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AMD vs Intel-The saga continues

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs - AMD vs Intel-The saga continues

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Ok, I am opening up myself for abuse on my very first post <LOL>. For the record, I have an AMD T-Bird 750 (very stable, great machine, no heat problem) that I love. But I'm not an Intel hater...I just think that AMD is winning the price/performace war hands down. And it seems I am not the only one that feels this way.

Follow this link to an interesting conclusion at Computer Reseller News. Headline:"Athlon Edges Past P-4"

http://www.crn.com/sections/News/t [...] leID=23790

Seems like P-4 is getting ragged on everywhere,CRN is just the latest. And CRN is not a biased publication in this case. To be fair, the Athlon does NOT win EVERY category, but then again it was at a 300 MHz disadvantage. When optimized code is available off the shelf, P-4 might be a winner, but the article sums it up nicely: "The CRN Test Center has discovered that AMD's latest processor outperforms Intel's for most business applications at a significantly lower price, even though the AMD systems tested had lower clock speeds and slower memory." Take your best shot, but these numbers don't lie! :-p

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For me, the only thing that matters is FPU, and AMD is 20% faster and way cheaper.

Reply to Anonymous

AMD is great for business apps and if you dont want to pay the big bucks for a P4. You cant deny the P4 out performing in gaming.

Reply to Anonymous

The numbers don't lie, but....

You are comparing apples with oranges. Yes, running todays software, the Athlon surpasses the P4 in many categories of performance. But when (If?) the software that the P4 is optimized for appears, you will see the P4 take a commanding lead.

The Athlon is not the AMD answer to the P4. That will be the Sledgehammer processor. Perhaps AMD will be able to take advantage of the mistakes made by Intel with the P4, and upstage Intel yet again.

But for today, with the software that is available now, why would anyone spend $343 for a 1.3ghz P4, when a 1.2ghz T-Bird can be had for $260? Don't forget about the more expensive RDRAM required by the P4.

Reply to jlbigguy

Exactly my point. Intel is marketing the P-4 as a superior performance solution and playing on the publics perception that newer=faster/better. As it stands now, it is simply not the case. It will take a while for optimized applications to come forward, and by that point the chip will have been replaced anyway! For someone that wants the best performance/price ratio for most of the software they use today, AMD is providing a very strong and affordable solution. And yes the P-4 is a great Quake/gaming machine. But a lot of the prebuilt configs on the market are pairing the processor with lower end TNT-2 graphics cards to keep the price down. That card is not going to allow for the buyer to take advantage of the superior performance of the machine. I'd rather have the T-Bird with a GeForce 2 (for less money I might add) any day of the week.

Reply to Anonymous

AHAHAHHAHAHAHA, Um, ok....

AMD won at MS word
P4 won at Photoshop

Good comparison

Also notice how none of those apps are SSE2 optimized?

GG

SSE2 stuff is hitting the shelves daily.

NOT all vendors ship a TNT2 with P4, its just a basic video card that would work good in a server type system where you dont need 100+ FPS in database app. HELLO McFLY.

I have seen vendors ship TNT2 with athlon system (bare bone/basic), do you see me here ragging them? no. buy whatever video card you want, your not stuck with TNT2 on P4.

AMD is switching to SSE2 so get used to it.

Reply to FUGGER

Well then, let's hear what's been released in the last week that is SSE2 optimized.

I'm not saying they won't, I just haven't seen anything current.

Reply to tfbww

You can argue about how great the P4 is until your blue in the face, it doesn't matter. When the leading authority on microprocessor design, Microprocessor Report, selected the Athlon as the processor of year for 2000, for the second straight year, what more can you say? The Athlon beat the P3 and P4. Almost any unbiased, knowledgable publication has said the same thing....The Athlon is the best platform available right now. Who should we trust, some moronic Intel droid (Fugger) or the rest of the world?

Reply to Anonymous

<A HREF="http://www.videotoaster.com/" target="_new">Newteks toaster</A>

Reply to AmdMELTDOWN

mmx was crap
sse was crap
3dnow was crap
sse2 was crap

all were widely ignored by the software industry. sure youll give me a few examples of things that were supported, but did they get any real gain out of it? no. "optimised" software for the p4 will be thin on the ground. ive heard so much of "its not that fast now but wait till everyone starts supporting it" that i dont believe it anymore.

oh and fugger, if photoshop performance is so f.ucking important to you, go and buy a f.ucking mac.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: cape does not enable user to fly.

