Which is better: AMD Athlon 64 processor 3800+ or Pentium 4?

[bananaboatcoat]

Hi, everyone.

Which is better/faster/more powerful:

A) amd athlon 64 processor 3800+
or
B) Pentium 4 processor
?

[ibjsb4]

which one?

http://ark.intel.com/products/family/581

[besial]

In general AMD processors have their graphics cards integrated right into the chip, and most Intel chips have the ability to run OSX, so it really depends what you want to do with it. I use both for what I need to do with them. .....

[bananaboatcoat]

ibjsb4,
Not sure which one.

A friend is offering me a Pentium 4 computer. I already have the Athlon computer with 1GB ram. I'll only accept the Pentium 4 computer if it's better than my Athlon.

[kurt18947]

Maybe download http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/?k=pts_desktop_live or something similar and run it on both machines? The amount of RAM installed can also make a difference, especially with 64 bit OS s.

[mips]

In general AMD processors have their graphics cards integrated right into the chip, and most Intel chips have the ability to run OSX,

:confused: #-o

[mips]

Hi, everyone.

Which is better/faster/more powerful:

A) amd athlon 64 processor 3800+
or
B) Pentium 4 processor
?

The Athlon 64 3800+ is better/faster than ANY P4 Intel released. It's slightly faster than a Intel Core2 Duo T5270

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/low_end_cpus.html
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/midlow_range_cpus.html

[bananaboatcoat]

The Athlon 64 3800+ is better/faster than ANY P4 Intel released.
Mips,
Thanks. In that case, I could say "No Thanks" to any P4 offer from my friend.

[mJayk]

In general AMD processors have their graphics cards integrated right into the chip, and most Intel chips have the ability to run OSX, so it really depends what you want to do with it. I use both for what I need to do with them. .....

Not that far back I don't think. Like for like in them days I believed AMD had the edge, but as everyone says it depends what you wanna do with it.

[mips]

Mips,
Thanks. In that case, I could say "No Thanks" to any P4 offer from my friend.

Just bump up the RAM on your Athlon setup, will help a lot. I gave my Athlon 64 with 2GB RAM & 7600GT GPU to my folks when I upgraded, it's still running fine to this day with Win7 on it.

[gordintoronto]

Pentium 4s support SSE2, which the latest version of Flash requires. I'm pretty sure your Athlon does not. To check, run this command:
sudo lshw -html > myconfig.htm
Then look at the file in your browser, specifically the CPU section.

My computers have AMD processors, but this looks like a deal-breaker for older AMD systems.

[doorknob60]

Pentium 4s support SSE2, which the latest version of Flash requires. I'm pretty sure your Athlon does not. To check, run this command:
sudo lshw -html > myconfig.htm
Then look at the file in your browser, specifically the CPU section.

My computers have AMD processors, but this looks like a deal-breaker for older AMD systems.

From what I read, all 64 bit AMD processors support SSE2, so that one should be fine. I just did a quick Google though, so I can't be positive.

[cariboo]

Pentium 4s support SSE2, which the latest version of Flash requires. I'm pretty sure your Athlon does not. To check, run this command:
sudo lshw -html > myconfig.htm
Then look at the file in your browser, specifically the CPU section.

My computers have AMD processors, but this looks like a deal-breaker for older AMD systems.

Looks like I've been doing something wrong then, I've been able to view flash videos, since I got my 3800+ so many years ago. :-D

[mips]

Pentium 4s support SSE2, which the latest version of Flash requires. I'm pretty sure your Athlon does not.

The Athlon 64 came out 3 years after the P4 and is way superior to a P4, Intel was now on a back foot playing catchup. They ALL have SSE2 and some later models also have SSE3.

[ikt]

Hi, everyone.

Which is better/faster/more powerful:

A) amd athlon 64 processor 3800+
or
B) Pentium 4 processor
?

Both have their upsides and downsides. AMD has more raw power, whereas most Pentium 4's had Hyperthreading, which made the computer seem 'smoother', dual core before dual core was a thing.

Source: I sold computers featuring both and there was many a forum debate on this exact topic at the time.

