Athlon XP Meets P4: A Comparison Of All CPUs

Features
By Frank Völkel
published

MP3 Audio Encoding: Lame MP3

The Lame MP3 Encoder under Windows XP is used to convert a 178 MB sound file from a WAV format to a "MPEG-1 Layer 3" format. In this discipline, the Intel Pentium 4/2000 makes a clean sweep of the competition. Nonetheless, the new Athlon XP CPUs don't cut a bad figure, either.

MPEG-4 Video Encoding: Flask Mpeg And DivX

The new Divx 4.02 codec, used together with Flask Mpeg 0.6, caused quite a stir - the AMD Athlon XP 1800+ beats the Intel Pentium 4/2000, knocking the ex-gold medallist out of its top position.

This category of benchmarks is subject to change. Tom's Hardware has knowledge that the new DivX codec 4.5 is almost ready for release and Flask Mpeg is also working diligently on a new version of its code. A new version of this software can easily change the outcome for both CPUs. It's likely that more performance can be squeezed out of either processor by optimization.

Frank Völkel
3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • salem80
    Good thing to read the history ..........
    Reply
  • stascom
    i'm playing around with some old hardware (A-XP 1600+, 512MB, 9600XT), and this is nice to read. Nostalgic, if you will. As fun, as it is to play BC2 on my 6-core Phenom and HD6870, there is just something exciting about getting an old machine running with some of the highest end hardware of its day. I have a P-III machine with Voodoo 3 running Unreal with Glide, how often do you see that? :P
    Reply
  • stascom
    oh, and thank you, TH, for keeping all if this content live. even images! :D
    Reply