why is AMD as fast as INTEL

[geo3tech]

I have this know-nothing-about-computer friend

He asks me wut i have for my cpu and i tell him an amd 64 2800+
which he has no idea what that is. I tell him it's 1.8 ghz and he's like "WUT? YOU PAID 180 FOR THAT PIECE OF CRAP? It should be at least 2.8 gh!!!"

And I sigh and try to explain to him that it's as good as intel.. I think... lol...

While i think of explianing it to him, i have no idea how to cuz i don't really know either


anyway, what makes amd cpus as good as intel even though it's clock speed is so low???

 

[sithspawn]

Well first of all, the athlon 64 is a 64 bit chip which means it can handle 64-bit applications instead of only 32-bit ones (intel doesnt ahve a 64 bit chip)

Secondly, think of it like this: The Intel clock speed is technically faster, but the Amd chip can accomplish more with each cycle. So Effectively an Amd will perform better than an intel. Of course its a lot more complicated than this, but i cant be bothered going in-depth with it as its nearly midnight....

 

[hilowe]

There's two things that you have to look at.

One is how many clock cycles are performed per second. That is the mhz and ghz ratings that you always see on Intel processors.

The other thing is Instructions per clock cycle. AMD processors perform more instructions per cycle than Intel processors do.

That is why AMD processors can still do as much work as Intel processors can, with fewer cycles per second.

Edit: sithspawn beat me to it.

 

[sithspawn]

lol. yeah. but you actually explained it in simple terms better than i did, so we're even

 

[c_ro11]

well, ans AMD XP2800+ is 2.08GHZ (i beleive the 64-bit one is abit more) so compared to a P4 the frequency is low, but AMD does more operations per cycle. so in the end, it does less cycles (mhz) but does more with does cycles

 

[ag3]

*Tell your friend this*

AMD has shorter pipelines than Intel. Therefore they do not need as high of a frequency. Obviously he will have no clue what that means... So tell him this...:

Intel: One car drives down a 100 ft. street at 20 km/h
AMD: One car drives down a 50 ft. street at 10 km/h

Both cars are going to reach the end at the sametime, regardless of speed.

 

[Nikkon]

Enless one of the cars breaks down :freak:

 

[ag3]

Enless one of the cars breaks down :freak:

lol

 

[Regulus]

lol.
I've been wondering the same thing that geo3tech has, but now I see. Now I'm not so sure that it was wise to get P4 2.8...

 

[ShadowDragon]

so why dont amd make a processor with a clock speed as fast as intel? would that not make it very good as the clock speed is high and it does more with that speed too?