AMD Outshines Intel Processor

In benchmark tests between Advanced Micro Device's new Athlon XP processor 2100+ and Intel's 2.2GHz Pentium 4, the lower-priced AMD processor outperformed Intel.

In two benchmarks, which stress both video and CPU performance, AMD's processor surpassed Intel's despite AMD's slower clock speed and slightly slower memory architecture.

The AMD system tested was supplied by systems integrator Polywell, San Francisco. It consisted of an Athlon XP 2100+ processor, running at 1.73GHz, a 266MHz front-side bus, 512 Mbytes of 266MHz DDR 2100 RAM and a Micro-Star International (MSI) K7N420 Pro DDR ATX motherboard. The Intel 2.2GHz Pentium 4 system developed in-house included AOpen's AX45-V motherboard and 512 Mbytes of 333MHz DDR 2700 RAM.

Both systems contained an IBM 19.5-Gbyte ATA100 hard drive and an nVidia GeForce4 64-Mbyte graphics card, and ran Windows XP.

CRN engineers used a simple file conversion benchmark to test the integrity of the CPUs. Using Adobe Premiere, a 3.45-Mbyte MPEG file was exported and then converted into an .AVI file. The time it took for the Intel system was 16 seconds, while it only took 11 seconds for the AMD system. The test was run again with much larger files. Again using Adobe Premiere, a 35-Mbyte .AVI file was converted into a QuickTime .MOV. file. The Intel system finished the conversion in 38 minutes while the AMD system finished in 22 minutes.

The second benchmark used was an Excel macro, which calculates standard deviation, square root, average and variance. It also includes random number generation for each row and creates and manipulates pivot tables.

The Pentium 4 completed its iteration in 2,005 seconds, while the Athlon XP processor 2100+ completed its time in 697 seconds.

Test Center engineers believe the significant drop-off is due to the fact that both CPUs are operating on the same memory architecture. In this environment, Intel is not using RAMBUS memory running at 400MHz, which in the past allowed the Intel chip to process information faster and keep pace with rival AMD.

Based on the scores and notably, the price, the Test Center recommends the Athlon XP processor 2100+ over the 2.2GHz Pentium 4, particularly in environments that demand the most from every clock cycle.

The AMD Athlon XP processor 2100 is priced at $420 in 1,000-unit quantities, while Intel's Pentium 4 is $562 per 1,000 units.