Processor Dispute

[Maxil223]

Sorry In Advance.
My friend doesnt trust my CPU knowlede(which i gained from you guys)
So i need to create a post that covers everything.

Processor Battle
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Vs.
Pentium 4 3.2 W/O HTT

What is FSB and how does it affect performance of both?

What is cache and what affect does it have on the performance of the cpu?

Why is the clock speed different but they are still comparable(PR rating)?

Which Processor is better for overclocking?

Which processor is better for gaming?

Which processor has the best Performancerice ratio?

Which processor is all out better?

Which Processor BRAND (AMD or INTEL) do you have in your computer?

Which do you prefer?

Whats the different between 32 Bit Processing and 64 bit?

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Tell him to go to Tom's Hardware on the internet & read his CPU charts. If he doesn't figure it out after that, he's an Intel fanboy.

 

[EndGame]

Sorry.......it's 12:30AM here and I'm not answering all those questions........have him read reviews and threads here..........if that doesn't work, hit him in the head with a 2X4, take his CC and order the AMD system.........

 

[sangyup81]

there are tons of head to head reviews out there

 

[MDE]

Why no HT on the P4?

AMD CPUs do more work per clock cycle than P4s so they need less MHz to do the same amount of work (overly simplified, but sums it up well)
Gaming - AMD
Overclocking- depends on which cores each CPU uses. If it's Winchester vs Prescott, Winchester hands down.
Price\Performance and being overall "best" depends on what the system is used for
I own a Northwood 3.2C @ 3.6 and a Winchester 3000+ @ 2.5 (3900+ equivalent)
I'd rather have AMD for my uses

 

[Acanthus]

1. Negligible on single core
2. Negligible over 512k
3. Different IPC
4. P4 and A64 are both solid overclockers
5. A64 for gaming
6. P4 and A64 both have strong mid-range cpus for Price : Perf
7. Depends on the task, anyone who says otherwise doesnt know what they are talking about, or is a fanboi
8. 2 Intel, 2 AMD
9. Intel
10. Nothing, because 64 bit hasnt matured

 

[Brunnis]

What is FSB and how does it affect performance of both?

The front side bus is the communication bus of the CPU. The Athlon64 doesn't even a front side bus in the traditional sense, so it's hard to compare. It does however have speedy HyperTransport links at 1GHz in each direction.

What is cache and what affect does it have on the performance of the cpu?

Cache is a small memory located close to the CPU, with extremely low latancy and very high bandwidth. It's used to temporarily store data that the CPU works with to make access faster. Different architectures respond differently to cache sizes. More is better, but it can't be used to tell anything meaningful when comparing two different CPUs at a glance. For example, Intel had to put 1MB cache on the Prescott CPUs just to maintain approximately the same performance as the older Nortwood with half the cache!

Why is the clock speed different but they are still comparable(PR rating)?

As said before: IPC (instructions per cycle). For some reason, clock frequency has always been the measure of performance to the average person. The performance of a chip is, however, not even remotely dependant on just that single variable. For example, a modern CPU reads chunks of instructions and executes them in parallell over several execution units. The amount of execution units, the design of the pipeline, cache access latency and branch prediction efficiency are just some of the variables that determine how much work a CPU can complete each cycle. Since the amount of work that can be done each cycle (IPC) varies greatly between different designs (like P4 versus Athlon), comparing clock frequency is actually completely misleading. The only time where clock frequency can successfully be used to compare is when comparing CPUs with the exact same core.

Which Processor is better for overclocking?

Can't really be generalised. They're both pretty equal.

Which processor is better for gaming?

Athlon64. Without doubt.

Which processor has the best Performance/price ratio?

Well, since they're good at different things, one must first read up on tests to see which CPU that's best at the tasks one usually perform. The A64 is better at gaming and P4 is better at video encoding. The rest of the stuff is pretty spread, although it's my understanding (after having read most tests at the large hardware sites) that the A64 can be considered a better overall performer in most cases. It should be noted that Hyperthreading can make the P4 more responsive if one tends to use several demanding applications at once.

Which processor is all out better?

For me it would be the Athlon. It's got all the things I want. It's faster in games, compiling, archiving, modelling and scientific calculations. Additionally it produces much less heat than the P4, so it's easier to make an A64 quiet (which is something I greatly appreciate). Since I don't do any heavy multitasking or encode video, I'd say that it pretty much makes zero sense for me to buy a P4. Plus that the A64 generally is somewhat less expensive.

