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Scabbed Angel

AMD athlon or Pentium 4?

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What do you have/prefer and why? I'm looking to purchase a new computer and have prefered AMD in the past, but figured I'd get Ol' Doomworld's imput.

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i would say AMD, 2 reasons

cheaper and they got the 64-bit CPU


however from what i have heard from other techs they are changing socket sizes. so you may want to wait. however it also means that stuff out now will become dirt cheap. so for those of you who want to max out what you have now, this is good news.

i dont really have anything aginst P4. however the price difference speaks for its self, also if you want 64 bit CPU get the athlon64. however you will either need linux/unix or wait until june (...ish) for the 64 bit version of windows to get the full 64-bit advantage

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athlon 3200+ here
runs everything fine without a hitch

I've got a coppermine pIII 556 on another box that has ran fine for years...and still does btw

Honestly, I think Intel and AMD both make excellent cpus. The question I think really comes down to price and/or whether or not you wish to oc.

Are you maybe looking at getting a 64 bit cpu? are you building the machine, or buying a premade system?

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well yes and no

there will be almost no difference unless you use a 64 bit OS. there are numerous 64 bit versions of linux and unix. windows 64 bit version should be out around june.

useing a 32 bit OS will not give your the full advantage. thought i think it would give a preformance boost.

right now i am useing an AMD, however i have used all the pentium class CPU's. AMD'

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All the 64bit AMD CPU's have the memory controller on-die, which is much more important than the fact that it's 64bit. There might be a very mild speed increase with a 64bit OS, but that would be mainly due to the increased number of registers in the x86-64 architecture over vanilla x86.

The fact that it's 64bit does not magically make the chip faster; quite to the contrary - most of the time it's just wasting memory.

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The most important thing to consider is how much you want to spend. AMD are much cheaper than Intel for comparable performance usually, but not always.

The second thing to consider is heat. From what I've heard AMDs can get pretty darned hot. You may want to think about using a little bit of that saving to improve your chosen method of cooling.

If you can get a good deal (I smile smugly at this point) I'd say get a Pentium. Maybe a slightly-sub 3Ghz model as they represent decent value for money but still good performance. I've had this 2.6 P4 for over a year now and there's no sign that it's going to start struggling for some time yet.

If you can't get a good deal, AMD all the way.

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Bloodshedder said:

Newer Pentium 4's have thermal dissipation ratings right up there with many of the Athlons.

And the latest ones even surpass Athlon by a fair margin...

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I've wondered this same question....man I hate choices like these....I want it to be a fair price but I also want the fastest and most efficient one. I have a 32 P4 and I get an FPS of 30 on Counter-Strike.....Thats kinda sad.

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The intel chips will give you the edge at low resolutions (640x480) but if your running at something more realistic then it doesn't make much difference.

I bought an Athlon 2800XP and a 9800pro last year, I could have had a 3000XP and a 9600 but it would have been slower where it matters. I haven't had any problems with heat as the heatsink/fans avalable are more than capable of keeping it cool.

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