Please explain how 2500 running at 1.8 ghz is as fast as a 2.4c running at 2.4 ghz

Zarick

Senior member
Apr 20, 2002
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This is one thing I haven't understood. I have an athlon thunderbird 1.2ghz. It runs at 1.2 ghz.. it is equivalent to a p3 1.2ghz. So where did this all fall apart. Intel continues to go up in ghz, but amd does not? So how is it that a 1.83 is keeping up with a 2.4?
 

InlineFive

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Sep 20, 2003
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Mainly because the Athlons have a shorter pipeline and thus have a higher IPC (Instructions Per Clock Cycle) then the Intel core processors. In this situation the AMD processor can handle 3 more IPC then the Intel processor which is what gives it an edge while running at lower speeds.

-Por
 

Utterman

Platinum Member
Apr 17, 2001
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Just wanted to add to the above post. The Pentium 3 had the exact (or very close to) IPC as the original Athlon. With the introduction of the Pentium4, there was an increase of the pipeline (somewhere around 20 stages compared to the low teens with the Athlon). The long pipeline made the orginal pentium4s slower than the P3 and Athlon on an Mhz to Mhz basis. So what has helps the P4 was the ability to bump up the Mhz speed as a very fast rate.
 

BullsOnParade

Golden Member
Apr 7, 2003
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roughly Intel is clocking a less efficient pipelined data path at 2.4 GHz
while AMD is clocking a more efficient pipelined data path at 1.8Ghz.

The AMD chip cpi (clocks per instruction) is better than Intels (cpi) however
Intels clock is higher than AMD's.

This is a very basic explanation, you'd do well to to check out arstechnica's articles
on cpu data paths, to understand what all gets done in a cpu.

~bulls
 

Texun

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2001
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Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
roughly Intel is clocking a less efficient pipelined data path at 2.4 GHz
while AMD is clocking a more efficient pipelined data path at 1.8Ghz.
The AMD chip cpi (clocks per instruction) is better than Intels (cpi) however
Intels clock is higher than AMD's.
-bulls

Yep. What he said. Also think in terms of wheels \ tires. Which will cover more ground in a single revolution, a small one or a large one? AMD performs more instructions per cycle than Intel.

 

jhu

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
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however, given the p4's higher clockspeed, it can execute a string of one million 'xor eax,eax' instructions faster than the athlon
 
Jan 31, 2002
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mechBgon

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Oct 31, 1999
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Dulanic

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Oct 27, 2000
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Pretty much what everyone else has said explains it pretty well. Overall each CPU has their strong points, and they are very competitve, AMD wins some, Intel wins some. Either CPU is a good choice :) Some people like Intel, some AMD, myself I usually go AMD cause I like bang for the buck, which is why currently I have a 2100+ that runs at 2.2Ghz.
 

Megatomic

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Nov 9, 2000
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mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Electric spoooooooon! :D

*cannot resist doing a Google search for "electric spoon"*

whoa! :Q


Anyway, I think the general concept of IPC has been pretty well explained. :)
 

jjyiz28

Platinum Member
Jan 11, 2003
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intel has a 9000RPM
amd has a 7000RPM

whats faster?? i don't know, i need to know the HP and torque graph

intel has 3.2GHZ
amd has 2.2GHZ.

whats faster?? i don't know. i need to understand the architecture of the cpu.
 

Bovinicus

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2001
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CPU Performance = IPC (Instructions per clock) x MHz (Millions of clock cycles per second)

The P4 has a lower IPC, but a higher number of MHz. The Athlon has a higher IPC but a lower number of MHz. Another way to put it is the Athlon does more at once, but less frequently. The P4 does less at once, but it does it more frequently.