PC hardware forum: Why AMD processors perform better than similar Intels?

Even though AMD processors run at lower clock speed than Intel chips thay can out perform them because they do more work per clock cycle.

It's kind of like having two people with wheelbarrows. The one guy might not move as fast, but has a bigger wheelbarrow. He can move more in 2 trips than the other guy can in 3 or 4 trips.

The other reason for the great performance of AMD chips is that the memory controller is right on the CPU. This is good because the CPU can directly acess the memory rather than going through the Front Side Bus (FSB) like an Intel processor. When it comes to Intel alot of people have considered the FSB to be a major bottle neck for a few years.

Also Intel dual core chips have to use the FSB for the two CPU cores to talk to each other. AMD chips use a direct commect architecture that allow the cores to communicate DIRECTLY.

And as far as the 64 bit thing, using a 32 bit or 64 bit system usually turns out the same benchmarks. The only real performance advantage is being able to address more memory. 64 bit won't be mainstream for another year or two, but it's good to have the capability when the time comes.

Thanks for the replies, great analogies. I'm understanding the difference now.

Would someone please give me a rough idea as to what an AMD would clock equivalent to? ie: 2.0 AMD-2.8 Intel?

equal to a P4 2.6 to 2.8Gh. An Athlon XP 3200+ is roughly equal to a P4 3Gh as far as power is concerned. The "speed" is self explanatory. 2.0 and 2.2Gh, respectively.

all.

It told me my P4 630 is equal to an Athlon 64 FX-53.
Unfortunately my Athlon XP 3200+ based system only equals a P4 2.4Gh.

-DIVX 5.2 - encoding time-

Athlon 64 FX-53 = 2.00 min.
P4 630 = 2.03
P4 2.4Gh = 2.30
Athlon XP 3200+ = 2.34

I updated my "Want-it" list!

Do you see the trouble you cause for being so helpful...LOL

Thanks for the chart. Very helpful.

My one last question before I let this thread die is: does anyone know if the dual-core processors clock speed (2.0 for the 3800 I'm investigating) is the speed of both cores combined or the speed of each individual core? i.e. Does each one have 1.0 GHz?

Thanks again to everyone who replied.