AMD Phenom II vs i5-760 pls help me understand

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Sep 15, 2010
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Can someone please explain to me why the AMD processor is less expensive than the Intel processor even though its operating frequency is almost 1Ghz faster. Is this more bc of the Intel name or is it bc of L3 cache?? Im just confused as to why a seemingly faster processor costs less.

AMD Phenom II X4 970 Deneb 3.5GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894

Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
 
Solution
GHz is not a measure of performance.

For example, if intel had kept with their Pentium 4 architecture and reduced heat and somehow managed to add cores and ended up with a 10GHz quad core pentium 4, it would not be as fast a phenom II x4 at 3.4GHz, not even close.

You have to take into account a few things with raw performance per core: The clockspeed, and how much work it does per clock.

The Phenom II does less work per Hz than the icore architecture. So it needs to run at a higher frequency in order to stay on par.

Expect the newer Bulldozer cores to run at a lower frequency, but be assured they have a higher IPC (instructions per cycle) and therefore will be faster. (so John Frueh from AMD server marketing says in a comment on...
GHz is not a measure of performance.

For example, if intel had kept with their Pentium 4 architecture and reduced heat and somehow managed to add cores and ended up with a 10GHz quad core pentium 4, it would not be as fast a phenom II x4 at 3.4GHz, not even close.

You have to take into account a few things with raw performance per core: The clockspeed, and how much work it does per clock.

The Phenom II does less work per Hz than the icore architecture. So it needs to run at a higher frequency in order to stay on par.

Expect the newer Bulldozer cores to run at a lower frequency, but be assured they have a higher IPC (instructions per cycle) and therefore will be faster. (so John Frueh from AMD server marketing says in a comment on his blog).

This is the same reason why AMD had their "performance rating" back in ~2003-2006. Their AMD Athlon 64 3200+ was about the same or better performance-wise than the pentium 4 at 3.2GHz but it was a 2.0GHz part.

Cache is something a bit different. Cache helps in some, but not all, applications. It basically keeps a small amount of memory on the CPU die itself so that the CPU will not have to access the RAM as often.
 
Solution