Another computer question - AMD v Intel

[Danny]

Through work I have the opportunity of buying a limited range of computers at a discount.These all come fitted with AMD processors.

Does anyone understand how an AMD Phenom 8550 processor compares with an Intel Pentium Dual Core processor?

Will there be any noticeable difference in performance?

 

[fossyant]

Not much in reality ! Get the fastest you can for what you want to pay

 

[barq]

I think the 8000 series are triple core processors, so that would be the main difference. How useful that is depends on the extent your operating system and software will make use of multiple cores.

 

[johnnyh]

much of a muchness really for general applications. It used to be AMD were the gamers/home enthusiasts choice due to the overclocking potential, but then Intels current line up have the gaming edge.

You pays your money you takes your choice, but remember a system is only as fast as the slowest part, so go big on memory too.

 

[marinyork]

Which dual core? There is a very wide range of intel processors, which is about to be updated with Nehalem this year. Barq is correct, the k10 nomenclature is that a 9 series indicates phenom quad core, the 8 means phenom tri core and 6 means the kumas.

Toliman is about performs roughly about the equivalent to the standard c2duos. It performs poorly vs the updated c2ds - the 8400s, the quads and gets slaughtered by Nehalem.

 

[Danny]

Which dual core? There is a very wide range of intel processors

I was trying to compare it to the two basic Dell desktops which are described as:

Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E2200 Processor (2.20GHz,800MHz,1MB cache)
​

or

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7300 processor (2.66GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB cache)​

 

[marinyork]

For basic machines, the tolimans come out very well indeed. It's not just the processors themselves, the amd chipsets are quite nicely priced. The power consumption is quite nice in non-power saving modes too.

The 8650 is about as fast as the e7200 and e7300 in real world situations. IIRC the e2200 is a fair bit slower.