Differencing Between Myths and Facts?

Most, if not all, of you have read or been in heated debates over why or why not higher clocked microprocessors are better than their "comparable" competition. Just why is it that so many people stand behind their arguments about a 2.4GHz processor outperforming a 3.4GHz processor overall? Also, why do benchmarks sometimes show lower clocked processors beating higher clocked processors in some tests? I thought gigahertz and megahertz determined a processor’s performance… Well, you’d be surprised if you were the one who thought that.

There has been fierce competition between the two main leaders in the microprocessor market for several years now. It used to be that Intel was typically the hands-down choice for the best performance, but has that changed now? Well, the scale seems to be tipping in favor of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). However, there have been similar tips of the scale in the past. First it seemed as if Intel was undoubtedly on top with the Pentium I and II microprocessors, but things changed. The K6 microprocessor was probably the start of AMD’s advancement in the microprocessor industry. Although the K6 fell short of being the overall performance leader, it laid the groundwork. As the new millennium neared, the scale tipped back and forth, keeping both corporations on edge. The Pentium III processors were quickly becoming popular, but AMD’s Athlon processors gathered much recognition as well.

Just before the dawn of the 21st century, Intel announced its release of the Pentium 4 processor. The initial processors were clocked at 1.4 and 1.5GHz. Similarly clocked Athlons still performed competitively with the Pentium 4 line, but it was obvious that Intel clearly didn’t want AMD to interfere with the scales. The Pentium 4 line grew as 2001 came along and Intel ramped up the processor clocks leaving AMD behind at 1.4GHz. AMD seemed to focus more on the value market as it released the 1.0GHz Duron processor instead of pursuing the quickly accelerating Pentium 4 processors which hit 2.0GHz in August of 2001. This wasn’t entirely true, as the 1.4GHz Athlon processor excelled in several benchmarks over the higher clocked Pentium 4 1.8GHz CPUs. With a 400MHz difference, it is obvious that the clock (CPU frequency) doesn’t always determine whether or not a microprocessor will perform better compared to another. This became even more noticeable as gigahertz differences between processors still showed comparable results in performance with the Athlon XP and the Pentium 4 CPUs.

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