Thinkpads Forum

Found this compact list somewhere, to show how a Laptop Pentium-M compares to which Desktop CPU:

Alviso/Sonoma Pentium-Ms:
P-M 1.40GHz* - 2.5GHz Pentium 4
P-M 1.50GHz - 2.8GHz Pentium 4
P-M 1.60GHz - 3.0GHz P4
P-M 1.73GHz - 3.2GHz P4
P-M 1.86GHz - 3.4GHz P4
P-M 2.00GHz - 3.6GHz P4
P-M 2.13GHz - 3.8GHz P4
P-M 2.26GHz - 4.0GHz P4
*Not avaialable in an Alviso/Sonoma model; comparison uses older Banias core.

Core Solo/Duo Pentuim-Ms:
Core Solo 1.50GHz - 2.8GHz P4
Core Solo 1.66GHz - 3.0GHz P4
Core Duo 1.66GHz - 3.2GHz Pentium 4HT
Core Duo 1.83Ghz - 3.6GHz P4HT
Core Duo 2.00GHz - 3.8GHz P4HT
Core Duo 2.16GHz - 4.0GHz P4HT

My trick was just to take the + number of the AMD cpu with the same clock. Like 1.8 P-M -> 2800+ -> 2.8 P4.

The performance comparison between different CPUs is highly variable depending on the application being used.

Anandtech shows a 1.6 GHz Pentium-M Dothan beating a 3.2 GHz P4 in Business Winstone 2004. Then on the same page, the 3.2 GHz P4 wallops the same 1.6 GHz Pentium-M at Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004.

Tech Report shows the 1.4 GHz Pentium-M Banias being somewhat faster than a Mobile Pentium-4 in most things (the gaming benchmarks don't count as different graphics chipsets are used).

My personal experience shows a 1.3 GHz Pentium-M Banias being approximately equivalent to a 1.7 GHz P4 and a 1.7 GHz Banias being approximately equivalent to a 2.6 GHz P4. My own limited tests have shown a 1.6 GHz Dothan being approximately equivalent in performance to a 2.66 GHz P4, which seems to work out about right. Then again, I got these results doing non-multimedia tasks, where the P4 excels.

My personal experience shows a 1.8GHz Pentium M being slightly slower than a 3.0GHz Pentium 4. Probably around 2.8GHz Pentium 4, maybe slightly faster.

Is there a way to compare Pentium M CPUs to Pentium 4 Mobile CPUs?

How exactly do you mean "compare"?

You could run cpu benchmarking programs on two laptops like Sisoft Sandra or something like that and see which one gets the higher score. Or you could get two laptops, one with a P-M and one with a P4-M and then run your favourite applications and see which feels more responsive or finishes quicker. Of course, you don't get as precise a measurement.

You could compare battery life of two similar laptops with similar-sized batteries.

Actually I was wondering if there's a simple list like the one RealBlackStuff provided.

I wanted to know how fast a P4M 2.4Ghz (or 2.5Ghz) CPU comparing to a Pentium M. Since I don't have it in hand, I can't do the benchmarking. Btw, is Sisoft Sandra better than Super Pi?

Unfortunately, you can't just say "the Pentium 4-M at 2.4 GHz is equivalent to a Pentium-M at XXX GHz" because it really does depend on the type of work load you put the CPU through.

See my earlier post in this thread where some tests show the 1.6 Ghz Pentium-M beating the 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 (the mobile chip scores the same in benchmarks as the desktop chip) in one test then getting beaten by the same chip in another test.

SiSoft Sandra is a much more comprehensive set of tests than using Super Pi. A Super Pi score will tell you how a certain chip scores at one aspect of computing, but doesn't really give you a good picture of how it performs as a whole.

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=1800

Apparently a 1.6 P-M is mostly faster than a 2.4 P-4.