Will they contend with the faster clock speeds of the Intel Pentium IV? (AMD Athlon Processors in general)

Member Name: tybalt

Product:	AMD Athlon Processors in general
Date:	05/12/01 (1594 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: speed, speed, speed

Disadvantages: heat, heat , and more heat

AMD have been in the processor business for quite a while, but it wasn't until their Athlon Thunderbird line of processor that they really entered mainstream acceptance as a competitive processor to the Intel family of processors. Intel had the lead over many of the other CPU manufacturers for quite a while in the past decade, but things are changing. There is now some competition for them to deal with.

Intel gained a lot of respect for their Pentium line of chips; they became the standard for others to follow. They had their name printed on the boxes of games, remember the saying Pentium Pro or compatible processor. This has left many people thinking that Intel is the only people in the business. Many people haven?t even heard of AMD! Things are changing though, and more and more computers are being built with AMD chips. Most people who build their own computers have decided to use the AMD Athlon as the basis for their system. The main reason being that the Athlon is under half the price of the comparable Intel chip.

It's now the turn of AMD's new chip. The AMD Athlon XP. There has been some controversy over the model numbers of the chips though. The Athlon XP 1600+ doesn't actually run at 1600MHz as you may think. It actually runs at 1400MHz. AMD claim that the reason for so naming, is because the chip performs as well as an AMD Athlon Thunderbird running at 1600MHz. Some people say that it is a comparison with the Intel Pentium IV, but I disagree, because I think that my Athlon XP 1600 could easily outperform the Intel Pentium IV 1800MHz processor.

The Athlon XP may not have amazingly high clock speeds, but the reason that it performs better than the Pentium IV and previous chips is that it can perform more operations per clock speed (or something like that, anyway correct me if I'm wrong). This is where the chip gets all its speed. It can perform something like 9 operations per cycle, but the Intel chip can only per
form 6.

There are also many other improvements in the Athlon XP, one notable one being that produces less heat than previous Athlons. This is important, because it means that you don?t need as big a heatsink in order to use the Athlon XP as would have if you were running an Athlon at the same clock speed. The only thing is you do still need a hefty heatsink unless you fancy using your lovely brand new processor as your latest coaster (instead of all those CDs you have wasted).

One other thing that will be noticeable to the overclocker is that the L1 Bridges (I think that's what they're called) are now hidden underneath the processor, but they are still accessible. You see on Athlon processors, the L1 Bridges can usually be unlocked in order to change the multiplier setting (mean you can overclock the processor will still maintaining slightly more stability than other methods. The difference on the XP though is that it isn?t just a case of joining them up with conductive paint, AMD have come up with some new way of stopping you, don't ask me how because I can't remember.

I have overclocked my Athlon XP, I had it running stable at 1480MHz, which is about a 6% increase. Not a lot, but means that I am getting an Athlon XP 1700+ for the price of the 1600+. This was around the best I could get stable using my heatsink, I am thinking of investing in better cooling and maybe going further than this.

As far as stability goes, this chip has been pretty rock solid for me, I have had very few problems with it. I don't expect many either.

AMD chips are traditionally less stable than Intel chips, yet I haven't had any trouble with mine. I get very good performance and don't need to pay as much of a price.

In conclusion I would if you are on a budget and are choosing a processor, then you can't really go far wrong with the Athlon XP. I think the Athlon XP 1600+ retails now for around £115 (OEM ve
rsion). This is considerably cheaper than any other processor that can offer similar performance.

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