Dual-core desktop duel: AMD vs. Intel
AMD Athlon 64 X2
Intel Pentium dual core CPUs
To answer the question once and for all, we set ourselves to a no-holds-barred dual-core desktop CPU fistfight. AMD submitted its five dual-core CPUs, and Intel matched with its lineup of four. We built two test beds as nearly identical as we could for the two platforms and ran each chip through a battery of tests. We then ran those results through our price-vs.-performance calculator to find out not only which is the best overall dual-core CPU in terms of raw performance but also which one offers the most bang for your buck. Skip ahead to the official ruling if you want, but the match itself is interesting.
Round 1: Day-to-day computing
Which chip delivers for the average Joe/Jane?
While dual-core CPUs are primarily meant for heavy multitasking and running multimedia applications, it's not like you're suddenly going to stop using Microsoft Word or other common applications when you sit down in front of a dual-core PC. Our first test, BAPCo's SysMark 2004 benchmark, gauges how well each chip handles the day-to-day rigours of standard office-productivity apps in addition to creating content for the Internet.
The test results are broken down into three scores: office productivity, Internet content creation and overall. We primarily look to the overall score to determine our rating when we use SysMark for desktop testing, but the individual scores are particularly important if you're interested in buying a dual-core CPU for a specific task.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| BAPCo SysMark 2004 rating | SysMark 2004 Internet-content-creation rating | SysMark 2004 office-productivity rating |
The results are clear: AMD lands a quick combination and takes the first round by placing two of its X2 processors at the top of the charts. Not only is its top-of-the-line Athlon 64 X2 4800+ faster than Intel's flagship Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 chip, but the Athlon 64 X2 4600+ also outpaces Intel's best. That result doesn't speak well of Intel's chip that costs as much as AU$500 more than the X2 4600+.
The results scale similarly in AMD's favour as you move down each company's lineup. The X2 4400+ edges out its direct competitor, the Pentium D 840, for example. And at the low end, the X2 3800+ dispatches the Pentium D 820. For day-to-day computing performance, AMD's Athlon 64 X2 chips are the collective winner.
Winner: AMD
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | ||||||||
| Intel |
Round 2: Gaming
He who frags fastest, frags best.
AMD
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| Half-Life 2 1,024x768, no AA no AF |
Intel should be embarrassed with its showing in round 2. At every turn, AMD beat it to the punch. Even the Athlon 64 X2 3800+, the lowest end of AMD's dual-core CPUs, is better suited to 3D gaming than Intel's highest-end Extreme Edition 840 CPU, which lost by a full 10 percent.
That said, we should point out that games aren't really designed to take advantage of CPUs with multiple processing threads yet. We expect to see multithreaded games that will take advantage of dual-core CPUs sometime next year, at which point the 3D gaming results will need revisiting (there will likely be new chips available by then, as well). But for now, if you are a gamer in need of a dual-core rig, the only choice you need to make is deciding which Athlon X2 chip to pick up.
Winner: AMD
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | X | |||||||
| Intel |
Round 3: Multitasking
Dual-core chips take on apps two at a time.
AMD
To test dual-core CPUs then, we employed McAfee's VirusScan to inspect 40GB worth of files, while simultaneously encoding an 85MB video file using a program called Dr. Divx. We then timed how long it took each chip to complete both tasks. The results of our tests skewed heavily in AMD's favour (sensing a pattern yet?).
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
| McAfee VirusScan and Dr. DivX |
The best Intel could place on this test was fourth, with its Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 chip coming within 4 seconds of the Athlon 64 X2 4400+. It's also interesting to note that all three of Intel's Pentium D chips finished last on this test. As we saw in the last round with the gaming test, AMD overachieves to the point where even its budget Athlon 64 X2 3800+ chip outpaces Intel's second-fastest Pentium D 840. If you are like most computer users, you have more than one window running more of the time. And if you are like most computer users reading this story, you will draw the same conclusion as we have: AMD's Athlon X2 processors are the clear choice for superior multitasking performance.
Winner: AMD
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | X | X | ||||||
| Intel |
Round 4: Photo editing
Shake it like a Photoshop filter.
