AMD Superior Performance Where it Counts (AMD Athlon Processors in general)

Member Name: neba

Product:	AMD Athlon Processors in general
Date:	13/10/01 (582 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: performance, superior architecture

Disadvantages: limited availability

As a techie, I try to keep up with the current technologies, especially in networking and processing. Recently, I've been reading that companies are discontinuing their production of computers containing the AMD Athlon processor. In my opinion, this is a big mistake.

The Athlon XP processor out performs the P4 at 2 GHz when it comes to most office functions. The Athlon's largest problem resulted when it was tested against the 2 GHz P4 for graphics rendering. The test utilized the game Quake 3. Personally, I hope that people aren't using this game in the office. I also know that there are many home users that do not need this level of graphics either.

The Athlon processor architecture is superior to that of the P4. The P4 was not designed to handle the typical office task. It's primary use is for more complex tasks such as for graphics. Also, at least through the P3, Pentium processors have been reverse engineered which can result in slower boot times. The technology used to develop the Athlon has proved to be valuable to AMD; however, because the speeds don't match, many people shy away from the product.

I feel that we must further educate people that speed in GHz is not the only measurement of performance. That's one of the reasons I feel that AMD's decision to rename the Athlon to the Athlon XP and to leave out processor speeds was a good move. It will shift the consumer's quest from processor speed to performance which is affected by other hardware components.

Summary: