Chip Wars

I dont get it. Even the XP 1600+ manages to beat the p4 2ghz in most 3d benches (3dmark 2k and 2k1, serious sam, maxpayne and RTCW) by bout 10% on average. And because the XP is slower at just one aged benchmark (q3) it's all of a sudden bad for 3d apps?! Can someone please explain?

intel will die

you guys just dont get it. Indeed amd's processors kik but due to the fact that they are still working on x86 technology.
But dont underestimate what intel has to offer in their p4. Ppl keep omiting the fact that its NEW technology and we all know its going to be adopted in the future, one reason is that major corps are backing out of amd as a supplier of a chip. This just makes more of a reason to adopt p4 instructions in the future. (business perspective) remeber market dominince is based on business)

My analysis is why is p4 so lacking in benchmarks the main reason is that all programs at the moment is based on the skeleton of x86. Its not that x86 technology is bad its just that its going to change in the near future. And please dont give that crap that p4 tech is garbage. Actually im actually even surprised p4 can even bring out those benchmarks. and im not a fan boy i was one of those first movers that bought the classic athlon and at the time of purchase i must say i made a smart move.

now concerning the article more specifically, truthfully intel does not have to worry actually they are smart first we all know that many ppl out there go for intel due to the name, but this articale just reinforces the fact that they care about their product and stability thats why its annouced to the public. This is just more credit to drive that view for ppl that intel is stable. dont get me wrong but personally i do find intel based computers more stable for some reason, and i really hate it when amd fanboys say oh all my amd built systems seem A-ok. Well im happy for you but that does not omit the fact that a large amount of other ppl have had problems. its like a loyal american car buyer says my cars are A-ok but many others find there are problems and thats is why many others just jump upon the bandwagon of german or japanese engineered cars. I also hate those intel fanboys who just buy intel cuz of its name.

So in conclusion amd is only going to do well only for a shorter time unless they make a totally architecture ala intel hoping for the best for the sledgehammer.

because 1 their tech is still x86
2) corps are on the move in adopting the p4. (and yes hp bought compaq which was a major distributer of amd based computers)

So whats all the bitching about both chips are GOOD, but ppl are so how can i say short termed and one sided that they only see one side of the coin.

People also need to realize that price/performance aren't the only factors in purchasing hardware. Intel has a much longer reputation of reliability, compatability (via 686b+sblive probs only happenen on amd processor boards) and dependability than AMD does, and that to huge segments of the market says a lot more than just price/performance, esp. buisness/corporate markets. Also, a lot of people like to have pc's that don't make them deaf, as Amd machines are more likely to do since they require bigger hsf's.

I've been really pleased with my email performace ever since I upgraded to the Athlon 1.4. I'm only getting like 150fps in Quake3, though...maybe I should have paid 5 times as much for a P4 2.0. I dunno, I mean, there's just no clear winner here...

Your problem's cause = AMD processor...Solution = Get Intel.
Intels only!

if the AMD chip beats the intel chip 3 out of 4 3d games i would say that intel got stomped on 3d performance... specially when the winning chip is MUCH MUCH cheaper

a job with ZdNet

My email to the authors of these crap stories this week:
Some testers said the Athlon XP outperformed the 2GHz Pentium 4. However, the 2GHz Pentium 4 showed higher performance on tests related to 3D graphics, such as some involving the game "Quake 3." But the Athlon XP 1800+ excelled at productivity applications, such as word processing and e-mail.

Uh what?

http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/cpus/amd/1533xp/

Where does the P4 2.0 Ghz win?

INTERNET CONTENT CREATION - Adobe Photoshop® 6.0, Adobe Premiere® 6.0, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, and Macromedia Flash 5.

Let us not forget about the whole SSE not working in that benchmark and Kyle Bennet leaving it off. That is a skewed benchmark that is very WME7 dependent. Thats 1 win.

Also the P4 pulls ahead in WebMark 2001. Again, rumors have it that this is a tilted benchmark due to SSE not being properly detected in the new AXPs.

As for Quake3, which is a 2 year old bench mark that the P4 has always exceled in, @ 640x480 - the P4 wins by 14 FPS (253vs239).

So out of all the tests HardOCP ran, we had 3 wins for the P4. Where did the P4 loose to the new AXP flagship? 3d Studio max tests, 3d Mark 2k and 3d Mark 2k1, 3d Bench, SysMark 2k1 Office, Content Creation Winstone, Business Winstone. Granted that is by a very small margin, but if 14fps is a Q3 win, then that wins in the rest.

So what about another great tech site's review. http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1543 . We will call a win any time when the benchmark is better, no matter how small a difference (benifits both the p4 and the axp since they both have very similar performance).

P4 Wins: MP3 Encoding LAME Encoder - Time in Minutes (lower is better), 3D Gaming Performance Quake III Arena 1.29g 640 x 480 - High Quality, 3D Rendering & Animation Performance SPECviewperf 6.1.2 - DX-06, 3D Rendering & Animation Performance SPECviewperf 6.1.2 - Light-04

AXP Wins: Internet Content Creation & Office Productivity Performance , Office Productivity Performance, Overall Performance (Sysmark 2k1), MPEG-4 Video Encoding Flask MPEG 352 x 288, MPEG-2 Video Encoding Video 2000, 3D Gaming Performance Wolfenstein MP Test atdemo6 - 640 x 480 - Max Settings, 3D Gaming Performance Wolfenstein MP Test atdemo8 - 640 x 480 - Max Settings, 3D Gaming Performance Max Payne - 640 x 480, 3D Gaming Performance Serious Sam 1.02 - 640 x 480, 3D Rendering & Animation Performance SPECviewperf 6.1.2 - DRV-07,

Heh, by the time 2002 hits, AMD might already have the Sledgehammer line produced. A year is a VERY long time in this industry.

if you had got the p4 you would be getting 200-300 fps in q3.