Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > Pentium vs Athlon
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jandr95   05-15-2003 at 05:14:11 AM

I'm thinking about switching from Pentium to Athlon Barton for my next home computer -- basic home use, DVDs and gaming. Reviews of machines from ABS and others indicate Athlon's the way to go. Are there programs or games that an Athlon machine can't run? Any reason to stay with Pentium? I don't want to start a war. Just looking for some input. Thanks.

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stealth_blade   05-15-2003 at 05:16:40 AM
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nothing that ive heard of, their are programs pentium runs better, but athlons generally perform quite well at games, often beating the equivalent P4

"Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion."
- Gen. (Ret) Norman Schwartzkopf

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Crashman   05-15-2003 at 05:47:52 AM
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Read Tom's latest article on the XP3200+, and look at the charts. AMD is loosing it's edge really fast, and it's fastest chips are completely overpriced compared to Intel's, when you look at the performance.

AMD still has the best value for midpriced CPU's.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

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xxsk8er101xx   05-15-2003 at 06:02:15 AM
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*blinks* THEY BOTH DO THE SAME THING! THE WORK THE SAME WAY JUST DIFFERENT BRAND NAMES!

Intel has THE fastest processor out there. So NO AMD is NOT the way to go. ONLY if your CHEAP and wanna save a couple bucks.

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

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tombance   05-15-2003 at 10:02:40 AM
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People who buy AMD processors aren't cheap, they're clever. Why would I put £150 towards a p4 when I could get a similarly performind athlon xp for £60? It's common sense.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5467618 " target="_new">Almost Breaking 12k!!</A>

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ChipDeath   05-15-2003 at 11:09:24 AM
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*brushes sk8ers rabid spittle off his screen* :wink:

Yeah - they're definitely losing it at the top end, but their medium to low-end chips can give great value for money (especially if you OC). I bought a £40 chip that is now performing damn near their top-line one (2245Mhz). can't do that so cheaply with an Intel chip.

---
:smile: :tongue: :smile:

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rcj187   05-15-2003 at 01:39:29 PM
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how can you say that AMD is more expensive compared to intl?
amd3000+ $315 intel 3.06ghz $365
xp3200+ $620 intel 3.2ghz $862!
i suspect you are comparing the xp3200 with the 3ghz p4 which is just silly. you have to compare like with like top end with top end. amds fastest with intels fastest. now amd may not be as fast as intels best but when they are over 30% cheaper you cant really deny thy have the best price/performance

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TheRod   05-15-2003 at 02:07:25 PM
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Forget what people are saying here...

If you want a good gaming PC, buy a Barton 2500+ or 2800+ with a good video card... And don't forget to get a nForce 2 based board (rev. 2.0 suopports FSB 200 MHz). And, of course, buy a good HDD too, never underestimate the impact of HDD on overall system performance.

And you will enjoy all the games on the market. You don't need the 3200+ or the P4 3.0C to enjoy games!

I'm sick of people who think that 5 more FPS in Unreal 2003 is worth 100$ or 200$ more. Damn, if you buy these little more MHz things to get this little advantage, you waste a lot of money!

--
Would you buy a GPS enabled soap bar?

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okietex   05-15-2003 at 02:16:29 PM
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Just from what I've read recently, if you want to be able to upgrade in the future, the Intel 875P/865 chipset would be the way to go ... then that would lead you down the Pentium path of course.

If you just want present day stuff and don't care about the upgrading, I think it can go either way.

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ChipDeath   05-15-2003 at 02:48:06 PM
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Quote :

I'm sick of people who think that 5 more FPS in Unreal 2003 is worth 100$ or 200$ more.


I see where you're coming from, but I'm thinking more along the lines of Getting more than 5FPS in DOOMIII and Half-Life 2. :lol:

Mind you, the CPU will probably have very little baring on those anyway....



---
:smile: :tongue: :smile:

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TheRod   05-15-2003 at 03:06:53 PM
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As you said... When these games will finally come out, even people that bought a P4 3.0 and an Athlon 3200+ today will cry for more FPS.

The good thing about those games, is that they push the hardware to there limits... The bad thing : we have to buy new hardware!

But the point of this thread is someone who wants to enjoy gaming on a fresh system. I bought an Athlon XP 1800+ (OC to 2400+), a Radeon 8500 and A7N8X 2 months ago and I really enjoy today's game. And the money I saved by not buying the 2800+ and the Radeon 9500 will be well spent in about a year for a cheap "Athlon 3200+ or 3400+" and a "Radeon 10000"... And then, I will enjoy gaming as much as the guy that buy a TOP PC today, for less...

