On Sunday January 26 2003 05:12 pm, Ronald J. Hall wrote:
> On Sunday 26 January 2003 06:06 pm, Chuck Burns wrote:
> > prevents the core temp. from reaching critical levels.. (Not to
> > mention the 400-533mhz cache speeds, compared to athlon's measly
> > 200mhz.. :p)
>
> Thats interesting. I always thought that AMDs' chips were better
> performers at the same speed range....from what I've read. (but I'm
> no expert).
Not so, Athlons are much better performers at the same clock speed ;)
Athlons in the 1.6g range out perform P4's of the 2+ ghz variety, at
less cost. It's not so much that AMD's are so great, it's more like
P4's and even more so, the available motherboard chipsets for them
.... suck really big time. Intel has used M$ type tatics to crush
competition, but has yet to produce any decent i8<whatever> chipsets.
"400-533mhz" is the same type of PR ballyhoo both manufacturers use
for those that fall for it. And it's not "cache" speeds, its FSB
speeds multiplied by marketing smoke'n mirrors. FSB for all but the
very *most recent cpu's is 133mhz. AMD pretends they double this to
266. Intels goes off the charts with claims of 3 and 4 times
multiplication by magic (*most recent being 166 mhz FSB, either
vendor. In that case AMD claims 333mhz, 2x 166).
'Sides, front side bus speeds aren't dictated by the cpu, they're
set by the (motherboard's) chipsets. And on either system,
everything STILL has to go thru the old 33mhz PCI bus anyhow. So much
for '533mhz cpu' PR B$.
AMD's worst short fall IMO, an I beleive it's why they're not
acceptable on the server or even laptop markets is the lack of an
**internal diode to report/regulate heat. Intels' have had this since
early Pentiums. OTOH, it's a recent Intel copout also. As some of you
have said, the diode in new Intels allows the cpu to slow down, even
shutdown to avoid overheating. In the case of laptops, avoid
overheating and conserve power. So just when you need power, the cpu
kneels down, badly ;( Which is another reason P4's suck. An why
somebody posted recently that a 40 minute kernel compile took 80
minutes on their new 1.6 gig P4 laptop. (**OK, the newer Athlon XP's
have a rudimentary internal diode implemtation, but it's almost a
year now, with no decent motherboard support from any vendor. Asus
and Gigabyte have tried, most others haven't.)
A better marketing approach, judging by popularity, seems to be the
worst old past junk. VIA buys up failed Cyrix crap for practically
nothin, and PR's it sucessfully as 'silent' and 'fanless' (VIA C3's,
the 'C' stands for Cyrix, 3rd attempt). PR claims of 800mhz produce
benches an ancient K6-300 could beat hands down. Which BTW can also
be run silent and fanless on junk motherboards an power supplies.
At least the K6 was an i586 cpu, the C3's are a 586/486 mix.
So the buyer has choice ;> For me, I'm just nursin my tired ol'
overclocked Tbird 1.4/VIA (1.5ghz, out performs a 1.8g/i8xx P4) along
till it dies. It's startin to run hotter lately ;( Maybe 64 bit
desktop cpu's will be the rage by then ;) Had a P3-450 oc'd to 600 on
a Intel BX chipset, before. The hardware people are willin to buy's
been goin down hill since ... includin me
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