Reply to Anonymous

Ok I just ordered a system 1.2 AMD 266 fsb 256 DDR 2100. It better beat the ass off a p4. :)

Reply to Anonymous

Visual studio:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/ [...] efault.asp

http://www.softseek.com/Utilities/ [...] index.html

"This newest version includes a burn-in wizard to test the system's stability, support for Pentium IV, new SSE2 benchmarks "

Quexal is now SSE2 optimized Feb, 2001 (nice little blub on SSE2 instruction set, w/ breakdown of each new instruction)

http://www.tommesani.com/SSE2SSE.html

Ulead Video studio

http://www.ulead.com/vs/sysreq.htm

Dragon naturally speaking version 5 is SSE2 optimized
1-877-393-7246 couldnt find web page but tech support will verify if you have problem believing me.

Ill try to find a list of more applications "SSE2 optimized" and post a link later.

Reply to FUGGER

Maybe your glasses are fogged, cause you need to go back and reread his post. He was talking about price of the Athlon with GeForce and P4 with TNT2.

-----------------
Satan Clara...... 'Nuff said.

Reply to Grizely1

Four applications... doesn't sound like "daily" to me.

Optimized has nothing to do with it. Benchmarks shouldn't be optimized. It's like giving a weak man a 1lb weight and a stronger man a 1000lb weight, then calling the weaker man the strongest!

-----------------
Satan Clara...... 'Nuff said.

Reply to Grizely1

<<<Ok I just ordered a system 1.2 AMD 266 fsb 256 DDR 2100. It better beat the ass off a p4. :)>>>

let me ask where you ordered that from

Reply to Anonymous

5 apps, that took me all of 5 mins to find. 5 apps at 1 per day = 1 business week. woohoo (no clue where im going with that but it sounded good)

Apps are being recompiled for SSE2, is that so hard to believe? you asked list and I gave you a few.

"Ill try to find a list of more applications "SSE2 optimized" and post a link later"

Reply to FUGGER

hehehehe...i told you in my post you were going to do that.

and heres my response to those optimisations:

"THEY ARE FOR PROGRAMS ALMOST NO ONE IS GOING TO USE!!!"

now i KNOW youre going to run off an find MORE programs like spc3officemarkTA3X or whatever the hell thats optimised for sse2. but who uses them?? 3 guys in a wharehouse in SoCal. joy joy joy. what really cracks me up is i already told you what you were going to do and how no one would be impressed but you went off and did it anyway.

for the vast majority of ppl, sse2 is about as much use as an angry hobo living in your basement

although there is one thing i'll concede sse2 is better than 3dnow...but thats not hard since even[WARNING WARNING WARNING EXAGGERATION ABOUT TO OCCUR] iostream.h is better than 3dnow [EXAGGERATION HAS NOW FINISHED. AMERICANS: PUT DOWN YOUR LAWSUITS]

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: cape does not enable user to fly.

Reply to Anonymous

Exactly, and why does he think software developers are hopping all over SSE2 when most of the world is yawning at the P4? Think about it! Think about how many apps don't even have SSE support for the PII and PIII, processors that were and still are very popular, even at their introductions. Some apps will get support, most won't. Don't hold your breath for all those optimized apps 'cus it'll be a long, long wait!

Reply to Nikko

I don't know about you, but everything I use(and matters)has been optimized for sse, and some are ready with sse2.


"Amd does not suck, Amd users do!"

Reply to AmdMELTDOWN

http://www.technoa.co.kr/forum/pds [...] 8158-5.jpg

here is the list of SSE2 optimized apps.
This list is kinda old though, as it is a document from the launch of Pentium4.
Keep in mind that there should be a lot more apps optimized for P4 by now.

Reply to cutepunk

You spend most of your time spewing nonesense about how great Intel is in these forums, it doesn't seem like you would have any time left for your SSE or SSE2 enabled apps. If you do, what little benefit you might get in time savings you hardly need because you squander most of it right here. Just out of curiosity, for a good laugh, what SSE optimized, soon to be SSE2 optmized programs do you use.

Here my "ROFL" in anticipation of your answer.

Reply to Nikko

Anyways why buy a p4 now when in six months it won't be upgradable, when intel switches over to .13 micron. It's more of marketing hype. Where major companies just wanna sell a piece of s*** to the dumb consumer, for the most they can get out of them. Example: Dell, Gateway, Compaq? There p4 systems cost from $1500-$3000. They ship them with pc-600, when everyone knows that for p4 to even be any real competition for AMD they have to ship it with pc-800. They even say that the p4 is more of a gaming machine. Well the only game that will get better results than an AMD is Quake III. Dell, Gateway and other oems send out their p4 systems with shitty ass video cards and say its a gaming machine? How do they get away with this you ask? Simple, most consumers are stupid.. Education pays...



"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but oh crap he's got a gun"

Reply to Anonymous

That's a good start. Please don't include BENCHMARKS as apps in the future. I can get a benchmark optimized to run on my friggin watch if I really wanted to. As for the rest...

The first MSFT app was last updated in September. Not the last week. Please read what I write. I was specific about the timeline do to YOUR boasting.

