questions /w FSB

[Moltar]

hey, buying a computer soon

thinking of going with AMD because they are cheaper and some say they are faster than Intel

but, I have a question
if anything, i will probably be going with the AMD MX 1900+
but does that mean that it's 1900MHz?
I've checked the AMD website, but they beat around the bush, saying "oh, well, mhz isn't everything..blah..blah..blah"
i sort of believe them on that, but i'd still like to know

and another thing..
i've noticed that the AMD's have only 266MHz of FSB(front side bus, right?) and the intel 2 GHZ(or 1.9 Mhz, what i have my other eye on) has 400MHz FSB....
seems like you'd want the larger FSB

what's the deal?

u guys are probably all bias for AMD, but i'm trying to make a real decison... Which is better?

[Holst]

A XP 1900 runs at 1533mhz.
A Xp 1800 runs 66mhz slower so 1466mhz
The 1700 runs 66mhz slower than that and so on..

Before you buy a XP1900 remember that its only 4.5% faster than a Xp1800. Work out how much more the 1900 costs as a percentage and compare the two.
In the UK the Xp1600 is by far the best value CPU to buy, in the US prices may be diferent.

As for the FSB question, its to do with the way the ram works.
Intels use rambus memory and AMD use DDR SDRAM.

The Rambus has a higher bandwith, and will be able to transfer data more quickly than DD
The DDR has a lower latency, and can be accessed more quickly.

At the moment high bandwith isnt a great advantage as the processor cant output enough data to overwhelm DDR, so the RAMBUS extra bandwith isnt used to full advantage. The faster reaction speed of DDR makes it perform better.

Once CPUs get faster Rambus might be better as there will be more use for its huge bandwith. Unfortunately for Intel by that stage there will be faster 333mhz DDR that will be much better.

You have probably heard about the Xp "performance rating" CPU naming (thats why a XP1900 dont run a 1900mhz) there doing that because there CPUs do more work per clock cycle compared to the old athlon CPUs. The PR rating is a comparrison between the old athlons and the New XP processors NOT the intel P4 processor. The p4 does however perform slightly less per clock cycle than a athlon, so the comparrison can still be used.

I hop this has cleared up some things, and that you will save allot of money buying AMD (that is there main advantage in my oppinion)

[minoukat]

Originally posted by Holst
A XP 1900 runs at 1533mhz.
A Xp 1800 runs 66mhz slower so 1466mhz
The 1700 runs 66mhz slower than that and so on..


Actually, XP1900 run @ 1.6GHz
XP1800 run @1.53GHz
XP1700 run @1.46GHz
XP1600 run @1.4 GHz, and so on