Use the Chebyshev estimate from central binomial coefficients. Define
The first is the Chebyshev theta function; the second counts prime powers with the same logarithmic prime weight. For a positive integer , every prime divides , hence
Summing over dyadic intervals yields . By monotonicity and rounding upward to a power of two,
For the lower bound, the central binomial coefficient is the largest of the coefficients whose sum is , so
The exponent of a prime in the central coefficient is
Each summand is zero or one. Therefore . Higher prime powers contribute only
Combining the lower bound with just below shows for sufficiently large , with, for example, .
Let denote the number of primes at most . Since every prime weight is at most ,
For the upper bound, separate the primes at . The small ones number at most , and every larger one has weight at least , giving
Since , this proves
for all sufficiently large , for instance with and . This elementary Chebyshev estimate does not assume the Prime number theorem.