Athlon Xp compared to the P4
Im confused on which Processor to get. I know when a high end P4 is compared to a high end Athlon XP, the competition is tight, even though a P4 2.8 with HT and 800 fsb has a higher clock speed and higher bus speed. So if its not the clock speed that determines the power of the processor, what is?
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Floating Point Unit: Formerly called the math co-processor, and a secondary chip you had on the motherboard before the advent of sub-.24u engineering, the FPU is responsible for assisting the ALU in mathematics. The Athlon's is better.
Arithmetic Logic Unit: This is the part of the processor that actually does the math-work needed for programs to run. The Athlon's is faster.
Bus efficiency: This is how well a processor can use the RAM and the bandwidth available to it. Athlon is ~90% efficiency, Pentium 4 is ~82% efficiency
Pipeline length: The pipeline is the actual stages the math has to go through to produce a final result the computer can understand. The pentium 4 needs 20 stages for a calculation, the Athlon needs 10.
Branch prediction: Programming "Branches," that is certain functions in a program go certain directions as the user works through the program. The branch prediction unit is responsible for patterning the user's actions and trying to figure out what he/she will do next. A mistake in branch prediction means the processor needs to start the calculation all over. This is a slowdown, invisible, but there. Athlon has the better BPU.
There are other variables, those are the primary ones.
Just answer the part I put in red from your quote? :rolleyes2
Top end P4's = 200 fsb
Top end Xp's = 200 fsb
The final answeris:
Similarly DDR is dual-pumped when in reality the MHz is only half what is stated, DDR266 = 2 X 133.
Absolutely right!
fudgam
But as you see, the actual speed that everything is moving at is really 200 in the example I used where the actual fsb is 200. If you look at the old P4's that were called 400's the actual fsb was 100, then they went to 533 which is 4 x 133 fsb.
So I would think about what this PC's main use will be.... Audio/Video stuff, or Gaming?
P4's do seem to have the advantage with Memory Bandwidth though too. Even with the NF7-S, AMD can't touch my moderatly OC'd P4 IS7 without some major tweaking. 4.1GBps now and rising.... If I bought the IC7 I would be beyond 5GBps, grr.
People only look at numbers, even if they have no clue what it is.... and marketing knows this.
Well it sends and receives the infrmation at the high and low points of the frequency. So it is DOUBLE data rate, not dual pumped.
Athlon
Ohh BTW, I use a P4 system, but only becuase I have been very bad with money and didn't think ahead But I don't regret it, with my classes I need to use the P4 for my Digital Media stuff anyways. I work with Photoshop, Illustrator, AfterEffects, and later on I will be doing Director and other programs which I believe runs better with P4's becuase they rely more on Clock speed than effeciency, but I may be wrong.
1.) How much do you realistically have to spend on this and will you be recycling any parts?
2.) What are ALL of the intended uses and how much of each will it be used for?
Yeah i know, i was just saying it was similar , not the same.
I just got caught up in the pumping stuff.
what would be better... a 2.4c or a 2500+....what will give me the better overclock in general?
"Just Pump it, Pump it up."
"Just pump it, pump the bird."
Pump up your nikey turkey this thanksgiving.
All you SNL fans should know that one.
ROTFLMAO;D
That's just for the processor. But factor in the additional cost of a top rate Canterwood board and that adds another $100.