How does the Athlon 64 X2 dual core compare to the Intel Core 2 Extreme processors?

Question

I was wondering which processors are faster...and what's the best way to compare the speeds of an Athlon to a Intel? And if you have a dual processor...and your speed is say 3ghtz...does that mean your speed is actually 6ghtz because of the 2 processors?

Answer 1

For single tasks (like most games) there isn't much benefit to dual-core processors, having the extra core doesn't make things go any faster until you start having multiple processes going.

With the newer dual-core processor designs such as AMD's X2 and Intel's Core 2 Duo, you really can't use the clockspeed as your baseline number for performance any more. In the good old days, comparing a 2Ghz Pentium 4 to a 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 was easy- but the X2 and Core 2 Duos are more efficient, so they actually execute more instructions per clock tick than older Pentium 4 and Pentium-D chips.

So even though a 3800+ AMD X2 is clocked at 2Ghz, it performs slightly faster than a 3.8Ghz Pentium D - that's where AMD's "plus" numbers represent- relative performance to Pentium chips. An Athlon 4600+ performs like a P4 running at 4.6Ghz, and so on.

The Core 2 Duos are even more efficient, but they don't use AMD's numbering system with plus signs to indicate their speed. It seems like the effective multiplier is over 2X, here's the complete breakdown of X2 vs C2D below.

The bottom line- while AMD's X2 line outperformed Intel's Pentium-D for years (just as Athlons outperformed Pentium-4) the Core 2 Duos are better. They beat the X2 chips across the board, and they aren't expensive! AMD had to make drastic price cuts over the last few months to stay competitive. Good for consumers, fast processors got cheaper!

Answer 2

ok. AMD Compaired to INTEL. AMD "does more with less" they have a smaller L2 and L1 cash and they dont require as much power. that being said. the AMD x2 and the quad core are no comparison. x2 means 2 cores and quad means 4 cores. any way you stack it quad you get more, and pay more. the only thing is that most programs cant run all 4 cores at once. =( AMD makes there mother boards fully compatibul with 64 bit and 64 x2 bit processors. And hypothetically yes have 2 3GHz cores would be 6GHz BUT it only uses one core per processe, unless it needs both. so its like 4 weel drive, its there when you need it and its not when you dont. now the good comparison would be a core 2 duo vs a 64 x2.

Answer 3

The AMD is barely better, but Intel has better processors with the Core 2 Duo CPU's. AMD pulled ahead a few years ago, but Intel took the cake again with their new line of CPUs. We can thank AMD for keeping Intel honest though.

Answer 4

Intel is faster. The 4 cores increase the speed it is still 3ghz but the work is split up so it goes faster. Amd Defines 4 cores as two dual-core cpus. If you want an 8 core cpu though Intel should come out with one soon(next year)