How long does the P4 still have??

Endurance Man

So im wondering how long before intel stops making the P4 chips? Will they? Reason i ask is as soon as they do become sparce my dad will have to start building machines with conroe's, and that means big smiles for me .

PogMoThoin

I didn't know they were still making them, thought they were just using up old stock. I'd say they'd be well gone by the time quad core Kentsfields become mainstream.

8T8

February next year is about the last shipping date for 830, 840, 930 and 940 Pentium D CPUs.

Even though the P4 (Netburst) architecture has been officially retired select Pentium D and Celeron D CPUs will continue to be produced for certain markets.

But the majority of what Intel sells will be of the Core architecture.

irlrobins

Some info

Endurance Man

Good stuff, thats sooner than i expected tbh. Hopefully the old P4 stock will go quickly, we cant use anything lower than a 3ghz P4 so when they do become sparce its free upgrade time for me .
Cheers for info.

Cuddlesworth

irlrobins wrote:

Some info

I have severe doubts about that article, as I cant see Intel being able to ramp up production on the Conroe processer to the degree where it can take over the P4 and lets not forget the current huge stockpiles of P4's that Intel has lying around. I would say mabye this time next year.

Ps;the Inq is a rumour mill, not a reliable source for info.

jesus_thats_gre

The P4 and Conroe use a different die size and as such, for Intel to manufacture Conroe chips where the P4 was once produced, the whole production line would first need to be over hauled. Considering these changes cost billions, you normally hear about them on new sites. Intel will probably stop marketing the P4 as a consumer/business product and start selling it for use in HD-DVD players or something. IIRC, they use a 2.8 northwood P4 in the most recent Toshiba HD-DVD player.

EDIT: http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/04/18/pentium4m_fortoshiba_hddvd_player/

Anyway, you get the picture. It takes along time and alot of money to move to a new manufacturing process, they will delay this as much as possible while they can still make a decent buck on an old tech.

pred racer

The different die size is not an issue (except at the packaging stage), it just means using a different reticle, if it doesnt require a completely different toolset to manufacture then the turnaround can be pretty quick, say 6months to a year. And they will try to get rid of the p4 as quick as is humanly possible, coz the new stuff is where the big bucks are, on older stuff the margins are much tighter.
i.e. die cost would be somewhere between 20-40 dollars depending on the particular product, what are you going to make, the ones you can sell for $500 or the ones for $100? so I would expect the existing stock to go, and maybe keep producing a p4 for the celeron end of the market, but everything else will be geared to producing conroe etc.

unklerosco

Well im downgrading from an X2 4200, 2 gigs ram, X1900xt to a 3.2ghz northwood, gig of ram and a 6800gt(if i get one)....

Looking forward to seeing how much of a difference(if any) i notice..

Stephen

Why are you downgrading?

unklerosco

Dont use my pc as much for games now that i have my 360... Fancy playing HL2 again so just want a system that'll run that....

unklerosco

Old thread i know but i've downgraded and to be honest i dont miss that much...

Running a 3.2p4 @ 3.65.. could prob hit 3.8-4 if i was bothered
gig of std ddr3200
some old Ati 64mb card(needs to be replaced cause i stood on it before i installed it!!)

For normal dektop stuff i dont notice any difference, working with adobe photoshop/imageready the same, ripping dvds the same..

Biggest difference is trying to do all these at once, really miss the dual core there.. System slows down, where as with the X2 it just kept going..

Waiting to get a 6800GS to play games again, wont be able to compare it considering i was using a X1900xtx... and im using a 24" dell.. On a 17-19" monitor id say the difference would be minimal due to the lower res...

Still have my Xi-fi.... way way way better than on-board sound.. Have it running through an arcam amp n mission spkrs. Never heard Mp3's sound so good..