Can someone explain to me the AMD Hierarchy and Structure?

[ToXiCRaGE]

I got a bit confused about the processors that AMD makes. I knew quite a bit about them but for some reason it escaped my head. The questions i have go as follows:

1. Which processors are at the top of the line for AMD (is it 3rd Duron, 2nd T-Bird, 1st Athlon?)
2. Can some one give me the specs for each of those models, ex. cache size etc.?
3. What kindda mobo's would u guys use with the specific models of the AMDs?
4. Which one would U recommend as the cheapest best O/c-er? Ive heard Durons can go a long way...
5. What makes the models different from one another?


Any other info regarding the AMD models! I went on the AMD website but didt find out too much, so if anyone can give me some links, specs, best mobo/processors combos that would be really great. I have also a bud that want to get an AMD set and i would like to help him....THX PPL!

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

ok where to begin...

AMD has two processors, the duron (value cpu) and the athlon (preformance cpu).

the term thunderbird denotes the core,

classic athlon had 512kb of L2 cache (@ 1/2 or 1/3 cpu speed)
thunderbird athlon has 256 L2 cache (@ core speed)

(classic athlon is analogus to the original p3 and thunderbird athlon is to the coppermine , in regard to l2 cache)

the duron and thunderbird are the same core with different amounts of L2 cache (there are also minor differences with in the cache due to different sizes but we will keep it simple).

both cpu's have 128Kb of L1 cache

duron has 64kb of L2 cache
thunderbird has 256kb of l2 cache

now intel L2 cache is inculsive whereas amd L2 cache is exclusive

inclusive L2 cache = repeats data held in L1 cache
exclusive L2 cache = hold etra data not held in L2 cache

so a duron hold 128Kb L1 + 64Kb L2 = 192kb of data in both l1 and L2 cache

thunderbird holds 128Kb L1 + 256 L2 = 384kb of data in l1 and l2 cache

p3 (coppermine) hold 32kb L1 + 265kb L2 (minus 32Kb repeated data os l1) = 265kb of data


hope that made sense.

duron somes in a socket A and needs a socket A motherboard.

thunderbird comes in socket A (some can be found in slot A, but that is an old standard now)


now picking a motherboard...

any socket A will work, what is recommened is really dependant what you want from a motherboard.

motherboards from MSI, ASUS, even Abit seem to be popular on this message board at the moment..

that said there is talk of AMD new 760 chipset which supports the new DDR sdram, so sometime soon boards with this chipset may be avaliable, (not sure when though).

durons are good overclockers for a couple of reasons,

they are cheaper than thunderbirds and are lower clocked than thunderbirds. that is if the maz the core could reach for a duron/thundeerbird is 1 -1.2ghz a 700Mhz duron has more head room than a 900Mhz thunderbird.

Less L2 cache my also be a factor but i am not sure.

in GENERAL a duron is roughly 10% slower than a thunderbird at the same clock speed. (this is a very general statement ok no flaming please).


ok this is a good starting piont, hope you understand it all.

please post if you have more questions...

 

[paulip88]

About the Duron's performance, I think its 5-10% slower. Its more to the 5% side at lower speeds, and more to the 10% at higher speed. This is because it has a smaller cache, so when its run at a higher speed, its slowed down because its starved for data.

 

[jinsonxu]

paulip's right.

The Duron's performance curve slows once it hits 900mhz cause it's small level2 cache cannot provide sufficent data fast enough.