P4 AMD comparison

[BColes42]

What AMD processor would compare to my current P4 the best/closest?

[Panama Red]

Athlon XP 2800+, 333 fsb.

[BColes42]

would that comparison hold true for gaming?

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by BColes42 would that comparison hold true for gaming?

Yup. Any benchmarking of the two would rank them real close to one another. The P4 might get a slight edge in overall performance if the application/game took advantage of Dual Channel Memory. Otherwise, that's about as close as you'll get. Keep in mind that both the Northwood P4's and the Athlon XP's are being phased out. Both are becoming difficult to find.

[BColes42]

Hey PR, would you go AMD for a gaming machine? If your budget was $200ish what cpu would you get when taking into account RAM support and all that? Also do you know when AMD mobos are going to support DDR2?

[Stryker]

Sorry for sticking my nose in...
The system in my signature runs any game I have tried, including Farcry, Half Life 2, etc... The heaftier ones I need to keep the detail down around medium, but the run smooth at that setting. My video card is only average too, so this would limit my performance some.

Not trying to sway you either way as I'm not too experienced with Intel, just wanted to let you know my personal experience with the 2800+ in my setup below. I don't think it will disapoint you if you give it enough support (i.e. video card, ram, etc...).

[BColes42]

Any advice/experience is welcomed. Thanks

[Panama Red]

First off, I'm not a gamer. Second, gaming performance is more video/graphics card dependent that cpu dependent. Stryker has a nice looking rig there that proves the capability of the AMD. An AMD based mobo/cpu will typically run a few dollars less than the comparable Intel system so it really comes down to personal preference.

Anyones guess on the "when" of new technology. I'm not sure of the relationship of the AMD 64's on die memory controller and the newer memory configurations. This latest round of technology releases seems to have the two Big Boys (Intel and AMD) headed in different directions. A couple of good sources for current technology developments seem to be Anandtech and Tom's Hardware. You may find more comprehensive answers there.

[BColes42]

Anyone want to try their hand at this one? If your budget was $200ish what cpu would you get when taking into account RAM support and all that? AMD or Intel. Which is better for gaming?

[Cricket]

Like Panama Red said...games are more dependent on the video card than the CPU. Concentrate on which video card to get...or do you have one already?

AMD has said it's going to skip DDR2 and go straight to DDR3.

Just get the fastest CPU (either AMD or Intel) your $200 will get you (but there's nothing wrong with the CPU you have now).

Cricket

[ric449]

Sorry to cause trouble, but changing to an Athlon XP from the 2.8GHz P4 would be a downgrade no matter whith Athlon XP you bought. When Intel released the 800MHz FSB parts, AMD lost it. 2.8GHz can equal or outperform the whole Athlon XP line.

Now, if you wanted to upgrade from the processor you have now to an AMD, then you would want to look at the Athlon 64 processors. They are AMD's revenge on the 800MHz FSB.

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by ric449 Sorry to cause trouble, but changing to an Athlon XP from the 2.8GHz P4 would be a downgrade no matter whith Athlon XP you bought. When Intel released the 800MHz FSB parts, AMD lost it. 2.8GHz can equal or outperform the whole Athlon XP line.

Oh, oh. Now we went and opened THAT can-o-worms, eh ric? I'll have to take exception to giving such a wide performance edge to the P4 Northwood series. Some time back I did a little comparing of AMD vs Intel with my own equipment just to see what benchmarking revealed. I tested my 2.4c P4 running 1Gb of Kingston VR on an Asus P4P800 Deluxe (my daily commuter) against my daughter's Athlon XP 2500+ with 2 x 256 of KVR on an Asus A7V8X-MX SE mobo. The P4 used a 9600 Sapphire Vid card while the AMD system used the on board graphics and shared memory. The Intel system got the nod in the memory and graphics areas but the 2500+ outscored the 2.4c in pure cpu power. My office machine is an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe with a 400fsb 3000+ Athlon XP and 2 x 512 of OCZ Enhanced Latency (2-2-2-6). Running a Sapphire 9550 vid card. THAT one will blow the doors off this P4. Just some food for thought.

[ric449]

Doh! I meant at least 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB P4's. I thought the lowest 800MHz P4 you could get was a 2.6GHz.

[Tin]

i wonder how mine stacks up against the Socket 478 stuff

[kram 2.0]

Originally Posted by Tin i wonder how mine stacks up against the Socket 478 stuff

Give it a comparison against a very well overclocked Pentium 4 . On a sidenote, I just discovered that I have a M0 stepping Pentium 4...at stock speeds!

kram

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by kram8806 Give it a comparison against a very well overclocked Pentium 4 . kram

Ya mean like this?

[kram 2.0]

Originally Posted by Panama Red Ya mean like this?

285Mhz FSB with 28C...man, I can't even get under 31C with a stock 2.8C .

kram

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by kram8806 285Mhz FSB with 28C...man, I can't even get under 31C with a stock 2.8C . kram

Ya gotta tweak them suckers Juust right! Tin taught me that.