[washout]

im just doing this for knowledge sake. i dont plan on building a new machine for a few months, but i'd like to get my vocabulary up to speed. on to the cpu, i'm not really shopping, just researching. i came across a processor i figured might be normal, so i decided to find its competition.

AMD athlon 64x2 2.4ghz 4600+ vs intel core 2 duo e6600 2.4ghz

i brought up the "compare" page on these two suckers.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115003

there is a $106 difference and i dont know why.
the differences i see, aside from brand ...

1. HT
AMD = 200mhz
intel = n/a
what is HT ??

2. L1 cache
AMD = 128kb+128kb
intel = 32kb+32kb
i would imagine that larger capacity cache would be better, yet price does not reflect this.

3. L2 cache
AMD = 2x512kb
intel = 4M shared.
i assume the intel has the AMD here beat but why ??

4. manufacturing tech
AMD = 90nm
intel = 60nm.
i think this has to do with physical size and mostly relevent for socket matching purposes but im probably wrong.
so what is it ??

5. FSB
AMD = n/s
intel = 1066mHz
now ive always understood this to be important, so why is AMD lacking here ??
and is it even relevent ??

the remainder of differnces to not seem significant, but pls enlighten me if otherwise; hyper-transport support, multimedia instruction, voltage, hyper-threading support.

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Wikipedia and google is your friend, I could go on and on, please read there and then come here if you need something to be clarified.
Take a look here for benchmarks, http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html
Benchmarks are whats important and it's there that you'll see that the Intel processor is better.
James

Edited by james_8970, 15 May 2007 - 10:14 AM.

[james_8970]

Wikipedia and google is your friend, I could go on and on, please read there and then come here if you need something to be clarified.
Take a look here for benchmarks, http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html
Benchmarks are whats important and it's there that you'll see that the Intel processor is better.
James

Edited by james_8970, 15 May 2007 - 10:14 AM.

[washout]

Wikipedia and google is your friend, I could go on and on, please read there and then come here if you need something to be clarified.
Take a look here for benchmarks, http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html
Benchmarks are whats important and it's there that you'll see that the Intel processor is better.
James

on it.

Edited by washout, 15 May 2007 - 12:06 PM.

[washout]

clearly, the intel has the amd beat.

the intel is better yet has a small L1 cache.
AMD = 128kb+128kb
intel = 32kb+32kb
now i can wiki and google L1 cache all day, and find out what i means.
but understanding the values would give me a better definition of it.
can some1 explain the meaning of their values ??
why is the better chip have a smaller value (smaller numerically) ??
same with the L2 cache.
can some1 explain the values ??

HT means HyperTransport and is exclusive to amd, and i have no clue what it does.
so im gonna guess its irrelevent seeing how intel doesnt have it and the intel is better.
it looks like HT is for AMD the same as FSB is to the intel.

[Titan8990]

Like James said that is quite a bit to explain. Another site to check out is howstuffworks: http://computer.hows...roprocessor.htm.

I learned about that from a book. It is a few years old now but was called "The Complete PC Upgrade & Maintenance Guide", written bty Mark Minasi. It is a bit out of date but explains in good detail how the hardware works and how it originated. Knowing how hardware was when it began and its progression really helps to understand how it works.

Just a quick answer to your last statement. All CPUs have a front side bus. A CPU's speed is calculated by FSB*Multiplyer=clock speed. The Intel Core 2 Duos kill the X2s on benchmarks because AMD is yet to release their next generation line to better compete with the Core 2s.

Edited by Titan8990, 15 May 2007 - 01:19 PM.

[kidnova]

Just to add my two cents,

The Intel Core 2 Duos kill the X2s on benchmarks because AMD is yet to release their next generation line to better compete with the Core 2s.

While this was true when the C2Ds were first released, and continues to be true on the high-end, it's not quite as simple as that currently. AMD has conducted a series of price drops over the last few months which have made the X2s very competitive with their C2D counterparts on a price/preformance ratio. For instance, the C2D E6400 is currently selling for $188 on Newegg, while the Athlon 64 X2 5600+ is going for $179. I think you'll find that in many, if not all, benchmarks, the AMD processor outperforms the Intel. This is at stock speeds, of course, the real benefit to C2D is their extreme overclockability.

Edited by kidnova, 15 May 2007 - 01:50 PM.

[Titan8990]

Also the price of the AM2 socket compared to the price of the 775 makes it even more competetive. KidNova reminded me of a sticky we have in the gaming forum which you might also find helpful: http://www.geekstogo...pu-t154923.html.