The second is a benchmark. "Golf clap? Golf clap. <clapclapclap>"

The third link isn't to ANY app. It's more of a white paper than anything:

Quote :

Pre-release Pentium 4 processors show really poor x87 performance, far below that of the current champion AMD Athlon; while final CPUs will certainly exhibit better numbers, it is clear that the route to fast floating-point computations passes through SSE2. If Intel can get both Microsoft and Borland to work on a vectorizing compiler, Willamette may prove to be a winner, but if compiler support will be lackluster (such as the current support for MMX and SSE) it is likely that the Pentium 4 will suffer from lack of optimized software.


The fourth seems to be genuinely SSE2 optimized, although they merely state that they are P4 optimized which *could* still mean SSE(1). I can't tell when it was released.

I found Dragon (www.dragonsys.com). It says it has been "optimized for a variety of popular processors, including the Intel® Pentium® III, Intel® Pentium® II, Intel® Pentium® with MMX™, Intel® Celeron™, AMD K6®-2, AMD K6®-III with 3DNow!™, AMD Athlon™, and more." Let's assume it is SSE2 optimized. This press release was issued in August 2000. (BTW, Lernout & Hauspie, the company behind Dragon, has gone bankrupt and is being investigated for accounting fraud, IIRC.)

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Reply to tfbww

Just a quick note, since I recently bought a system from Gateway, after a long deliberation :)- Unlike Dell and possibly Compaq (not sure, didn't check) Gateway does NOT offer the option of PC-600 sh*t RAM- they stay with the PC-800 stuff only. Also, both systems I was looking at came with several video card options including GeForce2 Pro 32MB and GeForce2 Ultra 64MB. That it what ultimately opted me to buy the AMD system- same price as p4-1400 & 32mb GF2 pro but with 256 MB ram and 64MB GF2 Ultra. Not all companies exist purely to screw the simple minded :)

Reply to BMan33

Really folks......AMD , INTEL......Both companies new chips have so much processing power! I like em both! I personally buy Intel...always have. Call it ignorance if you like, call it stubborness "whatever". A computer is only as good as its user.

Reply to Anonymous

I would hesitate to think that no one is predicting SSE2 to go anywhere when AMD is supposedly including a full SSE2 instruction set in the Hammer and isn't doing anything to update 3Dnow. As far as the critics of Intel's foresight are concerned, they'd have to admit it was pretty damn smart to dupe home users and businesses to buy Intel's beta test processor for SSE2 at high prices when they weren't planning on supporting it in the future. He

Reply to cellbiogeek

hey, wipe your a$$ after you speak!

<A HREF="http://www.projectmessiah.com" target="_new">messiah</A>
<A HREF="http://www.videotoaster.com" target="_new">toaster</A>
<A HREF="http://www.adobe.com" target="_new">photoshop</A>
<A HREF="http://www.worley.com" target="_new">worley</A>

total cost +3500, laugh all you want, but wipe first!

"Amd does not suck, Amd user do!"

Reply to AmdMELTDOWN

did not know about the processor service pack for visual studio thanks for a usefull post for a change

Reply to Anonymous

If you want to run Photoshop get a Mac.

-----------------
Satan Clara...... 'Nuff said.

Reply to Grizely1

I never followed up on this thread until now. Good to see I wasn't refuted that very few things have recently been optimized for SSE2.

Reply to tfbww

The other thing that is evident is that hardly anyone uses the software that is posted as SSE2 compliant. From every link that I have followed up on about SSE2 software, I don't use a single piece of any of it.

I'm sure that a few people do actually use some of that stuff but the average user to slightly above average user will get the price/performance ratio elsewhere than the P4.

I use:
Office 97
Office 2000
IE5.x
UT
Outlook Express
Rogue Spear
Deus Ex

None appear to be optimised SSE2 so P4 is not my best option. I am trying to picture a user who uses the stuff on the links but I am having a hard time believing that anyone uses more than 1 or 2 apps that appear on the links.

Just my thinking on the matter.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737</A>

Reply to DSutcliffe

I think AMD should have at least put in the SSE instuction set in the Thunderbird core. The P3 has been out for some time now (it is SSE capable).

Some 3D games employ the SSE instruction set to perform additional lighting calculations on objects in the 3D world. The difference between cold dark objects (with less lighting calculation applied), and warm colored more brightly lit objects (with more lighting calculation applied) is quite dramatic especially in one of the game I'm playing - Earth 2150.

I recently posted the following material to the <A HREF="http://www.earth-orbiter.com/" target="_new">Earth Orbital</A> general discussion forum:
-----------------------------------------
Re: The thing that drew me to Earth 2150...
--------------------
I've took some in-game snapshots to illustrate the graphical effects with SSE enabled (P933 with GeForce), SSE disabled (P933 with GeForce), and no SSE capability (C300a system with Voodoo2 and TnT card). Found that Graphical effects with SSE disabled on my main system is like that of my other system that is not SSE capable.

