guess) that it would treat it the same, it would just work faster and better.

Perfect timing, I had a friend ask me today what I would recomend as far as a good, but not great system for less than $1000, and he's someone that uses Photoshop often, and runs many programs at once, y'all had PERFECT timing on this review

.

Ardrid · Jul 19, 2005, 10:29 AM

Ok, something's not right here. If a 4800+ (and a 4200+ for that matter) have no problem beating down an 840/840 EE, can someone explain how it's losing to an 820, which is a good 400MHz slower than the 840? Btw, that includes Photoshop:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2410&p=5

***Veridian3*** · Jul 19, 2005, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ardrid

Ok, something's not right here. If a 4800+ (and a 4200+ for that matter) have no problem beating down an 840/840 EE, can someone explain how it's losing to an 820, which is a good 400MHz slower than the 840? Btw, that includes Photoshop:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2410&p=5

If Anandtech used a version of Photoshop which was more recent their results might have ended up different.

CS2 hugely benefits from HT and Dual Core Intels as well as X2's in our experience. (although X2's benefit less).

Jul 13, 2005, 09:33 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	DH Review: Intel D 820 Dual Core Processor As mentioned earlier in the article we were not originally going to compare the 820 to the FX57/X2/EE due to the latter chips being much more expensive than the Pentium D however what was an afterthought was well worth including in the end. It is clear when comparing the Intel chip to those three products there are some situations (such as encoding) where the higher clock speeds, system bandwidths and architectures will help you get value for money. So now we move onto Photoshop, what can we say? the 820 is a *phenomenal performer, exceeding even the X2 4800+ in terms of overall performance. To date the Pentium D is the fastest chip we have tested in Photoshop performance. read here*

Jul 13, 2005, 09:44 PM	#2
Asmoday Demonic Join Date: May 2002 Location: In the cold, dark north... Posts: 5,198 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	Nice review, the PS benchresults was really awesome. And the overall performance/price ratio seems very good. Did you try and overclock it any? And how hot did it run..? __________________ How You can help Hardwareheaven by using Digg

Jul 13, 2005, 10:32 PM	#3
daRk_heLmet Keep firing, assholes! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Death Star Posts: 1,072 Rep Power: 0	Nice review, but I had a question, howcome every HW, at least the recent ones, end up getting a GOLD reward ? I mean if you just keep giving out Gold awards, the std of the reward goes down, and then there is no use of it. Though I dunno.... __________________ [color=white]My Blog[/color]

Jul 13, 2005, 10:47 PM	#5
No_Style Styleless Wonder Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 6,034 Rep Power: 0	Surprised to see this processor get the Gold Award. Especially since it will get trounced in gaming, which was excluded. I guess that's why it was excluded, since it's common knowledge? I guess if Photoshop is exceedingly important to you, it would be "Gold Award" worthy. How was the heat issue? Well written review, nonetheless. __________________ "The Best Style Is No Style" Specifications Here

Jul 14, 2005, 12:35 AM	#8
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	I've been looking at these for awhile and, aside from gaming, thought they were very good - your review clinches it - thanks for the straighforward review! Can't wait for these reasonably priced chips to appear in the latest offerings for our university from the various vendors. At a minimum, nearly every staff and faculty member run IM, Novell, antivirus, e-mail, and several browser windows all simultaneously. Add an Office and/or Adobe application to the mix at the same time, or java stuff going on in the browser and you can imagine the numerous hiccups that occur daily and often throughout the day. It just makes sense for new purchases to include the dual-core processor as the default choice for the smoothness and speed in that environment, and enable readiness for 64 bit Windows when released a year (or two... ) from now which will need to run on the same machine. __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Jul 13, 2005, 10:33 PM	Thread Starter #4
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	We actually tend to can the crap hardware as they make bloody awful reading - although I think you can remember the case review we posted a while ago we almost made a brown DH award for that one. as for the gold award, its hard not to give this a gold award as its the fastest thing we used in photoshop ever, and reasonably priced.

Jul 13, 2005, 11:07 PM	#6
MSX Burning the frozen... Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 1,201 Rep Power: 0	Nice to see a decent processor from intel that does not cost an arm and a leg.

Jul 14, 2005, 04:28 AM	#9
riles9262 Driverheaven brewmaster Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: British Columbia, Canada Posts: 4,842 Rep Power: 72 System Specs	Good review guys. It seem as if this processor is the total package so to speak. It is not the gaming king, but performs decently (according to other reviews); however, it performs great in general tasks as well as multitasking. Plus, it is quite a bit cheaper than its competition. __________________ A beer a day keeps the doctor away.

Jul 14, 2005, 09:48 AM	#11
bug77 DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: around Posts: 792 Rep Power: 0	Hm, no game testing, no power consumption measurement, no overclocking results... Only the (known) strongpoints of the P4 architecture. Good review. I wonder how does a biased one look like...

Jul 14, 2005, 11:57 AM	#12
*Veridian3* Administrator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Cloaked Posts: 5,028 Rep Power: 181	Bug, No overclocking attempted, its not an "enthusiast" CPU so i didnt feel it was needed. If i get the chance i'll go back and do that... or use that CPU in a future mobo review that includes overclocking. Temps were 45-65 with the intel stock cooler and power consumption was just below 50w at idle which is the same as the 6xx series P4's. As for game tests, we never include them in CPU reviews.... there was even less need for this processor as it is not marketed as a gaming cpu. Also i feel the conclusion stated as much information on the gaming performance as you would require in order to make an informed decision. A) its not as good as a similarly priced A64 in games and B) it would perform on a similar level to a 2.8ghz single core P4. (so fine for casual/midrange gamers.) What else would some doom3 benchmarks have told you??? Also, the review suite happens to favour this CPU, thats just a coincidence. Until now the Athlon family has been a higher performer in our test suite so i dont get what your problem is... ...the suite we use is designed to cover general tasks that you and I would be performing on a day to day basis and i feel this is less biased than synthetic benchmark based reviews and tells you a lot more about how the CPU will benefit you in real usage.

Jul 14, 2005, 04:32 PM	#13
bug77 DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: around Posts: 792 Rep Power: 0	No offense meant. I just thought that if something is missing from the (any) review, it's nice to know why. And I agree, for its price, the Photoshop perfomance is outstanding. It's just that I'm one of those people who, while working in IT industry, doesn't know anyone who uses Photoshop... (There's no photo in my sig, see? )

Jul 15, 2005, 12:55 AM	#16
riles9262 Driverheaven brewmaster Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: British Columbia, Canada Posts: 4,842 Rep Power: 72 System Specs	I would have thought so too, but it seems that virtual cpus are interpretted much differently according to software compared to actual dual core cpus... and btw, a followup article on oc'ing that chip would be pretty sweet, if you have the time of course __________________ A beer a day keeps the doctor away.

Jul 19, 2005, 10:29 AM	#29
Ardrid DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	Ok, something's not right here. If a 4800+ (and a 4200+ for that matter) have no problem beating down an 840/840 EE, can someone explain how it's losing to an 820, which is a good 400MHz slower than the 840? Btw, that includes Photoshop: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2410&p=5