The Great Debate: AMD vs. Intel

[the_querist]

I am posting this topic to try and understand the major differences between AMD and Intel processors. My questions are thus:

1) Is one really "better" than the other or is it more application specific?
2) What are the major achitechture differences between the two (details)?
3) What do you prefer and WHY? Be specific.

I am NOT looking for one-sentence answers (ie; Yeah my X-Brand Processor kicks ar$$ b/c its so cool, blah blah). I want professional-type opnions and factual information ONLY. This is meant to help myself and others to understand the diffences between these two processors, not start a flame war!

 

[mikepeck]

AMD for better FPU performance (floating point opperations). This helps for 3d programs and math calculations. AMD will be even better with SMP support on the horizon. AMD is better because of cost of the chips, will be even better with wider chipset support.

Those are my reasons.

 

[GoldenBear]

Here you will seek better knowledge.









Whoops, sorry, here's my second sentence.

 

[etech]

Anands benchmarks

7th generation CPU comparasion

 

[Goi]

1) Depends on your definition of "better". Performance wise, it is indeed application specific, unless you're talking about older AMD processors(K6 and below, you didn't mention what CPU, you just said "AMD vs Intel, we could just as well be talking about 386s and K5s here ) Compatibility wise, about the same. Overclockability wise, about the same, but AMD is currently more flexible since multiplier isn't hard locked like intel counterparts. Price wise, AMD wins hands down with their Athlons and Durons. The K6s don't make any sense though in the grand scheme of things since they're more expensive than faster Durons.

2) Oh boys...this is a long one that can't be explained in a single post. I'll have to point you to articles on Aceshardware or something. etech's 2nd link is a good place to start too.

3) I prefer current AMD because of its price, good performance and known support for DDR-SDRAM in the future. If I were to buy a CPU now, it would be an AMD Tbird. However, that being said, I've never actually owned an AMD processor before. I'm currently using a C566@850MHz.

 

[pen^2]

1)AMD CPUs have much strong FPU power as mikepack mentioned and they KILL any intel cpu at RC5 cracking Coppermines seem to get similar or slightly better FPS in quake3 compared to t-birds due to heavy SSE optimization of the game but this is a non-issue since at higher resolutions the video card becomes the bottleneck.

2)I will just say this much... hardocp said both for durons and tbirds 1 overclocked FSB yields 1 FPS. I am not sure if its the limitation of EV6 bus or crappiness of VIA mobos but with AMD cpus its really hard to overclock the FSB as opposed on with intel counterparts... on the flipside, most AMD cpus out now are multiplier unlocked meaning if you have a slotA cpu GFDs do the trick and for socketAs you could use a soft pencil

3)I wholeheartedly agree with Goi on this one, except that i am on an Athlon machine right now... the only reason intel cpus are neck to neck with amd ones is cuz they get crazy FSBs to play with! at stock speeds tbirds own them

 

[AdamK47]

Hmmm.... why am I running an an Intel system with a P3 650 @ 1GHz? Lets see.

1. I got my MSI i815E Pro motherboard for free
2. I got my 128MB of EMS HSDRAM for free
3. I got my S370 Copper Hedgehog for free
4. I paid $175 for the P3 650E

 

[formulav8]

IMO. Seeing all the benchmarks and stuff. Amd is the leader. The lowend Duron flat out owns the celeron. The highend the P3 is better in quake fps. Everyone knows that is do to the major sse support for intel and very little if any support for 3d now!. FPU and many other benchmarks the athlon rules. Bang for buck amd is definitely the king. If you disagree i don't want to hear you cry.

 

[Noriaki]

1) Is one really "better" than the other or is it more application specific?

Pretty application specific. AMD has a better FPU, but intel has a better L2 cache. Some apps favour the FPU, some the cache, but most end up being pretty close perofrmance wise
(This is comparing the Athlon to Coppermine BTW, the older P3 and P2 can't stand up to the athlon at all performance wise, and the AMD K6 line is is a much lower performance class altogether)

2) What are the major achitechture differences between the two (details)?

Very little, they run the same programs right?
Athlon has better FPU, Coppermine has faster Cache. Athlon has a slightly longer pipeline.

