At this moment, on the market there are 2 leading companies that produce desktop and server processors. For the usual buyer, Intel manufactures 'Pentium' processors and Amd produces 'Athlon' processors. I'm sure you have entered at a moment of your life in a computer store and wondered which processors should i buy, is it correct?
Now, on the market, both companies battle for the best processor that works on 64-bit and in this article i will compare them in sound tests, video tests and benchmark programs like Winstone or SiSoft Sandra. The processors i chose for the test are : Pentium4 3.2Ghz and Athlon64 3200+ for the midlle type processors and AthlonFX 2.2Ghz (FX 51) vs Pentium4 Extreme Edition 3.2Ghz for the highend processors.
Now the programs i chose to test them in are : SiSoft Sandra, Unreal Tournament 2003, Content Creation Winstone 2003, Business Winstone 2002 and a Movie/Sound Benchmark.
I want to be noted that the article is for usual people with no advanced knowledge of computers and thats why i wont go in technical details.

Let's begin:
Content Creation Winstone 2003

Athlon64 FX - 59 points
Athlon64 3200+ - 55 points
Pentium4 EE 3.2Ghz - 52 points
Pentium4 3.2Ghz - 50 points

As you can see from this ranking Athlon processors dominated this test without problems although they are clocked at 2.2/2.0 Ghz.

Movie Benchmark–Conversion from VOB to AVI (lower is better)

Athlon64 FX - 56 minutes
Athlon64 3200+ - 59 minutes
Pentium4 EE 3.2Ghz - 64 minutes
Pentium4 3.2 Ghz - 65 minutes

Amd processors win again a test even with the L3 cache that Pentium 4 has.

Sound Benchmark–Conversion from Wav to Mp3 (lower is better)

Pentium4 EE 3.2Ghz - 36 minutes
Pentium4 3.2Ghz - 37 minutes
Athlon64 FX - 40 minutes
Athlon64 3.2Ghz - 41 minutes

In this test both Intel processors rank above Amd processors indicating that for sound editing Intel processors are indicated.

SiSoft Sandra-Memory Bandwidth Benchmark

Athlon64 FX - 5663 points
Pentium4 3.2Ghz EE - 4920 points
Pentium4 3.2Ghz - 4900 points
Athlon64 3200+ - 3120 points

When it comes to memory bandwidth clearly Athlon64 3200+ is the weakest and Athlon64 FX is the best, but with both Intel processors right behind him.

Unreal Tournament 2003

Athlon64 FX - 89 points
Athlon64 3200+ - 83 points
Pentium4 3.2Ghz EE -76 points
Pentium4 3.2Ghz - 66 points

In this test i disabled some functions so that the videocard performance wont be taken in the marking, so that the processor will be in the spotlight. In the end Amd processors outperformed Intel processors.

Business Winstone 2002

Athlon64 FX - 106 points
Athlon64 3200+ - 102 points
Pentium4 3.2Ghz EE - 84 points
Pentium4 3.2Ghz - 82 points

Here, Amd computers lead with over 20% ahead, a fierce victory against Intel. In this test Intel's Pentium 4 EE level 3 cache made a difference, but not big enough to beat Athlon64 FX.

Conclusion ?

Intel processors are very good in sound editing and general processing. The Level 3 cache of the Pentium4 EE did not work as Intel expected in many cases, but still brings a powerfull feature in favor of Intel. The main problem with Intel processors is that there are expensive.
On the other hand Amd processors won almost every Benchmark test and they are because of the new metal case that contains the processor, cooler then Intel Pentium 4 processors. In video editing, gaming or computer graphics, Amd has a small advantage because their processors are cheaper and better, but for how long will this advantage last? That remains to be seen.
As a final observation, Helpero recommends you Amd processors.

written by Madalin D.