Is there a huge difference between a AMD + 4200 Dual core processor and an Intel 3.0 ghz (ht) ?

Question

Right now i have a 3.0ghz Intel processor and i wonder if the AMD +4200 would make a whole lot better difference

i have 2 gigs of ram and a Geforce 7900 gt 256mb videocard

pc3200 ram

Answer 1

I can't believe you asked this question. Yes, there's a huge difference between the two. An AMD 3000+ operates at a better click than the P4 3Gig even though the core speed is slower on the AMD. The Dual core will operate programs as if they are on a 4.2Gig Pentium.

Answer 2

Although for the most part the previous post is correct, you have to be careful when you use the "speed" rating that AMD gives. The early Athlon 64's were conservative in this rating. For example, an Athlon 64 2800+ could actually come close to outperforming a P4 3.2 Ghz CPU. But as newer models came out, the gap began to close. Saying that the 4200+ could perform like a P4 4.2GHz (if one existed) is a bit of a stretch.

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You can find a lot of comparisons in this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/

Although the dual-core Athlons aren't in there, you can rest assured that the 4200+ will likely outperform the one you have now by as much as 20-25% overall, and a staggering 40-45% in some benchmarks.

I'm a big AMD fan, but there's no denying that Intel's newest line of CPU's (Core 2 Duo a.k.a Conroe) is the best of the bunch. It will hold the lead for quite some time, as AMD's road map of new releases is limited right now. If you can wait a bit longer for prices to drop, it might be in your best interest to get one of these bad boys...

Answer 3

It depends, if you have crap ram, a crap video card, and a crap HDD, changing the processor/mobo won't change much, but if you're noticing that the CPU is where things bottleneck (which is usually indicitive of a larger upgrade being necessary since people don't upgrade their CPU very often), then it will be a good idea to upgrade.