3) What do you prefer and WHY? Be specific.

AMD and Price. When I bought my Athlon 550 and Asus K7M, They were $325 and $235 respecitvely, a Decent BX board with similar features was about $215 or 220 (ABit BE6-II to be exact), and a P3-550 was like $500, a Celeron 566 was $210. The Athlon would perform pretty evenly with the P3 and slaugther the Celeron (Canadian Dollars by the way).

The release of the Duron has furthered this advantage, with a chip priced in the range of a celeron but available at higher speeds and performs about 90-95% of an Athlon or a P3, plus overclocking??? How do you go wrong. Buy an Asus A7V or ABit KT7 and you can multiplier adjust (with the possible intervention of an HB Graphite pencil to unlock the Duron).

If intel offered a chip that out performed the Duron for Less I'd be all over it. But as it stands now:
- Duron/Celeron: AMD is *Much* faster and about the same price,
- Athlon/Pentium3: AMD is slightly slower in games, faster in FPU stuff, and alot cheaper.

I choose by performance/price ratio on most things.

If I had an ulimited bugdet, I'd probably get a Dual 1Ghz P3 system, but when I'm paying for it? I'll go AMD.

 

[fkloster]

Scale of 1 to 10. 1 being worst:

FPU: Intel- 6 AMD- 9
OC: Intel- 9 AMD- 7
Ease of use: Intel- 8 AMD- 5
Bang for buck: Intel- 5 AMD- 8
SMP: Intel- 9 AMD- 2
Availability: Intel- 8 AMD- 8
Innovation: Intel- 8 AMD- 9

Final score: Intel- 53 AMD- 48 INTEL WINS! (pretty cool heh?)

 

[rockhard]

Hi

Ive just been benching my athlon memory ALU/FPU and when im getting 540/619ish in Sandra cant see how any current intel system can match these kinds of figures?
Heh, when my Mushkin rev2 ram arrives will probably be able to get even more out of my rig.

rockhard =)

 

[Mem]

I`ve used both Intel,AMD even a Cyrix(6x86)processors,right now I prefer AMD since they perform about the same & offer better value for money then Intel.Intel are probably better for overclocking but for the first time in history AMD have a very powerful FPU that is better then Intel`s, right now my vote would go with AMD.

 

[Eli]

fkloster ... WTF?

Again, I ask.. WTF?

Let's try that again..

FPU: Intel-6, AMD-9 (AMD's FPU is far superior)
OC: Intel-8, AMD-8 (Both have their advantages/disadvantages- In the end, you can overclock both, to about the same speeds, maybe a little edge to the Athlon speed wise, but any points this gives are negated by the lack of FSB overclocking)
Ease of Use: Intel-7, AMD-7 (WHat the hell is the diffrence?)
Bang for Buck: Intel-5, AMD-10 (Please.. You can buy a Duron 600 and board for the price of a P3/700. AMD has the best P/P ratio there is.)
SMP: Intel-8, AMD-1 (No denying this one.. Only reason I dont give them a 9+ is because Intel's current production CPUs are not SMP capabal, AMD's are)
Availability: Intel-7, AMD-10 (This is the one that ticked me off)
Innovation: Intel-7, AMD-8 (What has Intel innovated on in the last.. 5 years?)

Final, revised score: Intel-48, AMD-53.

Coincidence? Nah .... I do find it interesting though, that our scores are reversed, me being on the AMD side, you being on the Intel..

1) It's more application specific. The Athlon reigns supreme in FPU-intensive benchmarks. Don't you love it when an Athlon 600 beats a P3/800 in a benchmark? The P3 and the Athlon are pretty much neck and neck in most other things.

2) Visit here ..

3) AMD, because of their price/performance ratio, and future upgradability.

 

[fkloster]

Hey Eli, really are only grading differences are Ease of use and Availability. I say Intel has better Ease of use because of AMD's picky PS and memory requirements along with Via 4&1 driver. Intel systems are generally less problematic for the novice builder. Availabilty is equal.

 

[formulav8]

Umm, i have no problems with my amd. Ease of use is the same as if i would have a intel. That shouldn't even be a rating option.

