P4 1.8GHz or AMD Athlon XP And Why?

By Bain
in Hardware Hangout

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Rising Star

ThaOddie

Posted
Posted

Feature

AMD Athlon? XP

Pentium? 4

QuantiSpeed? Architecture

AMD Athlon? XP Yes

Pentium? 4 No

Operations per clock cycle

AMD Athlon? XP 9

Pentium? 4 6

AMD Athlon? XP Integer pipelines 3

Pentium? 4 4

AMD Athlon? XP Floating point pipelines 3

Pentium? 4 2

AMD Athlon? XP Full x86 decoders 3

Pentium? 4 1

AMD Athlon? XP L1 cache size 128K

Pentium? 4 12k ?op (Trace Cache) + 8KB (Data Cache)

AMD Athlon? XP L2 cache size 256KB

(on-chip)

Pentium? 4 256KB

(on-chip)

AMD Athlon? XP Total on-chip full-speed cache 384KB

Pentium? 4 64KB + 12k ?op

AMD Athlon? XP Total effective on-chip full-speed cache 384KB

(exclusive)

Pentium? 4 256KB - 12k ?op

(inclusive)

AMD Athlon? XP System bus speed 266MHz

Pentium? 4 400MHz

AMD Athlon? XP 3D Enhancement instructions

3DNow!? Professional

Pentium? 4 SSE2

AMD Athlon? XP Cache/prefetch controls Yes

Pentium? 4 Yes

AMD Athlon? XP Streaming controls Yes

Pentium? 4 Yes

AMD Athlon? XP DSP/comm extensions Yes

Pentium? 4 Yes

I take on any P4. I've got a Athlon XP 1800+ and a friend of mine got a P4 1,6 ghz, but he loses by far.......

Mentor

mtgriffith

Posted
Posted
Alright, just wanted to let you all know what I went ahead and decided on  

I got a P4 1.8GHz, MSI 6547 SiS chipset motherboard and 256MB DDR Memory. Everything installed great and is up and running like a champ, I'm very satisfied with my decision

You must have already bought your computer before you asked the question or else you didn't read all of the replies. Even my 1.4 GHz T-bird is faster than a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q4/0110...1031/index.html

Grand Master

mariusu

Posted
Posted

oh my god....people come on, just get the point. amd rulzzzz and that'S it. they are way better than intel...and the intel motha****** are so damn they can't accept the truth and the reality.

as i saw here, many postings are so damn bad and many are so damn true.

just read about what a previous poster wrote: amd is not david, and intel is not goliath,and amd wants to make money to. well, think about it: the amd sells the cpus at an affordable price, i don't think they want to dump the market. the problem is intel: they sell the processors at a way to high price. they were one of the first and they have the fiancial power to crush every competitor on the market (doesn't this sound like microsoft?:ermm: ). they use their monopolistic situation a lot.

why don't admit it guys? i myself have used intel for years and last year i bought my amd system and i must say, the speed difference between amd intel is as big as the price difference between the processors. amd does a great work while intel is just trying to get amd out of bussines with their marketing campaign (high Ghz counting...but almost no power...but hey, the Ghz number is important:evil: LOL)

just think about this scenario: amd goes out of bussines and intel is the only chip supplier outthere (do i hear something about: hey it looks like nvidia and 3dfx:evil: ). well, this would be our future: soon a 3, maybe a pentium 5, 4 ghz processor,,,,with almost no power gain against the actual p4, 2.2 Ghz...but at the price of 3000$....

damn, i won't buy an intel processor. i 'll go for amd all the way:D :D

and by the way: don't bother telling me my english su**s and that i should consider learning grammar....i know that already, but i think you all got the point.

AMD:D

Grand Master

Chad

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by mtgriffith  

 

You must have already bought your computer before you asked the question or else you didn't read all of the replies. Even my 1.4 GHz T-bird is faster than a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q4/0110...1031/index.html

Heh. Once again, an amd fan quoting benchmarks. Surprise. And from toms hardware no less. He's highly known for being a sellout....he hasn't written a good review in years. Pure dribble...

