Random CPU question

[dalinux_n00bie]

so random question: Is there a significant difference between a Intel CPU and a AMD CPU?

[questio verum]

so random question: Is there a significant difference between a Intel CPU and a AMD CPU?

Fairly significant, if you are looking at desktop proc releases over the last year. AMD's best offering (the Phenom) is equivalent to Intel's EOL (end-of-life) procs. If this trend continues, AMD soon wont be able to offer anything to match any of Intel's in-production processors. Intel is once again dominating in performance. They've really hit their stride with the 'tick-tock' release model and they're about to drop another bomb on AMD with the Nehalem.

The Nehalem procs will have on-die memory controllers, similar to AMD's Athlon 64's & Phenoms. But they will be considerably faster. They will also run cooler and use less power. (30% less than the present Core 2 procs, clock speed for clock speed.) They will also be released in 2, 4, and 8-core models. AMD has got to be dropping bricks right now. They were hoping to regain some ground with the Phenom, but the Phenom has turned out to be little more than an also-ran. If Intel has its way, it may drive AMD back to it's roots as a fabrication sub for Intel. It could happen. Wouldn't be good for the market. Definitely would put a damper on innovation in the long-term.

The thing is; Intel has depth that AMD can only dream of. But they only use it when they are pushed to. AMD pushed them, and now they have product development stacked 8 generations deep. AMD is struggling with just producing their next generation. AMD has traditionally fallen back on lower price points to compete with Intel at times like this, but Intel has so many levels of competitive product available right now that they are really killing AMD at all but the very lowest pricepoints. Starting to get a picture now? I wish things were a little more even, but they're not. The Athlon 64 may have been AMD's last (and only) hurrah.

qv

[carlosponti]

i dont see how people can actually see a different in their everyday computing, unless you are running out pi to 50 million places or trying to get the latest release of whatever video game that was designed the latest greatest hardware. there really isnt a significant for you difference. Its a farce to be told you have to have one brand over the other. the technical differences are great sure but you as a user arent really going to notice them. Not to mention the latest greatest hardware will have driver problems with linux. I have always bought AMD because they were cheaper. I bought an intel system from dell only because it was the only cpu available for a preloaded linux laptop. So it all depends on the scope of your question whether it will shape your choice of what cpu to use if that was your scope or was it just to be bothered by the details then there you have it.

[GNU-Fan]

Indeed, the questions how well the driver support is and how the different devices work together have a much bigger impact on the overall performance than the dry numbers on spec sheets.