The Celeron Killer: AMD's New Duron Processor

Conclusion

There is no doubt; we've got to congratulate AMD for bringing us the best low-cost x86-processor that money can buy. Duron can't deny its Athlon-genes, which make it an excellent performer that is even able to touch high-end CPUs. Intel's Celeron has been beaten badly and if it wasn't for its excellent overclocking record, this Intel-processor would be completely obsolete by now.

Now Duron is only facing one problem, which is the availability of platforms for it. VIA has only just released the KT133 chipset, and it is already in big demand for Thunderbird systems. Once KT133-platforms ship in volume, or once AMD has released its 760 chipset, Duron should be found in many to most low to midrange systems.

The days of Intel's Celeron are counted. I personally still like the Celeron 566, which can be overclocked to 800 MHz in the majority of cases. Other than that, Duron will take the low-cost market by storm unless VIA Cyrix III processor should be able to reach its performance. Celeron's dead.

Don't be upset that I did not mention any overclocking of Duron yet. We are actually working on a big overclocking special for Thunderbird and Duron. This article will keep quite a few surprises for you, so it's worth to wait for it a tiny bit.