Faster Chips Aren't Better, AMD Insists
As holiday shoppers shift into high gear, finding the fastest computer has gotten a little more confusing.</br></br>It used to be simple. All you had to do was compare three numbers - - the processor speed listed on the box, the price listed on the tag and the balance in your bank account -- and purchase accordingly.</br></br>Now, however, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is arguing that one of those figures is misleading. While many of us look at a system's processor speed measured in megahertz (or, more recently, gigahertz) first and foremost, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD says that number doesn't tell the full story.</br></br>The controversy started with Intel's new Pentium 4 processors, which top out at a faster clock rate than the latest AMD Athlon XP processors. Intel's fastest Pentium 4 runs at 2 GHz, while the Athlon XP maxes out at 1.6 GHz.</br></br>But the Pentium 4 uses a new architecture that, analysts say, works less efficiently than that of its predecessor. So even though the Pentium 4 runs at a faster clock rate, it's getting slightly less done per clock tick than an AMD chip with the same clock speed -- or even a Pentium III with the same clock speed.