 

[Eli]

Hmm ... I see, I didn't think about the PS/RAM issue..

You gotta give a AMD a little credit on the availability side of things.. You can get Athlon 1.1GHz's, while Intel stops at 1GHz. There are 23 vendors selling P3/1GHz on Pricewatch, while there are 53 selling Tbird/1GHz, and 13 selling Tbird/1.1GHz..

 

[rockhard]

Intel i815 systems require an INF update just like AMD/Via systems so personally cant see the difference?
If someone can do the homework and build theyre own system then they are more than capable of dealing with the inf updates for both types of systems.
IRQ conflict problems and the like are common to all systems yeah? so cant see why intel based systems get the thumbs up over AMD.

The only problem i can see with the AMD systems is the Win2k patch that isnt readily banded about but solves problems that some people have been having with their Graphics cards and Win2K prof. Heh, even thats easy to do to for a home builder. Wouldnt be surprised if this isnt included with the next Via 4in1 so that niggle will be negated

I have been an Intel system user for over 2 years now and since going over to AMD reckon that theyre finally on a par if not better in some circumstances than Intel.

My 0.02$ worth

U'll have to excuse my gettin carried away, its just that when u look at how much it just cost me to put a gig rig together AMD makes total sense at the moment.

rockhard =)

 

[fkloster]

Hey Eli, I do give AMD credit. They are really stirring the 'hardware pot'; and getting prices cheaper fast.

 

[Modus]

Not a single poor reply, and some excellent ones from Noriaki, Eli, and Rockhard.

Modus

 

[ElFenix]

intel chipsets are generally better than those for the athlon. lets face it, though via chipsets are getting better, the bx is still the fastest chipset, and the i815 is really close behind (the non oc'd agp bus is why). the via chipsets don't have the memory performance, due to more gates being in the async memory ability than intel uses.

 

[rockhard]

Modus

I have no view in camping on either side of the fence and reckon others should view it the same.
Just go with whats best at the time for you

Anyways, looks like AMD were makin gig+ processors a while back and just stock piling them so they can do what they are now, flooding the market with good quality sensibly priced products

Ive got a sneaky feeling tho' that intel has learned their lesson from this and their recent downturn, and u may just find that early next year Intel goin to do the exact same thing to AMD with their P4. Then theres Mustang?

Next year goin to be a great year for the DIY builder

rockhard =)

 

[rockhard]

ElFenix

Ur thinking of the P3 aimed Via chipsets yeah?
AMD Via's are a different kettle of fish
How does Sandra memory ALU/FPU of 540/619ish with more to come catch u?
Thats what im gettin at the moment with a Via KT133 based motherboard.
I used to think the same as u but when i saw some reviews and benches for the Via based AMD motherboards i was sold. The idea of a CUSL2 went out of the window and im glad i went AMD.
If u do some research i reckon u may just look at it a little differently too

rockhard =)

 

[Noriaki]

I'd just like to put in that me and my roommate both upgraded out K6-2 machiens to Athlons, we both used the same PS and RAM we had in our K6's and neither of us have had any troubles. Win95 doesn't seem to like my system a whole lot, but Win98SE runs very well. 2 or 3 crashes since january.

However there have certainly been issues. Perhaps we got lucky, perhaps we were late enough into the game that our systems are OK.

(If you are being really pick you'll note I have micron ram now, at the time I had 64MB of Generic CAS3, i've upgraded to Micron CAS2 since then)

 

[rockhard]

Red Dawn



Seems to me that the problems are just like when the Asus P3V4X came out and are related to immature bios and drivers.
If u give it a couple of months things will smooth out.

As i say i aint sitting on either side of the fence and have noticed a lot of probs with Intels i815 which is also immature bios related.

My P3V4X is a classic example how things get put right in that it was a handfull when i got it, but now is so stable that i use it as our living room family PC

I too have read all the threads about the KT7 raid but after doing my homework came to the conclusion it was P3V4X all over again.

Have a read on the Asus, Abit, MSI newsgroups and im sure u will see that the Intel i815 side of the fence is going the same way too.

rockhard =)

 

[rockhard]

P.S.

Dont take my sig too seriously

I just like to pull all the Intel zealots legs