Bain...wise choice. While you could have saved on your heating bill by getting an amd, the electric bill would have been through the roof.

In the computer/electronics world, price=quality. The higher the price, the better quality of product. Sony and Pioneer are higher priced than Aiwa or Kenwood because they are better quality. Same goes with processors or any computer part. Rarely is it the opposite.

While I do despise AMD, mainly because it is an inferior chip (and their processor naming tactics to confuse the consumer), they do keep the price down on processors. It's competition in any industry. The more companies selling something, the less expensive it will be. Look at Apple. The computers are more expensive than a pc. But of course the quality of an Apple computer far exceeds a pc. If you want speed, forget about the pc and go for Apple.

Proficient

Lomex

Posted
Posted

I have a friend working in the Information Systems Department at the college I went to. They decided to buy a server with an AMD chip. Don't remember what brand it was. Well, after 2 days they switched to an Intel based server, the AMD just couldn't handle the load. The server they switched back to was a Pentium III.

Grand Master

TDQuiksilver

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by irdawood  

AMD haven't branched yet out into that sector but when they do....they will all be AMD made lol lol

I thinkin' that regardless of what AMD puts our for servers, the Xeon will still dominate in that department. You have to admit it's one nice piece of hardware, whether you like Intel or not.

Rookie

insenze

Posted
Posted

I don't normally post to topics that have 'flame' written all over them, but in this case I'll make an exception.

In my opinion, as long as both AMD and Intel are competing for a market share, we as consumers are the real winners. Both the firms are pushing for a faster, better chip and both are competing for the limited funds that most of us have. I hope that both will be viable players for a long time to come. I believe that the biggest performance difference will be in the type of motherboard/vidcard that is chosen as the base of any system, not the CPU.

Just my two cents.

Enthusiast

Riker

Posted
Posted

We have 2 Xenon boxes at our work we had 2 PIII Xenon 700's in a Netware 5 box, Netware 5 runs better on a single PIII 1gig by far than 2 PIII 700 Xenon's, I reckon Xenons are the biggest Con job, we dont get Xenons in our servers anymore, its just straight PIII's cheaper and faster IMO.

Lets pay $$$$ for more L2 cache running at the die speed w00 w00, not worth it in the least.

Mentor

mtgriffith

Posted
Posted
Heh. Once again, an amd fan quoting benchmarks. Surprise. And from toms hardware no less. He's highly known for being a sellout....he hasn't written a good review in years. Pure dribble...

Once again an Intel fan who can't accept that the AMD is faster so the benchmarks (or the tester in this case) must be lying. Tom's review of the new Northwood 2.2 GHz showed that it was faster than the Athlon XP 2000+. I bet you didn't think he was lying that time. ;)

Grand Master

Chad

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by mtgriffith  

Once again an Intel fan who can't accept that the AMD is faster so the benchmarks (or the tester in this case) must be lying. Tom's review of the new Northwood 2.2 GHz showed that it was faster than the Athlon XP 2000+. I bet you didn't think he was lying that time. ;)

When will amd people realize that benchmarks are not real world use. Course I can't blame you...without the benchmark scores, you got nothing. All I ever hear is benchmarks this and benchmarks that. Get over it. Try something else...

I don't care what Toms hardware says. He can say every pentium beats athlon speed for speed, or vice versa. Once a sellout, always a sellout.

Grand Master

TDQuiksilver

Posted
Posted

Isn't that the truth about selling out.. and I don't think you're comment on "Intel fans just won't admit it" is something to point out. All these benchmarks are based on speed.. speed speed speed.. they dont measure reliability, life of it, etc. And how do we know the software code for these "benchmark proggies" aren't so buggy that they render out complete BS results about a certain processors speed and such. Just s'more for you to think about before you lay the nonsense of "admitting it" again :)

Mentor

mtgriffith

Posted
Posted

Again, I don't know where you guys come up with the idea that the Athlon based computers are unreliable. I support over 300 workstations. Atleast 100 of them are Athlons. I haven't had a bit of trouble out of them. The AutoCAD Technicians use the Athlons all day every day. Not a single one of them has burned up or acted buggy.

