Lo-Cost Duel: Duron 1100 vs. Celeron 1200

Summary: Duron Faster In 3D Games - Celeron Ideal For Overclocking

If our comprehensive benchmark results are considered and analyzed separately, the following conclusions can be drawn: the AMD Duron 1100 beats the Intel Celeron 1200 not only in 3D games but also in both Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000. The reason for this is the AMD processor's L1 cache, which is larger than that of the Celeron. In several disciplines, the Duron 1100 can even trump the much more expensive Intel Pentium III/1133 with the Tualatin core. The strengths of the Intel Celeron 1200 lie in the area of office applications, where its performance is slightly better than the AMD Duron 1100. The difference is greater in 'Internet applications': The Intel Celeron leads by up to 30 percent. But the AMD Duron 1100 is just a nose ahead in 3D rendering.

A price comparison of the two processors looks like this: The AMD Duron 1100 has a sensationally low retail price of $102 - you can't get more performance for so little money . The price for the Intel is 23% higher: you have to fork out $125 for the Celeron 1200. If a user is searching for an inexpensive upgrade solution, only the AMD Duron 1100 will do - the Intel Celeron 1200 simply isn't a contender. Because of the Tualatin core, the Celeron 1200 needs a special Socket 370 motherboard equipped with the Intel 810 or 815 EPT chipset (B2 stepping). The system won't start on just any conventional motherboard with Socket 370. But the Celeron 1200 also has its advantages. Thanks to the 0.13 micron manufacturing process, this CPU can be overclocked very heavily. In our test, the Celeron 1200 ran with total stability at 1500 MHz . By comparison, the maximum (stable) clock speed of the AMD Duron 1100 was 1250 MHz.

All in all, the AMD Duron 1100 remains uncontested as the most powerful and inexpensive upgrade CPU: the processor can be used in any Socket 462 board (socket A) - regardless of the chipset and revision of the board. In comparison to the Intel Celeron 1200 - which can only work with SDRAM memory at 100 MHz - the AMD Duron 1100 can also be operated using DDR-SDRAM on the appropriate boards.