AMD's Athlon 1400 and Duron 950
Summary
| Processor | Current Street Price |
|---|---|
| Athlon 1400/266 MHz | $220 |
| Athlon 1400/200 MHz | $210 |
| Athlon 1333/266 MHz | $175 |
| Athlon 1300/200 MHz | $165 |
| AthlonMP 1200/266 MHz | $250 |
| Athlon 1200/266 MHz | $145 |
| Athlon 1200/200 MHz | $140 |
| Athlon 1100/200 MHz | $135 |
| AthlonMP 1200/266 MHz | $225 |
| Athlon 1000/266 MHz | $120 |
| Athlon 1000/200 MHz | $120 |
| Duron 950 MHz | $112 |
| Duron 900 MHz | $65 |
| Pentium 4 1700 MHz | $340 |
| Pentium 4 1500 MHz | $240 |
| Pentium 4 1400 MHz | $175 |
AMD's newly released Athlon 1400/266 is able to beat Intel's Pentium 4 1.7 GHz in a lot of benchmarks. The Intel processor performs better in Internet content creation software and some new 3D-games. Athlon can leave Pentium 4 far behind in 3D-rendering software, because of its superior FPU-performance.
Except for 3D-rendering software, Athlon 1400 and Pentium 4 1.7 GHz are pretty much neck on neck. However, the lower price tag of Athlon 1400/266 is clearly making it the more attractive product. It is also more versatile, as you can find inexpensive (though lower performing) PC133 platforms as well as DDR-motherboards for it, while Pentium 4 is still only supported by Intel850 platforms that require the expensive RDRAM memory.
The 100/200 MHz FSB version of Athlon 1400 (B-type) should only be considered by people who want to upgrade their VIA Apollo KT133 platforms, which are unable to run the 133 MHz front side bus. The ones of you that are anyway planning the purchase of a new motherboard or a completely new system should stay away from the slower Athlon 1400.
Duron 950 is reaching 75-85% the scores of an Athlon at 1 GHz and its street price is almost the same as the Athlon. From that point of view, it is certainly the least interesting processor of this comparison right now.
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