Hyper Threading gone from Inspirons

Question

Does anyone know what happen to the option of having a hyper threading processor on an Inspiron? Dell no longer gives the option of a hyper threading processor, just a choice between two processors (Intel® Pentium® M 760 Processor or Intel® Pentium® M 770 Processor)that don't seem worth it to me.

Brainonska511 · Answer

The Pentium M processors are very good (from what I have read). They may not have the HT in them, but they are just as good as the P4-Ms and Mobile P4s that were used in the previous machines.

ejn63 · Answer

Intel has dropped the mobile P4 in favor of the Pentium-M. The decision was not Dell's.

timak · Answer

Dropping P4 is a good thing. Pentium M is a more effecient, better designed chip. The P4 is made for a desktop computer and has no place in a notebook. Even the so called P4M is still just a desktop processor pretending to be a notebook processor.

Tim

timak · Answer

By the way, 'Hyper Threading' is just another gimmick like Centrino to make people buy Intel. If it is so great why can a lower clocked Pentium M outperform a higher clocked P4 with HT? Intel has really smart marketing people. I am amazed at how many people they have goggle eyed over their gimmicks. Then again, dealing with the public as much as I do, I shouldn't be surprised at how naive the majority of the population is. Tim

Brainonska511 · Answer

HT may be more of a gimmick, but it is actually useful when it comes to things like multimedia enconding.

powderoo · Answer

THere goes Tim always bashing Intel and with the lame 'gimmick' response, I only agree that HT has no place in a laptop, with heating issues that said, Tim if your so anti Intel, why don't you choose another, or better yet make up your very own chipset.  Intel happens to be the very best, and the products are cutting edge and the forefront of technology leading the industry, very much like the old Chicago bulls, late lakers team ( present team not included), NY Yankees ,Patriots,lance Armstrong, simply put a dynasty.  And the fact that they aggressively advertise, brings in more money, hence larger market share,  more money for development, and bottomline better products for the consumer.And end-user namely us......so live with it, it is what it is...Iam all about Dell, Intel, and yes Centrino.

robucf · Answer

Do a search on the Pentium M Chip, its a rocking chip. My Pen M 2.0 performs like a 3.4 HT chip in gaming benchmarks.

timak · Answer

Heh powderoo, the mighty knower of nothing.

I am not against Intel. I own a 9300 with a Pentium M, and I think it is the best mobile chip available. I was bashing Intel's marketing scheme, and stating that Pentium M is a much better CPU than a P4 in a notebook environment. Centrino is a Gimmick. The Pentium M is a great product, the chipset is adequate, and the networking card by Intel is the same as any other. "Centrino" is nothing special, really the processor is what makes it great. Can you understand this? I hope so, because I don't have that much spare time in my day to break everything down into layman’s terms for ya powderoo.

plm · Answer

On our desktop computers we (a sw development group) have disabled HT. It slows down lots of applications my half. It divides your CPU in two virtual CPU's clocked at 50% speed. If, however, you have only 1 main thread (such as running a single main application which does not use a lot of multithreading) then you're left with 50% speed.

Generally, for desktop computers, you're better of without HT, except for some niche applications such as mutlimedia encoding.

jankerson · Answer

@plm wrote:
On our desktop computers we (a sw development group) have disabled HT. It slows down lots of applications my half. It divides your CPU in two virtual CPU's clocked at 50% speed. If, however, you have only 1 main thread (such as running a single main application which does not use a lot of multithreading) then you're left with 50% speed.

Generally, for desktop computers, you're better of without HT, except for some niche applications such as mutlimedia encoding.

No not really, if an app is only single threaded it will still use the same CPU power percentage so you loose nothing. Now if you disable HT you will in fact loose all of your multitasking power and cripple the CPU so it will not provide the power needed even in single threaded apps.

Even in a single threaded app using Win 2000 and Win XP the OS spreads the load over both CPU's when HT is enabled, but this do vary some as far as what percentage is given to each CPU.

As an FYI:

The Dothan (Pent M) is not the same as the P4 so the direct Clock comparison between the two doesn't mean anything.

The P4 will totally crush The Pent M in Encoding and other Multimedia apps.

The Pent M is a Notebook CPU, but there are desktop motherboards out that will take the chip, and Asus has a adapter out for their motherboards.

robucf · Answer

Check out this article... http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=dothandesktop&page=1&cookie%5Ftest=1

jankerson · Answer

@robucf wrote:
Check out this article...

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=dothandesktop&page=1&cookie%5Ftest=1

Yeah we have been talking about it for awhile now on my other BBS, forever. LOL

Not just that article, but all of them and the differences between them and the P4's and the AMD stuff too.

Then comparing real life to the reviews we are seeing...interesting.

Message Edited by jankerson on 04-08-2005 07:39 AM

robucf · Answer

I used 3dMark05 (3900 score),3dmark03(9600 score) and I played WoW @ 1920x1200 and got a consistent 55+ fps then I played HL2 at a very high resolution; both games looked and played amazing. I am very happy with the Pen M chip, I was really worried about the performance but I am quite happy with it.

jankerson · Answer

@robucf wrote:
@I used 3dMark05 (3900 score),3dmark03(9600 score) and I played WoW @ 1920x1200 and got a consistent 55+ fps then I played HL2 at a very high resolution; both games looked and played amazing. I am very happy with the Pen M chip, I was really worried about the performance but I am quite happy with it.

Really that is pretty good for a laptop.

I never said it wasn't a good CPU, it is a great LT CPU.

What we had found out was that the PentM doesn't make use of Dual Channel memory, even on a Motherboard with Dual Channel DDR.

That can be a huge problem on a desktop, but not so much in the LT's.

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Hyper Threading gone from Inspirons

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