In terms of today though:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Sempron+145

Rank 1123: AMD Sempron 145 - $40 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888)
Rank 1264: AMD64 3800+ - Not sold anymore

The cheapest CPU I can purchase today is faster, so neither P4 or Athlon64 is going to be a power house, if this is for a server or backup computer I'd go for the AMD64 just because it's cooler, quieter and uses less power.

[gordintoronto]

Looks like I've been doing something wrong then, I've been able to view flash videos, since I got my 3800+ so many years ago. :-D

It's only the very latest version of Flash which is affected, and that may not have hit the Ubuntu repositories yet. But it will....

[3Miro]

There seems to be some confusion here.

We are talking about old CPUs, the current state of AMD vs Intel is irrelevant. Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 was the time when AMD dominated in performance. Furthermore, Athlon 64 is a newer generation as it competed with Pentium D (the successor of Pentium 4).

Intel got back ahead in performance with Core 2 Duo, Athlon 64 can only barely compete with one of the slowest Core 2 Duo (1Ghz). Technically Core 2 Duo competes with Athlon II and the first Phenoms.

Do not mistake Pentium 4 with the current sold Pentium processors. The current generation Pentiums are simply a weaker version of i3/5/7, which means that they will outperform pretty much anything as old as Athlon 64 or Pentium 4.

Normally any AMD vs Intel discussion should include pricing, but for old and used CPUs like that, I am not sure what to count.

My advice: unless you are really short on cash, buy a more modern CPU

[qyot27]

It's only the very latest version of Flash which is affected, and that may not have hit the Ubuntu repositories yet. But it will....
Wrong on both accounts.

Adobe discontinued the NPAPI version of Flash Player for Linux at 11.2, and only continues updates through Pepper, which is (at least right now?) exclusive to Chrome. Newer versions will not be coming through the Ubuntu repositories unless it makes its way into Chromium or starts getting packaged separately.

Furthermore, the latest version of Flash Player - 11.5.502.146 - categorically does not require SSE2 instructions. I know this because I have it installed under Windows on a Pentium III era Celeron (Coppermine, specifically). If it required SSE2, it would crash under this CPU, as other software that requires those instructions does on the same platform.

[rnerwein]

Hi, everyone.

Which is better/faster/more powerful:

A) amd athlon 64 processor 3800+
or
B) Pentium 4 processor
?
hi
it depends not only on the speed of the processor. you must even have software which is spezially written for parallel running. i don't talk about threading. if you only need a number crunching the cpu seed is ok. but you must look on the other parts of the hardware. e.g. a blitter chip for graphic apps is faster then the hell (but expancive). or whats about I/O speed. what i want to say is: what is the usage for your box ?
cheers

[Jerry N]

ibjsb4,
Not sure which one.

A friend is offering me a Pentium 4 computer. I already have the Athlon computer with 1GB ram. I'll only accept the Pentium 4 computer if it's better than my Athlon.

If the price is low enough on the Pentium computer, what's wrong with having two computers? To me computers are tools and I figure that I could never have too many tools (or toys).

Jerry

[markwiering]

My computer has a Pentium 4 2,66 Ghz processor, and it's very fast. It can run Redcat, Freddi Fish, Midtown Madness 2, Call of Duty, Ace of Spades, Minecraft, 102 Dalmatians, Blitzkrieg and other beautiful 3-dimensional games on my computer without any lag (Windows XP SP 2 installed). It can run Call of Duty with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 without any problems. I've never used an AMD Athlon 64 processor 3800+, but I can ensure you that a Pentium 4 is a great processor.

Edit: my computer has 1 GB RAM.

[kurt18947]

If the price is low enough on the Pentium computer, what's wrong with having two computers? To me computers are tools and I figure that I could never have too many tools (or toys).

Jerry

If the person with the P4 is going to get rid of it regardless, sure take it. Having two boxes could be useful to learn about client/server setup, networking and the like. You could get a KVM switch to share keyboard, video and mouse.

[Yellow Pasque]

I can ensure you that a Pentium 4 is a great processor.

I don't think P4's are "great" at general processing, especially compared to equivalent Athlons. P4's are good at specific tasks that can take advantage of their long pipeline (well, that and doubling as space heaters).

EDIT: I guess I shouldn't be so hard on all P4's. The Northwood-based chips weren't bad and the final steppings of Cedar Mill and Presler brought down the TDP, and they're decent chips too, even if they weren't as fast/efficient as AMD's offerings.