Dual P4 Xeon vs. AMD Palomino MP

[delela]

I know this subject has been pretty much stomped to death but... I'm planning to build a new system ATM. When I compare prices on an MP2000+ Tyan MPX system with 1G of DDR ECC REG Mem against a Dual P4 Xeon 2G with 1G of ECC RDRAM, i find the price difference to be considerably less than say, 2 months ago. Does this tip the price/performance scale to the Xeon side?

Any useful input appreciated.

Cheers

[snarg]

Hmm, well currently it has to be dual Xeon. Ti4600 & new professional cards have issues under Dual Athlon and this is across the board of all makers, performance is very poor indeed. We have not published any Dual Athlon results with 6210 900 & 750XGL. Under dual xeons the boards and applications fly.

A hurried fix is underway at present to 'sort' the chipset drivers however this is going to take 4 - 6 weeks minimum we have been advised.

So maybe that helps you out.

[delela]

Thanks for the info Brian, very informative. For this Maya workstation I'll be using a crusty old GVX210 on NT4W until a good dual monitor substitute comes along (actually what I mean is when I can afford/justify a 900XGL).

I guess I should have mentioned this in my original post but does it change the equation?

Cheers

[snarg]

Hmm, personally I would run the Xeon route as this does give better upgrade routes for now.

The other route I have given as much info without crossing the line on NDA's. Hope you understand.

[grocs]

I`m curious what issues there are... because my Ti4400 on a dual athlon system with a gigabyte mobo is working just fine... does this mean it should be better?

(see my post about TI4400 vs Radeon 8500 to check my 3D-Test in maya)

[1000101-]

I typically find intels upgrade routes to be somewhat shabby. Being as they tend to introduce a new socket/pinset every year or so. Rendering the current crop of boards useless for future CPU's. I think AMD will increase pin count for first time what; end of this year ? If you have a socket A athlon board your upgrades can go all the way up to an XP 2100+ in many cases. If you bought a p4 1.4ghz and had your eye on dropping a 2.2ghz in; your SOL. Intel doesn't mind that though because they can sell more chipsets..
c'est la vi

[snarg]

Yes they should be better. Dual athlons are a very good entry level unit.

[snarg]

Agreed its very frustrating the amount of scrap boards that have to be written off year end. AMD changes could be sooner than expected

[grocs]

from what I gather on information that was given to the originator of this post by brian_robinson... there will be a fix to make the gfx cards run better... and that the fix could arrive in 4-6 weeks... am I right in thinking thats for the Dual MP compatibility... I am just curious if that would be easily upgradable on current mobo`s like in the bios or would in be in some other form?

Im assuming NDA means something like Non-Disclosure Agreement??? so Im trying not to ask unanswerable questions

[snarg]

Okay to retiterate. The fix due is for the chipset drivers of the motherboards not the Nvidia card drivers, though colabration will have to be done in these areas.

This will hopefully enhance the graphic cards performance dramatically when these are finally released and yes enhance the Dual MP. ALL current Dual Athlon's will require this, its not a Bios fix which would only take a few days to rectify, mainboard chipset drivers take an awful lot longer to finalise. Thats as much as your presumption on our NDA will allow disclosed

[grocs]

thanks for the info I really appreciate it especially with my lack of knowledge in this area