I was wondering...

What is faster: AMD Athlon XP 1.5GHz or Intel P4 1.5GHz?

an athlon xp 1500+ or one with 1.5 ghz?

One with 1.5GHz.

Someone told me that the numbers aren't entirely accurate. It's like comparing cars with different redlines. Higher revs doesn't necesarily mean it is faster. It could mean that it takes that many revs to reach a certain speed. While another car can reach that speed with lower revs.

I have a Athlon XP 1800+. I am thinking about buyng a Dell P4 2.2Ghz but I'm not sure if that would be an upgrade or not.

My PCMark2002 scores for my AMD Athlon XP 1.5Ghz:
CPU = 4568
Mem = 2812
HD = 594

By far the 2.2Ghz would be an upgrade, but remember Ghz arent everything, the 1800+ that you have performs the same(and sometimes better) than a P4 1.8Ghz...The AMD is just designed differently(better if you ask me)...moving up to a 2.2Ghz would give you quite a notable difference

AMD processor's use a PR rating(Performance rating) that's why a an 1800+ performs as good as a P4 1.8Ghz....

isn't the case that amd's genreally do more work per mhz than intel's? so an athlon xp@1.5ghz would be faster than an intel p4@1.5ghz. intel go at higher megahertz and do less work per megahertz. would this hypothesis be true? the basis of amd having pr ratings for athlon xp's were a comparison to old athlons (which of course later implied performance compared to intel p4's) if i am not mistaken.

I guess thats a basic way of saying it, but it is much deeper.... An Athlon XP @ 1.5Ghz would by far outperform a P4 at 1.5Ghz because the the 1.5Ghz Athlon performs just as good as a 1.8Ghz P4........

Make sure to check what FSB the CPU in the Dell is running on & what's the platform it's coming with ( I845, I850E, etc ).

If it was running on a 133mhz FSB, they prolly would've advertised it at 2.26GHZ & It doesn't have HT either so you might not get that big performance increase you're hoping for.

On the other hand, if you're getting it for a cheap price, then go for it.

I was looking at a Dell Dimension 2400 desktop w/ P4-2.2GHz, 128MB, 40GB, CD-ROM, Free 48x CDRW, Speakers, Modem, NIC, XP Home for $200 w/ free shipping. Link below

http://www.xpbargains.com/#16923

I suggest you read this thread and also this thread.

There is no real answer to this question.

If you were to ask about reliability, then the Intel chip would be of choice.

If we're supposed to upgrade every 18 mos then reliability isn't much of a factor. At least not to me.

In what sense?

If you do get that system please add some ram to it. I don't understand how you would set up a system with such a fast CPU & so little Ram.

This Link confirms that it's running on a 100mhz FSB ( so no HT ) & that the Ram is shared with the onboard VGA.:dead:

I strongly disagree.

Perhaps 2 years ago, but no longer.

a lot to read there soul harvester!

the more i think about this thread, i believe there is no clear, cut answer. amd and intel both give comparable performance currently. no side has really taken the performance crown for very long.

my 2.4c and "my" 2500+ run pretty cool and have been stable for me . even my old p3 and old athlon are both chugging along atm so both systems have been pretty reliable for me. i can't really say which side is better since both amd and intel have served me well in the past.

My current system: Athlon XP 1800+ with 512MB ram. If I get the Dell, 512+128 = 640MB ram. Is that how it works?

Well the Ram on the Dell is PC2700. If yours is PC2100 & you put it in the Dell, all the installed Ram will slow down to PC2100 speeds. Furthermore, sometimes mixing Ram of different brands, speeds can lead to stability problems.

There is no disagree on which is more reliable. AMD chips run hotter, that is a fact. You can run an Intel P4 chip without a heatsink, and it will not fry. This has been done.

And Intel chipsets are very compatable and stable. When you run an AMD system, you use aftermarket chipsets.

I don't mean to be crude, but what you are saying shows a fair bit of ignorance and not enough research on your part. Compare the heat output (power draw) in an AXP 2000+ tbred-b and a p4 2.0ghz.

And, I can take the heatsink off my 2 fastest athlons and nothing worse then a system freeze will happen. All I have to do is put the heatsink back on and presto, the system will work again.

Intel chipsets are far from "very compatible". I would use a SiS chipset over an intel chipset. And perhaps, yes, chipsets from makers such as VIA were plagued with problems in the past, but it is a far from from what it used to be, even a few short years ago.

I suggest you do a little more research before you make blanket statements.