Many people are confused while purchasing a PC nowadays, they can’t make out wether they should purchase a PC with an Intel HT/ AMD64 processor, now let me make the things clear to you .
AMD 64 is a one step ahead processor which uses 64 bit registers for handling of data efficiently, while the INTEL tries to achieve the same results using HT i.e. hyper threading technology this is actually trying to imitate 2 CPU’s in a single chip , Our conventional PC’s are based on 32 bit processors commonly called as X386 cpu’s, 486, 586 are variants of that with some differences which I cannot tell because of highly technical content of that data .
AMD 64 processor is generally for the gaming, you install a good nVIDIA video card and it will show you awesome results, AMD is equipped with special instruction sets called MMX, SSE, SSE2 & 3DNow, of which SSE2 is not included in INTEL HT, An intel processor is for multitasking, i.e. working on many applications simultaneously, like opening 20 websites at a time . AMD is poor at this due to various reasons related to heat dissipation.
I will now just describe the performance of both in context to various Parameters
Cooling: AMD generates more heat as compared to its INTEL counterpart, this is because of 0.18 micron architecture of the chip as compared to 0.13 micron by INTEL, if you want to buy AMD, make sure that the environment in which u are supposed to keep your PC is airy enough, and you have installed an additional fan for your computer, temperature ranges from 60-90 C for AMD and around 40-50 for intel .
Gaming: If you need to purchase a PC for gaming and multimedia purposes then its surely going to be AMD, because of the reasons mentioned above.
Programming: If you are a technical person who is involved more in work rather than in games and entertainment, then choose INTEL as it provides better Multitasking support.
Processor Speed: This is a field where many people have confusion, i’ll explain it my way, Many people complain that My amd athlon processor has a speed of 2400+ but it shows only 2 GHZ, where has remaining 400 mhz gone, actually this is due to differences between the methods used for deciding clock frequency by AMD and INTEL, but the key point is that your 2400+ AMD is going to provide you the speed equal to a 2.4 ghz intel . Here AMD is a sure winner, as they were the first one to introduce a cpu with clock frequency greater than 1000, and it hasn’t stopped yet, with good pipeline architecture, AMD gives whooping Clocks
Price: An AMD processor is cheaper as compared to INTEL, that’s only because AMD is trying to capture market and not because of the myth that its a low quality product.
Overclocking: Increasing clock frequency over a specified range is a job which INTEL can do effectively, if sometime you feel that you need to increase cpu speed, you can do that to some extent by BIOS settings, for CPU Clock, but pushing your computer futher than its limits will generate more heat . So here INTEL is a winner
Motherboards: Usually Intel’s also ship their motherboards like INTEL 910, 845 etc etc., but apart from being branded, they have certain drawbacks like low scope for upgrading, Fixed size of video memory, however some Provide variable size, but that’s upto 64 mb only, On the other hand Independent motherboard makers are good, e.g ASUS, Gigabit, Mercury, etc. so over here both amd and intel are lacking as amd doesn’t even produce its own motherboards.
Sound: If you want sound and video experience, go for AMD, that because, sound levels like DOLBY require 2 main things:
A supporting motherboard
A dedicated CPU
As said earlier AMD is good at doing dedicated tasks, unlike INTEL which is good for multitasking.On the other hand AMD is a bless for music lovers and gamers
Actually there is much more to write, but i’ll stop here for now .