CPU question (dumb): Is Pentium III same as AMD athlon or thunderbird?

[bongo]

Currently have a P3-500...thinking of upgrading to higher cpu/mb...are AMD athons or thunderbirds as fast or faster than P3?

thnks...ps

are there an compatibility problems using AMD vs Intel?

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[nehalmistry]

heya bongo,

they are quite different in many aspects such as FPU, etc. etc.., although they are the same "class" of processors... all are 686 CPU's and all peform very well in gaming,

there are NO compatibility problems, since AMD's are 100% intel compatible...

and about which will peform better?, i'll let someone else answer that... although i have heard that the AMD's performs better...

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[This message has been edited by nehalmistry (edited 08 December 2000).]

[Wombat]

Athlon's have a stronger FPU, which games often depend on.

[Grego]

Well I will try to give you my humble opinion.

AMD is just as good if not better than Intel (no flaming please), Thunderbird is the newest form af Athlon using socket a, where the classic Athlon uses slot a. The price of the athlon is very affordable compared with Intel, and the Athlon is a very good overclocker. The availability of the T-birds is also better than Intels top of the line, since Intel has had severe problems getting a high enough yield.

About compability problems, if you buy a good mobo you shouldn't have any problems this is probably the single most important thing when buying a new computer. Admitted there was problems with via chipsets at one time, but the new chipsets works great - I have had no problems at all.

The new ddr boards for the Athlon from ASUS and AMD looks very interesting, and if I were to upgrade I would probably go for a board using AMD's new chipset.

Hope this was somewhat understandable

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[SteveC]

Intel! Cha cha cha! Intel! Cha cha cha!!

Some people like AMD, some like Intel. I've seen too many incompatibilities in the past to trust AMD quite yet (although I'm seeing less these days).

For me, at the moment anyway, Intel CPU on an Intel Chipset mainboard is the only way to go (although I have been tempted to go AMD a few times now...)

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Cheers,
Steve

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[Taz]

The only compatability/stability problems you are likely to experience would be with either the motherboard or chipset. The processors themselves are fine but up until recently VIA had a virtual monopoly on Athlon compatible chipsets. AMD did bring out their own chipset initially but motherboards using it are few and far between. Things have improved now with the introduction of DDR based boards using either AMD's 760 chipset or ALi's Magik-1.

[bongo]

thanks for the info folks!

[Pace]

Taz: ALi's Magik-1? Is this their new DDR chipset?

Bongo: I've never been as tempted to buy an AMD chip, but I think I will always have doubts with VIA chipset based boards. Certainly the K6-x line was the most problematic between itself and the Athlon, but there have been problems lately too.

I think an Intel chip (running at 100FSB) would be a good choice, especially to overclock to a 133bus (e.g. 700 to 933).

If you fancy trying AMDs offerings, you may not want to rule out the Duron either...

Paul.

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[Taz]

Pace, Yep!

ALi may have come in for some stick in the past with their SS7 chipset, but I had a lot less problems with my Iwill XA100+ Alladin V based board than those using VIA based boards.