Significant gains with Core 2 Duo 2Ghz over P4 3.02Ghz
 

I currently have a HP ZD7000 Laptop with a P4 3.02Ghz HT, 2GB Ram, 128MB vid card. Looking to purchase a new family computer, but been considering getting a new HP DV9000t laptop (Core 2 Duo 2Ghz) for myself and repurposing my P4 as a family PC. Will be getting killer rig late next year for HD editing (Quadcore), but are the gains with a Core 2 Duo 2Ghz with 2GB of ram, 512MB video card siginificant enough over my current P4 setup? I'm starting to feel the squeeze using After Effects 7 and PrPro 2. So I guess my question is, is the performance gain significant enough to put down the extra money (+$900) to get the new machine for myself to use for the next year or just stick with the P4 until then? Any insight into the Core 2 Duo vs P4 for video editing would be great appreciated. Many thanks.

Kevin

Well, to answer my own question, and possibly for the benefit of others. Pentium D has substantial benefits over Pentium 4s, from what I've read, 10-15% depending of the app. Core Duo's smoke Pentium D's with 20-30% performance gain, and according to Intel, Core 2 Duo has a 40% increase over Core Duo. So with a little bit of "fuzzy" math, performance gains from a Pentium IV to a Core 2 Duo can range from 75% to 125% (measly 3.02 P4 in my case). Well, all of this a moot as the Core 2 Quadro's (4 Cores) have been announced for mid November and early Q1 2007 and the gains on these badboys is 100%+ over Core 2 Duo's, so I'm going to wait.

Kevin

Kevin,

I was in the exact same situation as you. I was running the same system you are running now, hitting some glitches and slowdowns recently. Two weeks ago, I went ahead and upgraded. I got a Core2Duo 2.4, 2gb ddr2 800 ram, 256mb video card. I have to say, it is completely worth it to upgrade.

You say you'll wait until the new chips come out? If you say that, you will say that in Nov when they announce something a little faster for Jan. It's a vicious, neverending cycle with technology.

If you have the money (you are saying $900 to upgrade, my system built from scratch was $1500), you should do it now - it sounds like you need it. You can resell the machine in Nov if you want to upgrade again, but you'll have what you need now.

With computers there is ALWAYS something "better & faster" comming down the pipeline. if you wait for the best, you'll always be waiting and limping around with the current system (I know, i did it for 3 years with the "not yet" mindset).

I would wait until the new quad core comes out. It will either be a more attractive offering for your or will reduce the prices of the duo. While I agree that there is always something better on the horizon, we are right at the point of another major change and it might be worth waiting a few months

Sharyn

Lisa,

Thank you for your comments, especially coming from a fellow ZD7000 user. I have to admit that the ZD7000 is a workhorse and has served me beyond well for over 2.5 years, but I'm really starting to feel the lag with ever increasing complex projects and shorter deadlines.

I hear you on the "next release" issue, and I'm a big proponent of get the best you can afford when you need it, and don't look back, but from what I read on Tom's Hardware, the Quad Cores are out of this world in performance, the reviewer stated that he felt that he was catupulted a full year into the future as far as processor performance goes and not the usual 10-15% incremental performance boost. This says a lot, and even goes on to state that it's a definite must for HD content creation.

Fortunately I can wait for the Quad Cores as I'm wrapping up an 18-month project, and will be taking a break for a little while, but if I was just starting the post production phase, I would pick up the DV9000t in a heartbeat, but I'm in the homestretch and getting any system involves setup, tweaks, drivers, optimizing, etc, which I don't have time for, so my ZD7000 will see me through once again.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/...n_the_rampage/

Here's my 2 cents from a similar thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....09&postcount=7

I'd add that AFAIK, we won't see a Quadro laptop for some time yet so if you're looking for a laptop solution, probably no need to wait.

Lisa, I would agree with you as a generalization; but in this specific case it appears that the Quadro will be such a substantial leap in performance, that it is worth the wait unless a person really must act now. I built an Athlon 4800+ this spring knowing that I would consider it obsolete by the end of this year and would be replacing it. I couldn't wait up to 6 months to get a new editing system. If I was in the same situation now, I'd definitely gut it out until I could build a Quadro...and in fact I'm kind of doing that because I'm skipping the Core 2 Duo I thought I'd be building at about this time.

Found some benchmarks from Intel comparing P4 HT with Core Duo and Core 2 Duo. Significant gains with After Effects which is what I'm really after.

http://www.intel.com/performance/des...fice/index.htm

Also of interest are more extensive tests with AE:

http://www.digitalproducer.com/artic...e.jsp?id=61730


Actually Lisa, that figure is on top of the $1000 I was going to spend on a new family PC, so $1900 and then repurpose my ZD7000 as the family pc. Doing the math, $900 isn't much to have 75%-125% performance gain, even if it is just until the QuadCore machines come out, even then I would wait until late 2007, so the investment is worthwhile (My ZD7000 has paid for itself 15x over, so definitely worth it) and I desperately need more performance in After Effects, even Photoshop CS2 seems to stutter at times although CS1 ran like a champ on my ZD7000. Thanks for all of the input.

Kevin

Another link to benchmarks of old and newer Core Duo vs. AMD and other Intel chips.


http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=2795&p=10

If you can wait...
 

If you can wait, I might pass on the first generation of the quadro processors. The quadro coming out this year is basically two core 2's slapped together (analagous to the core duos production). In 2007, they will refine the process, get all 4 cores on one chip, which should provide similar gains as the jump from the core duo to the core 2 duo (runs faster, cooler, more efficiently).

Here's the timeline (or at least an estimate):

P4
Core Duo
Core 2 Duo
Quadro (November 2006)
Real Quadro (July 2007) <-- I'd hit that.

Also, Vista will be in full swing by then and hopefully have the initial bugs worked out, so it should be a safe buy. So if you can hold off on a purchase, I would say you would get the best bang for your buck buying in 2007.

Q3 next year is kind of a long time out in the PC processor world, so I'd reserve judgment on purchases planned for late next summer or autumn. In the shorter term, the first Quadro to come out will actually be the Extreme edition targeted at high end users (like HD video editing), whereas according to what I've read so far, the versions of the Quadro that'll be released shortly thereafter in Q1 2007 will be the "mainstream" chips and supposedly NOT as fast as the initial Quadros.

If you need a fast editing system now, a Core 2 Duo is the ticket. If Dec/Jan is your timeframe and you're willing to pay for the fastest desktop, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (the first Kentsfield "Quadro"), hopefully with newer motherboards supporting a 1333 bus, will be the fastest desktop PCs.

Next summer? Faster systems than the QX6700, no doubt, but probably too soon to know exactly what processor and system config will be best for editing. Who knows, AMD may pull a big rabbit out of their hat (doubt it, though). For now, Tom's has a new update with relative processor powers that includes the Quadro at both normal and overclocked speeds.