Pentium vs AMD - not that clear cut. (General Comments on Processors)

Member Name: macmilm

Product:	General Comments on Processors
Date:	28/08/02 (3542 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Fast, Fast, Reliable, Did I mention it is fast

Disadvantages: Cost

Intel Pentium 4 Processors are now almost at the 3ghz mark as you can see from the Intel quote below

"The Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, now available at 2.80 GHz, is the next evolutionary step for desktop processor technology. Based on Intel® NetBurst? microarchitecture, the Pentium 4 processor offers higher-performance processing than ever before. Built with Intel's 0.13-micron technology, the Pentium 4 processor delivers significant performance gains for use in home computing, business solutions and all your processing needs. "

There is often lots of discussion with regards to who makes the better processor. Is it Intel or its main rival AMD ??

This opinion is here to help you make that decision for yourself as what suits one may not suit another.

Processor speeds:
As stated above Intel are now at speeds of 2.8 Ghz with there current Pentium 4 processer which compares to AMD latest release of the 2600+. Although AMD's latest offering as called the 2600+ this does not actually run at 2.6Ghz but at 2.13Ghz although this by no means indicates that a processor running at 2.13 will be slower than one running at 2.80. Different processor families can perform a different number of instructions per clock cycle which would theoretically make a bigger difference than how many Mhz/Ghz or clock cycles the processor runs at or so many would have you believe.
This is refered to as clock cycle efficiency, but this is no more accurate than saying better clockspeed equals better performance. It is variable and boils down to running under ideal conditions. Current processors use something called Branch Prediction which helps them to predict what is the most likely next process that is going to be performed and prepares it for process. If this prediction is a bad one then that instruction is wasted and performance obvioulsy suffers. This applies to both Intel and AMD. This basically means that there is no clear cut way to
determine by looking at a processors claimed Ghz speed or even by how many instructions per clock cycle it performs how fast it will actually be.

Reviews:
Reviews help but even then only to a point.
When ever you look at a review of an Intel processor, AMD processor or even a comparison between the too they often run benchmarks in the same software programs. e.g.
Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Castle Wolfenstein, 3d Mark and about ten other common programs.

What does this tell you?

It tell you that maybe AMD are faster at processing when running Quake 3 and perhaps Intel are usually faster at performing when running 3d Mark but by no means gives you an accurate answer to which processor is faster.

How do I find out what is best for me?

Obviously you want to know what processor is faster for what type of activities you perform with your PC. Ideally you need to spend a good amount of time looking for reviews of processors that test on a wider range of software. If you use Microsoft Office XP then try find a review that test benchmarks on that. If you use 3d rendering programs then ... you get the picture. The can be difficult to find but they do exist as I managed to find some that suited my needs.
I afraid its not that simple though..... Try looking at the next section.

Other speed factors.

As far as I'm concerned speed isnt just about how fast it runs Doom or Quake 3 (if I played them) but I find loading speeds an important issue. How many seconds or even minutes Windows takes to loads how long applications take to load whilst in windows and how many you can have loaded at once before your PC starts struggling. These are affected by factors other than just your Processor. RAM/Hard Disk/HDD Controller/Bus Speed. These are really issue for another article but ones that directly affect your processer are Bus speed and RAM.
Processors have a bus speed e.g. the New Intel P4 2.8Ghz has a B
us speed of 533mhz this is how fast it can communicate to other hardware. If your processor can communicate at this speed but your other hardware cannot then you are creating a bottle neck and unknowingly you are slowing down your processor. You RAM will also have a bus speed which ideally you want to match your processor (depending on type of RAM this may not be possible). Also your hard disk if slow will constantly be searching for data that your processor is requesting. As before this in detail should be in a different opinion.

Cost:

Intel are known to cost more than AMD but this is usually on there newly released processors if you step down a couple of models then they compare only marginally more than AMD, and are much more sensibly priced.

Summing Up:

After carefull consideration for me everything pointed to Intel which is what I got and deffinately do not regret it.
I found that AMD are usually faster pound for pound when it comes to games but not for most other applications. So if you are a gamer then mayble you will prefer AMD if not I find Intel most suitable.
From past experience aswell I can comment on reliability.
In a previous job I used to make PC's for the offices and then ended up making home PC's for most of the people who worked there. (This was before there was as much competition in the PC marketplace). I must have made a couple of hundered over about a 3 year period and soon began to realise that Intel machines were far, far more reliable than AMD equivalents. Not just for hardware failures but for crashes in Windows or other programs.
It is a known fact that AMD processors run about 30% hotter than their Intel counterparts and maybe this has something to do with it.

My personal Choice:
Intel


Hopefully this will help you rule out some of the incorrect or biased reviews you see out there on the internet.

Summary: