Opinions on Processors

[waterguy]

Lately it seems, I've been hearing a lot of talk about the new AMD (AMD Duron ?) processors being better and faster then the Pentium 3 or 4. Is this true ? Has there been an substantial improvement in those processors ? I am an engineer (not computer), and have always been led to believe that the Pentium chips were the best for doing CAD work, or computationally intensive analysis. Any thoughts ?

Thanks.

 

[rtshort]

I've heard that too, but after my last bout with a Pentium III, I'm through with Intel for ever.
I upgraded my PIII 500 to a PIII 800, and could never get it to work right. After going through 3 CPU's, 4 Mainboards, 3 sticks of RAM, a Power Supply, a Video Card, and even a Power Cord, Intel told me that it must be an OS Problem. (Windows 2000).
I took it back and traded it for an AMD Athlon 1000 for the same price and it runs like a top.
The Duron is comparable to Intel's Celeron, it has less On Die Cache(128K). The Athlon is comparable to the PIII and has 256K On Die Cache.
As far as being faster, they both have their good sides, but for the price (and quality in MY mind) AMD wins hands down. Every day above ground is a GOOD DAY!!!

 

[Comtech]

Actually, what you probably heard is the Athlon vs P4, in which case the Athlon 1.3ghz (with DDR RAM) beat the P4 1.76ghz in just about every benchmark, and it's $150 cheaper!
The Duron is comparable to the Celeron. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[waterguy]

Thank-you rtshort and Comtech for enlightening me on the AMD/Intel chip equivalents (ie. Duron = Celeron). That was something I've always wondered about. I'm currently running a three year old Pentium II 450MHz (DELL) and haven't and serious issues with it. Sometime in the next six months I'm anticipating purchasing a laptop, and have started to wonder about the processor. I know I want to stay away from the Celeron because of the lower cache, but it seems that the Athlon could also be a possibility. I guess I was still holding onto the stigma that if it wasn't Pentium, it wasn't worth the trouble. Times change, quickly. If I member correctly, Hewlett Packard primarily uses the AMD chips in their machines.

By the way Comtech, I'm a fellow Canuck too....Toronto.