I've saved my company thousands of dollars. There's just no reason to spend more if you aren't going to get more.

Grand Master

nemo

Posted
Posted

I am with AMD all the way...

Originally posted by mtgriffith  

My company uses an Alpha for their real server.

you beat me too it.. LOL..

....

Now... WE have all established the fact that benchmarks are two sided. But does anyone else realize when 5 different sites compare the Athlon XP to the P4, and they ALL have the same results, doesn't that tell you something?!

You can argue that some of those benchmarks are pointless. But uhh, what about those nice little Quake benchmarks? I bet those aren't pointless. Cause whoever wants to play quake surely wants to run the better rig. Another example would be the Linux Kernel compiling. thats not really a pointless benchmark.

Now.. lets see, If an AMD Athlon XP costs a few hundred dollars less than the P4, and are faster, why wouldn't you get an Athlon.

And for everyone's heat little complaining thing. I have an Athlon TB 900mhz running at 1Gig. My most extreme cooling method is my VOS32 hsf combo. Standard cooling fans here and there. Wanna know what my cpu runs at right now? Right after a nice game of Q3a? 40.9*C and dropping. Now tell me all you Intel fans, what is your P4 running at?

Oh and I know some of you are thinking of that toms hardware video where they took the hsf off the p4 and athlonxp, and the athlons went up in smoke. In all reality, THEY TOOK THE HSF OFF THE CPU. when does that happen in real life? NEVER. did you see the cpu go up in smoke before they took it off? no.

And for the person who was saying the p4's are more flexible or whatever. That may be true with the memory. But AMD has changed sockets how many times? The PIII and PIV probally have 3 different sockets. Athlon XP and Duron systems run on 1 socket. This way, I can upgrade my duron to an Athlon XP. Now Intel fans, can you upgrade your P3 to a P4 without buying a new mobo? I think not

i just think that intel fans are in denial that they spent soo much money on their nice little P4 and a cheaper XP system blows it away.

Grand Master

Chris123NT

Posted
Posted

I have both sides of the spectrum here. My p4 2 ghz and an AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz Tbird. When it comes to doing arithmetic involved stuff the athlon is the comp i use. When it comes to multimedia the P4 Ownz and the AMD doesn't come close at all.

Just my 2cents.

But if i had to pick a comp to use all the time its the P4. If AMD ever fixes their heat problems and makes more of their own chipsets i will be AMD all the way but untill then i gotta stick with the more reliable cpu.

Rising Star

Bain

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Alright here is how I look at it...

Sure you can purchase an AMD Processor cheaper than a Pentium but where your really downgrading when it comes to the AMD is when you start looking at the chipsets, the best chipset out there for an AMD Processor right now is the AMD Chipset, You can't find a motherboard with an AMD Chipset under $130.

The next thing you may want to look into if your going to be doing some heavy CPU usage with your AMD is a better HSF than the stock one provided with the processors b/c honestly they don't cool the processor as well as they could be cooled.

After purchasing those items with your processor your looking at spending the same exact price as you would for a Pentium, as we've already discussed here there's obviously no need for a new HSF as the one provided by Intel is more than adequate :)

All in all I feel that you're paying for what you get in the long run and that's why I decided to go with the P4 over the Athlon XP. Don't get me wrong though, I feel both are great systems.

Regards to the expandability on the P4's.. I'll be able to use my SiS chipset up to 3.0GHz+ w/o having to purchase a new board. With an AMD I wouldn't be able to go that high w/o needing a new board, those are facts. Also not to mention that AMD is going to be roling out an additional line of processors in the very near future.

It really does come down to a petty argument when you compare these two processors, they're both equally as good in many differant ways of usage :)

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