Re: [Leaf-user] Celeron/Pentium vs Duron/Athlon

[Greg M. <drk...@co...>]

"Michael E.T. Parker" <me...@ro...> wrote:
> Thanks for all the replies to '.. speed and workload'.
> 
> I have another question.
> 
> Is there a significant performance penalty when using a Celeron or Duron
> processor vs an Athlon or Pentium. Not just in speed but in in the
> ability to process.

This is a really broad question.  It all depends on what you want to do.
I read a performance review on www.tomshardware.com.  I don't recall the
link but the data is almost a year old.  It influenced how I look at
hardware now.  Tom showed how at around 800 mhz to 1000 mhz all the
processors were about the same in the video game arena and office
applications.  An 800 mhz processor bottle necked at the same point the
1000 mhz did.  They choke on graphics through put.  His conclusion was
to spend your money on the best graphics card you can get and that you
only need an 800mhz processor.  At these speeds it is really hard to see
the difference anymore.  For example my 500mhz k62 adm Samba server is
fast enough.  I have a 300amhz celeron on the shelf that would serve up
files equally well.  More memory on a file server for caching helps than
cpu speed.

Tom's Hardware has made other comparisons.  He has found Duron and
Athlon's out perform Intel chips.  I get the picture that the food chain
looks like celeron, pentium, duron, athlon...this is a genralization.
The other problem when looking at speed is that Intel use this a
marketing tool.  AMD chips perform better at lower speeds suggesting
that "the ability to process" is held by AMD chips.

Closer home to LEAF, I'd worry more about bus speeds.  Remember a 486 is
good enough for LEAF.  But a pentium, etc perform better because the
system runs at a 66mhz bus speed.  When I got my first 166mhz pentium, I
realized that multimedia began to work because the bus speed could
support video and sound.  Likewise, your through put for network
performance will be better on a celeron/pentium/duron/atlon than a 486
because of the improved bus speed.

I hope this helps.  I shot broad because you had a broad question.  If
you hang out on http://www.tomshardware.com or similar sites you'll get
a feel for these issues.  As you read a hardware site you may get a
better answer for the specific ideas you are looking for.  LOL to me it
is all junk anymore. Especially when I purchased a mainboard and 1000mhz
processor for $99US several months ago.

Greg Morgan