Which Processor BRAND (AMD or INTEL) do you have in your computer?

AMD. I used to be an all Intel guy and refused to go AMD. For some reason I eventually tried it out and I've been happy ever since. These AMD computers that I've owned myself and built for my friends have been amazingly (100%) stable and I couldn't be happier with these products.

Which do you prefer?

I guess it's pretty obvious from the above text that I prefer AMD at the moment. That might change again in the future, but by the looks of it, I'll stick to AMD until Intel ditches the Netburst (P4) architecture.

Whats the different between 32 Bit Processing and 64 bit?

There's a quite big difference in some things (like 30-200% faster) and much smaller in others. The software support is limited at the moment, atleast on the Windows side of things. WindowsXP-64 is just around the bend, though, and judging by the preliminary testing done so far, we're going to see some nice performance increases in a number of things.

I hope this post was helpful! Be sure to check out reviews of CPUs at sites like Anandtech.com and Xbitlabs.com.

 

[BigBadBiologist]

there is no 3.2 w/o hyperthreading

/edit: actually, you say HTT which stands for hypertransport

 

[RussianSensation]

Both of those processors are pretty much close enough for most every day tasks. Intel will have an edge in heavy multitasking once HT is enabled, in rendering, video editing work, media encoding, etc. AMD will be somewhat faster in office tasks, compressing/zipping files, mathematical computational work (science), videogames. However, office tasks will also be affected by hard drive performance and games are much more affected by the videocard. So it's always better to look at a whole system in general and look at specific tasks under consideration for comparison purposes. For example, I'll still take P4 2.8ghz and 1 gig of ram and 6800GT over A64 3500+ 512mb of ram and 6800.

Use this for reference Tom's Hardware Guide CPU Charts

and

Summary

Generally, if the performance difference is <10%, then it is negligible in the real world.

If you toss in overclocking, then A64 will gain an edge since 3200+ can often reach 2.4-2.6ghz. P4 3.2ghz northwood will go maybe 3.5-3.6ghz. A64 at 2.4ghz-2.6ghz is roughly A64 4000+/4200+ speed.

 

[carlosd]

What is FSB and how does it affect performance of both?
FSB is the frequency at which the frontal bus componets work, those components onterconnect the CPU, the memory subsystem, PCI and AGP devices, Actually athlon does not have FSB, it has uses a serial protocil called Hyper Transport to comunicate the CPU and memory with other devices and buses. The CPU communicates internally with memory, because of the integrated memory controller. The impact of FSB speed depends on CPU architecture.

What is cache and what affect does it have on the performance of the cpu?
Cache is an intermediate memory where the CPU can write or read data from much faster than from the main memory, avoiding to introduce wait states to fetch instructions or data from main memory. The perfromnace impact depends on the CPU architecture, and the Cache scheme used. For example P4 CPUs are more cache sensitive than athlon CPUs. Lowering cache in a P4 may have a very negative impact in performance, and adding a lot of cahe to a p4 will increase the cache latency making the CPU slower in some apps.
In Athlon 64 CPUs, lowering the cache amount doesn't reduce a critical slowdown overall (look at the semprom 3300+ with 128K L2) , and putting a lot of caché (more than 512K) won't have important increases in performance.

Why is the clock speed different but they are still comparable(PR rating)?
Because the athlon CPU executes more instructions per clock cycle than the P4.

Which Processor is better for overclocking?
Athlon 64. You van get tipically 30-35% overclocks with air cooling. The performance scales almost linearly with clockspeeds so a 30% in clockspeed increase is almost a 30% increase in perfromance, not the same with the P4s in which the perfromance scales poorly with clockspeed.

Which processor is better for gaming?
Absolutely A64.

Which processor has the best Performancerice ratio?
Athlon 64. At the same price point compared to intel, you will always have a better CPU from AMD.

Which processor is all out better?
Athlon 64. Cooler, cheaper, faster at a given price point, and better upgrade path to dualcores.

Which Processor BRAND (AMD or INTEL) do you have in your computer?
AMD. I was also an Intel boy and refused to use AMD, but once I used it, i wil, not go back to intel. At least not by the moment.

Which do you prefer?
AMD obviously.

Whats the different between 32 Bit Processing and 64 bit?[/quote]
Not much at the moment, because most of the software has to be rewritten for 64bit.