Image Test Set #A - Pay close attention to the middle tank in the images. Without SSE, the unit blends in with the surrounding. With SSE, the unit is more distinguishable:

<A HREF="http://home.columbus.rr.com/jsemler/images/c300a-tnt-a.jpg" target="_new">c300a-tnt-a</A>
<A HREF="http://home.columbus.rr.com/jsemler/images/c300a-voodoo2-a.jpg" target="_new">c300a-voodoo2-a</A>
<A HREF="http://home.columbus.rr.com/jsemler/images/p933-sse-disabled-a.jpg" target="_new">p933-sse-disabled-a</A>
<A HREF="http://home.columbus.rr.com/jsemler/images/p933-sse-enabled-a.jpg" target="_new">p933-sse-enabled-a</A>

Image Test Set #B - Without SSE, the units and buildings are darker looking. With SSE, the units and buildings are brighter.

<A HREF="http://home.columbus.rr.com/jsemler/images/c300a-voodoo2-b.jpg" target="_new">c300a-voodoo2-b</A>
<A HREF="http://home.columbus.rr.com/jsemler/images/p933-sse-disabled-b.jpg" target="_new">p933-sse-disabled-b</A>
<A HREF="http://home.columbus.rr.com/jsemler/images/p933-sse-enabled-b.jpg" target="_new">p933-sse-enabled-b</A>

Based on the above results, the graphics in this game does seem to favor SSE enabled processors. Would be interested in comparing results with other people that have AMD systems (I can provide the save game files if anyone is interested).

-----------------------------------------

Looks like I have no upgrade path for the foreseeable future - the weak FPU of the P4 don't interest me, and no SSE2 capability in current lineup of AMD processors.

Not that I think I need a faster system at this very moment! Currently running a p3 700 at 933MHz.

Reply to MadCat

mad cat: SSE isn't all that, there is no point having SSE in AMD for the licence fee that intel would want. besides, 3D now! is just as good.

SSE2 is quite alright however, with a bigger instruction-set.

Mrman: MMX, SSE & 3d now! may not be brilliant, but they still are quite good for all the mundane tasks.

Before mmx, try moving around windows (in microsoft windows) with their contents showing. even that task would seem jerky. This also means editing large images etc. was that much easier. Unfortunately, thats as good as it gets with mmx. SSE and 3d now! however did improve more stuff with their floating point operations.

jlbigguy: sledgehammer is not a direct competitor for the p4, but goes up more against the Itanium/Itanic and its follow ups.

Reply to HolyGrenade

Hi, HolyGrenade - The last three 3D game titles (BattleZone II, Dark Reign 2, and Earth 2150) I've played is SSE optimized. They are not 3DNow! optimized (AFAIK).

It is obvious that the developers of the Earth 2150 game employed additional lighting calculations for when the SSE capability is present. I attempted to show this in the images (Quite dramatic for me, I want the SSE optimizations turned on). The 3DNow! instruction set would not benefit this game as the calculations are done inside the game.

I am looking forward to AMD next processor technology, which I hope will have support for SSE2.

Reply to MadCat

Hey now, I happen to get alot of use out of the angry hobo living in my basement. LOL

I'll send you a link sometime. when I find out exactly he is best optimised for ok? LOL. But he is still useful, really... he is...

Reply to James35

Name.....................One

Reply to James35

Datsun!!!!!!!!!! :)

********************************
Wherever you go, there you are.

Reply to BMan33

The Transform and Lighting features are now moving to GPU based Graphics cards. Even My GeForce (1) DDR claims its processor is faster than 6 Pendium III's dedicated to the same amount of Graphics Processing. So, Lighting etc. cannot be improved much if you already have a GPU based graphics card.

However, Game Physics is still left for the CPU to handle. I suppose SSE Could come in little useful there. But still, 3D Now! isn't that bad compared to SSE. SSE2 however, should bring in improvements.

Reply to HolyGrenade

Know what? I gotta agree with my father on this one. They are just games. Let's look at the one thing that all (95%+) users use: Windows. Is there anything on the P4 to optimize Windows, or Office Apps, or AOL or Nutscrape or IE? These are applications that you can expect to find on pretty much any PC. Does the SSE2 help these out at all? No? All the other apps are all well and good, but they don't mean anything if no one uses them. It was like in the ATI/NVidia debate, someone told us to download a villagemark demo which was optimized for the Radeon, but it has technology in it that isn't in current games and probably won't be in the next generations of games either. What good is it then?

What's a signature? Oh, those words that show up after all my comments? I don't need one of those!

Reply to JustPlainJef
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