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AMD vs
INTEL - CPU Showdown
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by: Elias Plastiras - ref:
Australian PC World, Feb 2007, pg 68 - 71
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The
regular question arises,always when a new CPU is released; Which is the
fastest, biggest bang for the buck - BEST?
A really silly question to be honest as the BEST CPU for one person or
job is not the best for another. So all we can really do is to present
you, the user, with the data and allow you to make the decisions for
yourself.
So in this short article I will be presenting some very useful
information gleaned from the latest copy of Australian PC World (http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au)
The following table will prove to be very useful in helping us make up
our minds:
| AMD |
| Athlon 64 |
Encoding Tests (time in secs) |
Worldbench 5 tests (time in secs) |
Price (AUD$) |
| MPEG2
–> MPEG4 |
AVI
-> WMA |
WAV
-> MP3 |
Adobe
Premiere |
Office
XP |
Multitasking |
WinZip |
| Athlon 64 3800+ |
162 |
6539 |
110 |
354 |
512 |
596 |
302 |
$180.00 |
| Athlon 64 X2 |
| Athlon 64 X2 4600+ |
87 |
3967 |
108 |
348 |
492 |
395 |
300 |
$370.00 |
| Athlon 64 X2 5200+ |
85 |
3525 |
100 |
337 |
487 |
346 |
282 |
$560.00 |
| Athlon 64 FX |
| Athlon 64 FX-62 |
78 |
3287 |
93 |
323 |
471 |
322 |
264 |
$1,050.00 |
| INTEL |
| Core 2 Duo |
| E6300 |
81 |
3524 |
119 |
334 |
527 |
384 |
286 |
$300.00 |
| E6400 |
72 |
3115 |
105 |
313 |
511 |
363 |
262 |
$360.00 |
| E6700 |
58 |
2511 |
83 |
286 |
495 |
275 |
224 |
$800.00 |
| Core 2 Extreme |
| X6800 |
59 |
2456 |
82 |
281 |
492 |
278 |
219 |
$1,670.00 |
| QX6700 |
60 |
2689 |
90 |
299 |
492 |
283 |
234 |
$1,800.00 |
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| AMD |
| Athlon 64 |
$ cost per second of processing time
(lower is cheaper) |
Price (AUD$) |
| MPEG2
–> MPEG4 |
AVI
-> WMA |
WAV
-> MP3 |
Adobe
Premiere |
Office
XP |
Multitasking |
WinZip |
| Athlon 64 3800+ |
1.11 |
0.03 |
1.64 |
0.51 |
0.35 |
0.30 |
0.60 |
$180.00 |
| Athlon 64 X2 |
| Athlon 64 X2 4600+ |
2.07 |
0.05 |
1.67 |
0.52 |
0.37 |
0.46 |
0.60 |
$370.00 |
| Athlon 64 X2 5200+ |
2.12 |
0.05 |
1.80 |
0.53 |
0.37 |
0.52 |
0.64 |
$560.00 |
| Athlon 64 FX |
| Athlon 64 FX-62 |
2.31 |
0.05 |
1.94 |
0.56 |
0.38 |
0.56 |
0.68 |
$1,050.00 |
| INTEL |
| Core 2 Duo |
| E6300 |
2.22 |
0.05 |
1.51 |
0.54 |
0.34 |
0.47 |
0.63 |
$300.00 |
| E6400 |
2.50 |
0.06 |
1.71 |
0.58 |
0.35 |
0.50 |
0.69 |
$360.00 |
| E6700 |
3.10 |
0.07 |
2.17 |
0.63 |
0.36 |
0.65 |
0.80 |
$800.00 |
| Core 2 Extreme |
| X6800 |
3.05 |
0.07 |
2.20 |
0.64 |
0.37 |
0.65 |
0.82 |
$1,670.00 |
| QX6700 |
3.00 |
0.07 |
2.00 |
0.60 |
0.37 |
0.64 |
0.77 |
$1,800.00 |
| Average
cost per sec |
2.39 |
0.06 |
1.85 |
0.57 |
0.36 |
0.53 |
0.69 |
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(NOTE: PC World recommended the Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and suggested the
best buy was the Intel Core 2 Duo E6400).
The green highlights show the 'best bang for the buck" for the
processes
outlined at the top of each column and the red the most expensive.
So the conclusion is rather obvious: The cheapest CPU (AMD Athlon 64 @
$180 is, from a purely price perspective, the best. The INTEL X6800 is
the most expensive.
This finding should not come as a surprise to anyone. The newer the
technology the more you will pay per 'effective performance unit'.
The lesson is that, get the oldest technologies you can that will
perform to your needs and that offers a long useful life (which the
Athlon 64 will).
Office work, unless it is graphics or computationally heavy, will never
need the top end CPU's. Maybe Windows Vista will need something with a
bit more grunt but you can hold off upgrading to Vista for at least 2 -
4 years - it always makes sense to wait until the early adoptors have
ironed out the bugs before you jump ship.