AMD
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
| Adobe Photoshop CS |
The results of this round mirror those of the first round with our SysMark application test. AMD has a clear advantage with the higher-end chip, and the results get closer as you move down into the mainstream and lower-end chips. AMD's top three X2 chips finished at the top, but Intel and AMD exchanged even blows when we looked at the Pentium D 840, 830 and 820 chips matched up against the Athlon X2 4200+ and 3800+ chips. The round still goes to AMD for the showing by its top three X2 chips, but at least Intel was competitive in this round -- unlike the last two.
Winner: AMD
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Intel |
Round 5: MP3 encoding
Now rootkit free.
AMD
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
| Apple iTunes 4.7.1.30 |
The results from this round are second only to the 3D gaming results in terms of AMD dominance. The only AMD processor that's slower than an Intel CPU is the Athlon 64 X2 3800+, but even that CPU manages to outpace Intel's lower-end dual-core chips, the Pentium D 830 and the Pentium D 820, in ripping an album to MP3 in iTunes, by 9 and 14 seconds, respectively. If you think that's bad for Intel, the difference between the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 is even worse, to the tune of a 23-second difference, or a whopping 20 percent.
How much more of a beating can Intel take? Will the referee need to step in and stop the fight?
Winner: AMD
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Intel |
Round 6: Video encoding
Results with night vision may vary.
AMD
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
| Sorenson Squeeze 4 |
Intel made its most competitive showing on our video-encoding test. AMD still wins the round, but the difference is not as pronounced as it is on other tests. The Athlon 64 X2 4800+ takes its familiar perch atop the performance chart and both it and the Athlon 64 X2 4600+ stand out from the pack in a noticeable way. The processors in the middle of the performance scale, however, are so close that they're statistically tied, with less than 4 seconds and 2 percentage points between the Pentium D 840 and the Athlon 64 X2 4200+. Perhaps we should no longer be surprised that AMD's midrange chips compete well with Intel's higher-end CPUs, but that AMD's dual-core CPUs have maintained such a consistent streak of high performance should impress even the most adamant of Intel apologists.
Winner: AMD
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Intel |
Round 7: Price. vs. performance
Which CPU has the most juice per dollar?
AMD
NOTE: This chart is based on US dollar pricing, but expect similar differentials between chipsets in the Australian market.
Given the provided prices then, it's plain that Intel can afford to put its 80 percent market share to good advantage, at least with the low-end chips that most people are likely to purchase. At a suggested price of US$241, the Pentium D 820 chip is the least expensive of the bunch. But while lower is generally better on such a scale, keep in mind the balance between the two ratings. The best bang for the buck in our minds is the US$507 AMD Athlon 64 XS 4400+, which beat the US$530 Intel Pentium D 840 on five of our six tests. And on the high end, the US$803 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ is the decisive winner, easily taking out the US$999 Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 (which, incidentally, we couldn't find for less than US$1,029).
Winner: AMD
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Intel |
The winner is...
It wasn't even close.
AMD
If you're wondering why there's such a striking performance difference between the two companies' processors, it likely has something to do with the memory controller. Among the technological differences between the two, AMD's memory controller -- the component that sends information back and forth between your system's CPU and the memory--is an integrated part of the Athlon 64 X2's chip architecture. Intel's memory controller, however, exists as a separate piece of silicon on the motherboard. The additional distance between the CPU and the memory controller adds to the processing lag time and likely plays a part in Intel's lower scores.
Whatever Intel's strategy, it doesn't seem to have held up. We're very interested to see what happens when the next generation of chips and chipsets start hitting the market in early 2006. But until then, AMD's Athlon 64 X2 should be your dual-core processor of choice.
Intel test bed
Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard; Nvidia Nforce 4 SLI chipset; Crucial 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX (PCIe); WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; Windows XP Professional SP2; Antec 550w power supply
AMD test bed
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard; Nvidia Nforce 4 SLI chipset; Crucial 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX (PCIe); WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; Windows XP Professional SP2; Antec 550w power supply.
CNET Labs project leader David Gussman constructed the test beds and performed all testing.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | |||
| AMD | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Intel |