Explain this to me...

[Dulrough]

Ok, so I have been snooping around at newegg.com and looking at new processors and I cant help that notice that the amd's operating frequency seems to be lower on the whole that the pentium ones. However I know they preform almost the same.

How?

I know a bit about processors and mobos, but obviously not enough.

 

[Asus]

Do you know about Cars?
Think of RPM's as MHz/GHz and Cylinders as Operations Per Clock.

If you don't, think of it like this.
Intel's truck can go 300MPH and can haul 6 tons of dirt.
AMD's truck can go 200MPH and can haul 9 tons of dirt.
300*6=1800 tons of dirt
200*9=1800 tons of dirt

Cordless phones run at 2.4GHz frequency. Wireless networking can run at 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency. Radio stations run in a range of frequencies.

Frequency is just what it says but that's not performance but just how often something happens.
Performance goes up when the frequency of the same chip increases, yes. But there are other factors by chip designed that tell you about performance between different CPUs.

It's all marketing out there. Most people don't know the difference so whichever gets stuck in their mind they go with. oo Dell

 

[Top Secret]

Do you know about Cars?
Think of RPM's as MHz/GHz and Cylinders as Operations Per Clock.

If you don't, think of it like this.
Intel's truck can go 300MPH and can haul 6 tons of dirt.
AMD's truck can go 200MPH and can haul 9 tons of dirt.
300*6=1800 tons of dirt
200*9=1800 tons of dirt

That was a REALLY good analagy.

Just to add: If you'll notice Dulrough, Intel and AMD have both stopped naming the CPU's after their clock speeds. Intel has the new "540, 560" etc etc naming scheme, and AMD has been using the "2500+, 3000+, 3800+, FX-53" names now for quite a while. Both companies have realised (Intel just recently) that it's not a race for clock speeds. That's why Intel cancelled the P4 4.0ghz. They're working towards new tech. Not the same old in-efficient stuff running faster.

 

[LeXo5]

I'm going to agree with Top Secret on this, ASUS that was an excellent analogy.

At this moment in time, AMD processors are pretty much the bang for buck processor. Reasearch/learn more about AMD's and Intel's latest processors here :: http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/

 

[Dulrough]

Ok I see now thank you everyone, especially Asus.