Hi all, I seem to get confused when it comes to processors now-adays lol so i need a little help clearing a few matters up. I have an AMD Athlon 64bit 3000+ @ 2.00Ghz. I have been told that this procressor is the equivalent of something like an Intel Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, is this true?? How do 64 bit processors fair against 32 bit chips??
The AMD performance ratings are not meant to compare to the Pentiums. They're based off the performance one would get if the Thunderbird core was clocked to the number (in this case 3GHz). At the very least, the 3000+ would perform near the level of the 3.2GHz P4, but it depends on the application. Gaming has been one of AMD's strong points. The 64-bit capabilities are not the main reason for performance with the the A64's. Unlike the Pentium 4's architecture, the A64's have an integrated memory controller on the CPU itself. The Pentium 4's memory controller (as well as traditional CPU: motherboard chipset designs, including the Athlon XP's) is part of the northbridge chipset, and a large part, I might add). Having the memory controller that close to the CPU is major reason why the Athlon has such a major performance boost while running at 2/3's of the Pentium you cited.
