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Article: The main event: AMD vs. Intel: is clock speed the only story?(Ripped PC)
- Article from:
- Computer User
- Article date:
- August 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 ComputerUser.com, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When appropriately impressed gawkers check out the game rig I built, their first question is invariably, How fast is it? Meaning, how powerful is its CPU? Historically, a processor's power has been measured by its MHz--and, more recently, its GHz--rating. That, however, is no longer true.
Back in 2001, AMD changed its CPU model numbering to reflect performance levels as opposed to actual clock speeds. This occurred with the release of the Athlon XP 1800+, 1700+, 1600+, and 1500+ processors. According to AMD, its QuantiSpeed architecture makes clock speed less relevant because the chip executes more instructions per dock. Since that change in nomenclature and chip ...