This is my opinion!

Why buying a Porsche Boxster to get a 0-100 KMh in 6 seconds... Buy a Subaru WRX for a lot less to get about the same performance. People who buy Boxster, do this to "flash" as people who buy TOP CPUs. They want to be able to put in there THG Forum signature their cool PC system specs!!!

:)

--
Would you buy a GPS enabled soap bar?

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Mephistopheles   05-15-2003 at 03:59:03 PM
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Quote :

3.2ghz $862!


Oh boy, that´s BS!!! Where did you get that number?

Besides, we´ve seen that the 3200+ and the 3000+ are both beaten by the 3.0Ghz. The 3.2Ghz will be a kick in AMD´s rear end... AMD´s top line is currently overpriced and overrated.

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xxsk8er101xx   05-15-2003 at 08:41:58 PM
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You also get what you pay for.



"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

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Crashman   05-15-2003 at 11:51:58 PM
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Silly, OK, but the 3.2GHz is usually slower than the 3.0GHz, often slower than the 2.8GHz, and sometimes even slower than the 2.53GHz. On average it compares to the 2.8GHz in performance. In a week, the 3000+ should compare nicely to the 2.4C in performance, which will make it an even worse "bargain". Of course AMD will probably drop prices to match.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

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simwiz2   05-15-2003 at 11:57:36 PM
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Keyword here is price/PERFORMANCE. Performance is not some number that AMD pulls out of thin air, performance is how well the processors actually perform. And since I'm fairly certain that a P4 2.8 is cheaper than a 3200+, AMD is not the better value at the high end. If AMD became desperate and made a 6400+ that performed like a P4 3.0 and sold it for $900, would you consider it a good value?

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JimStapleton   05-16-2003 at 02:08:12 AM
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Pentiums are typically good for low calculation, high bandwidth apps. They transfer data like ligtning, but they don't quite match up with Athlon's calculation wise unless you get Hyper Threading in them. Really, it's almost a toss up which is better for a given taks:

Multimedia- P4
Calculation- Athlon
Combination- Check what you will be running (or similar programs), and see which works best.
Gaming- Pick your fav. game developer(s), and see which processors work best for your games.

Athlon XP 1600+, MSI K7T PRO2 RU (POS), 2x256 MB CRUCIAL PC2100 CL2.5 memory, Asus V6800 DDR Delux (GF 256) video card, 6.4GB+27GB WD HD, 40GB IBM HD (all 7200RPM). My computer is an acronym

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JimStapleton   05-16-2003 at 02:12:54 AM
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*sigh*, while I'm an AMD fan, for the latest core, drop 200 off the number to get a more accurate oppinion on how it performs...

But then again, look at the mobo price increace from AMD to Intel, that's about $100 to go from nForce2 to i875p

Athlon XP 1600+, MSI K7T PRO2 RU (POS), 2x256 MB CRUCIAL PC2100 CL2.5 memory, Asus V6800 DDR Delux (GF 256) video card, 6.4GB+27GB WD HD, 40GB IBM HD (all 7200RPM). My computer is an acronym

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Anonymous   05-16-2003 at 04:01:12 AM
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The best CPU is the one that does not do .... graphics, store data, sound, network, all the things the Mobo does.

The best CPU is a blackbox that does nothing more than move '1' and '0' around.

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imgod2u   05-16-2003 at 04:38:11 AM
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Quote :

Pentiums are typically good for low calculation, high bandwidth apps. They transfer data like ligtning, but they don't quite match up with Athlon's calculation wise unless you get Hyper Threading in them. Really, it's almost a toss up which is better for a given taks:

Multimedia- P4
Calculation- Athlon
Combination- Check what you will be running (or similar programs), and see which works best.
Gaming- Pick your fav. game developer(s), and see which processors work best for your games.



Everything on a processor are calculations. From memory load instructions to scalar FP calculations to integer calculations to MMX/SSE/SSE2 calculations (for multimedia applications). The P4 does these quite well, there's certain types of calculations it doesn't do well, such as bitshifting and this is one of the main reasons it performs so badly in older applications.

"We are Microsoft, resistance is futile." - Bill Gates, 2015.

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