quote:
Originally posted by ShawnZ
So an intel processor might have double the clock of an AMD processor, but it would still take twice as long for the instructions to complete. So, an AMD that has half the clock rate of an equal Intel could do just as many instructions at the same speed.
It was a design decision and not a bad one. Note that AMD has never been able to achieve the
actual clock speeds comparable to Intel's at any given time, for this very reason. If that was possible with their approach, it would've enabled them to surpass Intel's top of the line offerings by a huge margin, but it isn't. The Athlon 64 3700+ Exca is considering actually runs at 2.2 GHz. "3700" is merely a suggestion it might be comparable to a 3.7GHz Pentium 4.
Of course, it doesn't make any difference to the user whether the same number of instructions per second is achieved by the combination of lower clock with higher IPC (instructions per cycle) or higher clock with lower IPC.
quote:
Originally posted by ShawnZ
So, an AMD running at 2 ghz has the potential to outperform intels running at speeds much higher. This is why everyone says AMD processors outperform Intel ones.
That is likely where it started, yes.
The bottom line on this is that the only valid comparison one can make is "how much performance will $200 (or whatever I have budgeted for the CPU) buy me with Intel vs. AMD?"
However, even that is not a simple comparison to make. An x86 processor performs a wide assortment of operations and both designs are better at some types of those than others...
All other things looking equal, I personally favor Intel. The reason for this is many bad experiences with AMD's quality control (I've never encountered a defective brand new Intel CPU, while there have been numerous DOA Athlons) and the stability of third party (VIA, SiS et al) motherboard chipsets, the only option when you use AMD processors. Intel processors on Intel chipset based motherboards has always been a more hassle-free, dependable solution for me.
That said, those issues are a bigger problem when you are dealing with large numbers. I am not dead set against AMD and might consider an AMD processor if I was building a new computer for personal use at a time when AMD had a distinct advantage.
