AMD Vs Intel: 51-CPU megatest
There may be two main CPU manufacturers, but picking the right processor is anything but simple. We put 51 CPUs through their paces
Want to jump straight to the juicy stuff? We've created two huge tables/charts for the data-obsessed:
- The Uber CPU Price vs Performance Graph
- The Mammoth CPU Feature Table
When you’re choosing a new PC – or building one yourself – it’s vital to pick the right CPU. Choose one that’s too slow for your new computer’s intended role and no amount of RAM or snazzy add-ons will compensate.
On the other hand, it’s easy to waste astronomical sums on an overpowered processor where a far cheaper model would work just as well.
However, identifying your perfect processor is never easy. Intel’s Core 2 Duo is now available in 14 different configurations, stretching from the E4300 with its 1.8GHz clock speed and 2MB L2 cache right up to the mighty E8500, which runs at nearly twice the speed and enjoys a huge 6MB cache. And that’s just the basic range, before you even consider variants like Core 2 Quad and the super-charged Extreme Edition series.
The AMD side isn’t much simpler. The current Athlon range comprises 14 processors with a variety of model numbers, supposedly indicating their relative performance. But some family members have more cache RAM than others, and there’s a huge variance in bang per buck between different models.
Then there’s the question of the high-end Phenom: is AMD’s four-core CPU worth the price premium over its dual-core offerings? And at the opposite end of the spectrum there’s the low-cost Sempron series to consider, too.
So this month we’ve put every major desktop CPU through its paces, excluding only Intel’s most lowly Celerons, to find out which give the best performance in real-world use and which represent the best value.
We also look at some of the new technologies Intel and AMD have introduced into their chips, and consider the advantages of multicore systems. Whether you’re building or buying, our findings will help you choose the right processor at the right price.
How we tested and how we worked out the ratings
This month, we’re comparing all the major desktop CPUs currently available. To get a fair indication of the performance you can expect from each one, we install each CPU in a standard system and run our standard real-world benchmarks, which include Word, Access, Photoshop and other everyday tasks.
The result is expressed relative to a score of 1 from our reference PC – a dual-core 3.2GHz Pentium D 840 system with 1GB of PC3200 RAM and a 10,000rpm Western Digital Raptor hard disk.
To ensure as fair a test as possible, we use identical system configurations for the Intel and AMD CPUs: Windows Vista Ultimate, running with 2GB of system RAM and an AMD Radeon HD 3870 graphics card.
Naturally, the motherboards aren’t identical, but we’ve chosen two comparable boards: the Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 for Intel and the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 for AMD.
The Intel board uses Socket 775, which is Intel’s current standard for desktop and workstation CPUs, while the AMD board uses Socket AM2+, enabling it to get the best out of the Phenom processors’ support for HyperTransport 3.
On the following pages, you’ll find our analysis of each of the main processor families. Beneath each family roundup there’s a table summarising the processors within that family, along with street price (based on the average selling price across a selection of online retailers), a raw benchmark score and an overall score, which takes each processor’s value for money into account.
This article appeared in the August, 2008 issue of PC Authority.
Comments: 5
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
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Jim.Dude
Jul 29, 2008 6:30 PM
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Awesome work guys! This should be stickied somewhere on the forums so that everyone can use it when considering their next upgrade.
Comment made about the PC Authority article:
AMD Vs Intel: 51-CPU megatest?
There may be two main CPU manufacturers, but picking the right processor is anything but simple. We put 51 CPUs through their paces
What do you think? Join the discussion. |
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bbjai
Jul 29, 2008 7:31 PM
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Yep I actually bought my friend a AMD processor based on this review for a quiet and power saving CPU. I think its great work guys and people really should use it! |
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chookstrangler
Aug 1, 2008 8:12 PM
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I posted a link in our forum to this article and I thought one of our members had a good point. "It's the best bang for buck in word processing and other everyday tasks according to their testing methodology. No mention of games though and that's where it really counts. I already know I can buy the cheapest CPU around and its gonna have way more power than I need to do a mail merge in Word." - GuruMag |
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.:Cyb3rGlitch:.
Aug 1, 2008 8:46 PM
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chookstrangler wrote:I posted a link in our forum to this article and I thought one of our members had a good point. "It's the best bang for buck in word processing and other everyday tasks according to their testing methodology. No mention of games though and that's where it really counts. I already know I can buy the cheapest CPU around and its gonna have way more power than I need to do a mail merge in Word." - GuruMag
That's true. However, gaming isn't very CPU intensive on single GPU setups anyway, so it shouldn't cause any bottleneck. |
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Jim.Dude
Aug 2, 2008 1:07 PM
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Yeah I'm inclined to agree with you there mate, it seems a pretty redundant comment from Chooky. I think we're all well aware of the fact now that an E4300 + 4870 will decimate a Q6600 + 7600GT. Also, I don't think the point of the CPU round-up was to figure out which one was the best for gaming, I'm guessing that would have been the point of the GPU round-up. :-P |