THG Value Indicator: Bang For Your Bucks Results
In our observations for this test, we've included a "value" criterion for the very first time. Bang for bucks. AMD's XP branding campaign has changed the way that people now perceive and compare Intel and AMD CPUs. In fact, some might say it has muddied the waters. So, we thought it might make sense to come up with a comparison that reflective of actual bang for bucks, or in other words, how much performance for what cost.
These three diagrams spell out in black and white which CPU offers the most performance for the least amount of money. Our calculation is based on the current street prices for all CPUs (as of 30 October 2001) as well as the Cinebench 4D results. We chose this benchmark, which analyzes the rendering performance of a processor, because AMD and Intel CPUs can be better compared head-to-head with this benchmark.
For more information on this benchmark you can visit www.maxon.com . It gives us a starting point for our analysis, but we know that we will probably be debating the true value of a CPU for years to come as AMD and Intel slug it out with marketing and technology.
Intel: Pentium 4/1400 Best Value
This index is calculated with the price divided by the score of Cinebench. The score and fps benchmark results can be found further down in this article.
This diagram illustrates clearly that the low end Pentium 4 is the best value performer for Intel. At a price/performance factor of almost 9 it delivers the same performance as the P4/2000 at almost tripple the cost. If you are a budget P4 buyer then the 1400 is your port of call.
This diagram also shows that, for Pentium 4 processors, price increases exponentially to performance! In other words, every little extra boost in performance costs disproportionately more.
