AMD Question

[Sharif]

I just don't understand how you are supposed to know when a AMD processor has more speed than a Intel.

For the Intel, you know the speed because the name says it all, for example: P4 3.0GHZ, runs at about 3000mhz, right?

What about for AMD, what speed does a, for example, 2500 run at?

[trebor]

UH, OH, he brought a fighting topic. Just kidding. In all seriouness. When compared to the 2.5ghz intel, the 2500+ runs at about the same speed. In actual ghz speed the 2500 is about 1.8 ghz. What allows it compute an near the same speed is the amd does more per clock cycle than the intel does. That is why amd came up with the different naming convention. so people would see near same numbers for both types of processors of near the same speed. So a 3000+ amd is the same as a 3.0ghz intel. I hope that made it clearer, if not i am sure someone else will come along and help you out.

[fftaz336]

AMD's naming convention has raised many questions. The big answer is that they are tring to get away from people using clock speed to judge a computer. Processor speed is not the only thing people should look at. If you have the fastest processor and only 128 MB of memory, your computer won't run very well. A 2500+ operates at 1.83 GHz. However, the naming convention of AMD shows that it is equivalent to a 2.5 GHz. I have an AMD (2500+) and my computer is faster than my mom's Intel which is 2.2 GHz. Even though mine is only clocked at 1.83. It all depends on the memory, FSB, onboard cache, hard drive, etc. If you want to know you can go to AMD's website and it will tell you. Also when you buy an AMD most companies will have the clock speed somewhere on the box.

[plinden]

And don't forget, with regards to the Pentium M, Intel have dug themselves into a hole with their insistence on using clock speed to specify processor speed.

The Pentium M is approximately the same as a Pentium 4 plus 50% - e.g. a 1.6 GHz Pentium M has about the same performance as a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4.

On the other hand a Celeron 2.4 GHz performs about as well as a 1.8 GHz P4 (for normal use) but the Celeron M doesn't differ much from the equivalently clocked Pentium M except in power consumption.

I own a 2 yr old Dell with a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4, but my next PC will be self-built with probably an AMD Athlon 64.

[ric449]

Who really cares about the speed in GHz? AMD doesn't even compete in GHz with Intel. You need to look at the model numbers. I would explain why, but it is all to do with pipelining, which is very complex.

[mikezel]

And anyways, Intel is also soon going to be naming its processors using performance numbers instead of GHz, so this will all get easier (or more confusing, depending on how you look at it).
mike